Recap
Yoh is on the bed, wrists tied together with a shirt, wearing a nervous expression. A frustrated Mizuki wants to know if Yoh ever thinks about his feelings (a ton dude, he’s just usually wrong). He doesn’t want Yoh to interact with anyone ever and he can’t leave ever.
Mizuki realizes what he’s doing and backs off. He wants Yoh to forget it.
Yoh is fascinated by Mizuki’s sulking expression. He keeps Mizuki there and tries to reassure him that he wasn’t leaving. Mizuki doesn’t want Yoh flirting with the guy with glasses.
At this point it occurs to Yoh that Mizuki has feelings for him.
Yoh tries to express his own feelings by saying Mizuki is the only person he’ll have sex with, and then hiding his face. Mizuki pushes Yoh to promise he’ll only ever do it with him. They’re ridiculous, which Yoh realizes via VO.
Mizuki is ready to halt sex a draw a hot bath when Yoh sneezes, but Yoh wants sex. Of course afterwards he has a fever. Mizuki stays home to care for him, causing Manju to panic when he’s not on the show. She calls Yoh, get’s Mizuki, and clears up the whole manga-glasses guy situation.
Yoh wakes to Mizuki reading the comic. Mizuki reads manga-Mizuki’s words, trying to be sincere and romantic. Yoh isn’t impressed and Mizuki is annoyed.
Manji and Yoh meet so she can give final advice about not making his feelings complicated. Yoh smiles as he gets a text from Mizuki — he wants curry.
Mizuki gets home from work and molests Yoh as he prepares dinner. Mizuki tries to exchange sex for allowing Yoh to see Manju. Yoh feels this would be too distracting and doesn’t accept the deal.
Thankfully Mizuki is kidding, but he wants Yoh to greet him at the door when he comes home. Yoh is shocked at the request and realizes he doesn’t understand Mizuki. Yoh tentatively gives him a belated welcome home, which makes Mizuki want sex!
Eventually they eat their curry, and Mizuki eats rice off Yoh’s face.
Thoughts
Is it a BL if food isn’t eaten off someone’s face? Something to ponder.
We also get another appearance of one of my favorite Japanese products, the cooling gel sheets! I talked about them more in my Our Dining Table recap. These could be a trope themselves.
I understand if people felt underwhelmed by this last episode. The show doesn’t have any external plot. Yoh is a struggling artist from beginning to end. Mizuki has a good job and makes enough money to support them easily. There’s no jealous exes or annoying second leads showing up to create problems. They live and eat together. Often curry.
The plot is entirely internal. At the beginning, neither guy understands each other and both are insecure in the relationship. Yoh constantly VOs terrible guesses about Mizuki’s motivations while Mizuki won’t stop acting cool. Neither will admit to what they really want.
But they want to be together enough that they keep going despite their mutual inability to use their words.
At the end, Yoh realizes Mizuki likes him and he doesn’t really know what Mizuki is thinking. Mizuki stops being the cool, sexy, dominant lover long enough to admit that he just wants Yoh to greet him when he gets home.
So in the end there aren’t even any big declarations of love. That’s not how this couple works. Mizuki acts like a bully but never intends to forbid Yoh from seeing Manju. Yoh doesn’t return Mizuki’s physical affection immediately and is unimpressed by his love words.
Despite their growth, I fully expect them to continue to play these games with each other after the credits roll. They like playing these games. But now they can play them better, and get what they need from each other while having more fun in the process.
And I think that’s better than a big declaration of love.
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Our Dining Table is currently available in the US on Viki