Recap
Mizuki follows Yoh. Yoh walks really slow.
At Manju’s place, Yoh tells her about his fight with Mizuki. She and her awesome husband suggest that there’s more than one way of interpreting Mizuki’s words and actions. Yoh disagrees.
Flashback time! College time!
Yoh was obsessed with drawing Mizuki from the moment he first saw him. Mizuki’s friend group takes notice of Yoh and aren’t nice people. Yoh ends up running an errand to get drinks and snacks. On his way back Mizuki shows up to help, noting that Yoh walks really slow.
Mizuki doesn’t seem to like his friend group much either, telling them Yoh has a stomach ache so he can walk him home.
This is the beginning of Yoh feeling trapped in his one-sided feelings for Mizuki that he can’t even name to himself.
Present day Manju is working despite Yoh’s lethargy. She asks him to fill a speech bubble with Mizuki’s thoughts. Yoh has nothing. Manju’s husband tries to help with snacks. Yoh tells him Manju made up most of the stuff in the comic.
Mizuki has been texting Yoh to come down and loses his patience. Manju lets him inside just in time to see Yoh doing funny poses with her husband. He thinks the husband is the editor and gets possessive. The husband is confused.
Mizuki sees the manga they are working on but no one can explain anything before he’s dragging Yoh out of the room.
Manju’s husband explains he’s her husband to the closed door while Manju admires Mizuki’s determination.
Yoh stops Mizuki in the street to apologize but Mizuki wants to know about his attraction to the ‘editor’. Yoh thinks he’s talking about the manga version of Mizuki, and explains how he’s kind and listens. Mizuki is unhappy.
At home, Yoh finds the tracker and gets a cold shoulder from Mizuki. He watches Mizuki’s program and notices him having a weird moment on camera.
Thoughts
The parallel with My Beautiful Man is easy to see here, as Yoh finds himself very briefly in Hira’s position as an errand boy who hates the people oppressing him. Unlike Hira and Kiyoi, Yoh is too self-conscious to devote himself to Mizuki, and Mizuki immediately rescues Yoh.
The socially-advantaged-meets-the-socially-disadvantaged is a rich set-up that can go in so many interesting directions. Take Heartstopper, which is a fantastic show that starts with that set-up and goes in a wildly different direction.
Apparently I have a soft spot in my heart for social outcasts with anger in their hearts like Hira and Yoh. Yoh is a loner by choice, and he’s got a nice hard layer of “don’t need others” protecting him from the world. He doesn’t need rescuing, just artistic inspiration. Until his manga gets canceled anyway.
Instead it’s the cool, popular Mizuki who is jealous and needy and insecure. He’s worse than Kiyoi, who cares less about other people and hides his insecurity from Hira. Despite his confident attitude, Mizuki is easily jealous and couldn’t hide it for even a moment. Really, if he’d taken a deep breath at Manju’s the husband would have explained and Mizuki would chill.
It was nice to see that Mizuki didn’t consider Manju a threat. I think if Yoh hadn’t told that lame story about spending nights with a mysterious editor, Mizuki wouldn’t have freaked out. But I don’t feel bad for Mizuki.
Also, Manju and her husband are so fun and so is the show when they are on screen.
Back to My Personal Weatherman main page
Our Dining Table is currently available in the US on Viki