Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! W - Reviews

*Spoilers in this review are indicated with strikethrough*

Ok so, I think this one was just as good as the first season. Uzaki's cute, they make a great pair, the situations they find themselves in are usually hilarious. If you liked the first season, you'll like this one too.

HOWEVER! I'm very angry that they still didn't get together by the end. We were seriously teased this season and I really don't like that. At the very beginning, it showed them in a situation that very much looked like they were taking the next big step in their relationship. The creators thought it was a good idea to do that, and I suppose it was from a certain point of view but what they did was betrayed our trust. If you are a fan, I don't see how you wouldnt feel the exact same way. So, for the first time, (I think) I'm deducting 3 points from the story and overall score for this reason. It was cheap and in my opinion unnecessary, especially for a second season. Think about it, if a lot of people are watching it, we are already fans of the anime, you have no reason to attempt to bait us in this way, right?

The following is mainly a rant and has nothing to do with a review

Here is my threat that I'm sure no one of importance will ever see anyway but I'm making it here none the less. If significant progress on the relationship is not made quite early in season three, I will stop watching by episode four and will no longer support the creators involved. I'm sure a lot of people out there make this claim as an empty threat to assuage their temper. I am not one of these people. I've stopped supporting Disney as a company for what they've done to various universes I ador. I haven't seen the two most recent "Star Wars" movies and I never will, I havent seen the latest show and never will, even though it appears that show met with good reviews. Don't care, when I wash my hands of a company like that, it's for life.

Studio Engi’s fall/winter 2022 season two of “Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!” carries on the story with all the characters we came to love from season one. By now pretty much everyone is clued up on the relationship between “senpai” Shinichi Sakurai and his close female friend Hana Uzaki. Both college students they work together in the same café. She has been hanging around him since they were at school and she has convinced herself that it because she pities him. Sakurai is a handsome lad yet his powerful eyes can put people off him. The two of them have a lot in common. So, it is unclear just why the two are not in a romantic relationship. None of their friends can understand it but they have dug in with the popcorn to see what happens. Even they are now getting frustrated with progress and start to push for romantic results. It’s a wild rom-com in a pretty predictable “will-they-won’t-they” mould. We have been here over and over again with everything from “Toradora” (J.C.Staff 2008) to “Teasing Master Takagi-san” (Shin-Ri Animation 2018) using the formula. The trick is to keep the audience hanging in there with a continual promise that their patience will pay off. To get it right the two potential lovers have to make progress in every episode – even if it is very slow progress.

So it is here. The two romantically-clueless morons are only very slowly starting to realise that this friendship may actually be something more. Uzaki keep kidding herself that she hangs around Sakurai for his benefit – not her’s – yet even she is forced to admit to pangs of jealousy at the thought that he might date another girl. She is developing feelings for him but has trouble reconciling this with her outward persona towards him. He is equally clueless and requires a lot of prompting from his friendship group and family for him to cotton on to the fact that Uzaki likes him more than as a friend. In truth he loves her but is he willing to admit it to anyone? Her? His friends? Himself? The yarn spins out and out and never really reaches a conclusion. Marriages have lasted less time that this friendship. The show is fun and very funny. There aren’t many characters to remember and it can hardly be said to be sophisticated. In this season we get more familiar with both Uzaki and Sakurai’s families and it is their involvement that is instrumental in the two coming to terms with the direction their relationship should be taking. Can the two every get it together? This show gets the formula just about right as the characters are just perfect. The audience is rooting for them and we are willing to hang on in there to get the kind of denouement we demand. One more season should cover it?

When I first heard of Uzaki-Chan back in late 2020 during the pandemic and started watching it, I loved it almost immediately. So of course, I was hoping season 2 would further progress the story, but I was immensely disappointed. Season 2 of Uzaki-Chan makes you think Uzaki and Sakurai are finally gonna start being more open about their feelings towards each other, only to then finally cuck you at the end when Sakurai decides not to confess to Uzaki. Don't get me wrong, the season did have some funny moments, and I think everyone who watched it got a good chuckle out of it when it was revealed that Sakurai was packing some serious heat (or should I say, serious MEAT 😏), but I was really hoping that they'd finally show us moments where the two main protagonists started to show their affection more. Hell, a year after this, season 2 of Nagatoro, another anime in the "teasing classmate crush" genre aired, and in that story, things move a lot quicker. Yeah, Naoto and Hayase still have yet to fully confess, but you can clearly see how they're starting to show more affection to one another, and even their friends pick up on their mutual crush and start wanting them to be together as well. And the thing is, Hayase and Naoto are teens in high school, who are still going through puberty and are hella awkward. You'd think Uzaki and Sakurai, being adults in college, would be a lot more mature in expressing their feelings, but apparently not. I just want things to go by a lot quicker. Really hoping things pick up in season 3 

***No Spoilers***

S1 Review

This season is a bit better then the first. The addition of the family characters really does add a lot of fun to the show and keeps it from getting stale. I would watch another season just for more interactions with them and the MC's, makes for some great moments.

We do also get some development between the MC's to a degree, its acceptable at least for a 2nd cour. However It still does rely on some of the same old high school tropes along the way, but it does have even more drinking this time around lol ?

Overall its what you would come to expect from Uzaki S1, but a little bit better with more development and a better set of side characters. It does have a chicken out ending for the season....., but i still really look forward to a S3 and where it goes.

8/10

Many laughs during this season. Very fun to watch. Very cute.