For hapless business worker Sakaki, all he has in life to
cheer him up are his smokes and the pretty check out girl, Yamada, at his local
Supermarket. When he arrives one night
and Yamada isn’t there, Sakaki despairs.
That is until he is summoned behind the Supermarket Yamada’s beautiful
coworker, Tayama, to share a smoke.
Completely unaware of her true identity, Sakaki starts up an unlikely
friendship with this blunt but well meaning beauty as they continue to smoke
behind the supermarket together.
I’m not a smoker but damn if Anime doesn’t somehow make
it look cool and appealing, from Spike Spiegel to Revy and the Lagoon
Company.
And then this title pops up on
my Crunchyroll feed.
I don’t know what
it’s about, I mean the title couldn’t be that on the nose, could it?
All I know is there’s a really cute Anime
girl having a smoke with a guy and they look pretty chill.
Is that really all this show needs to be successful?
The answer after the first episode
is…well…yeah maybe.
For whatever reason, in the lead up to the first episode,
Crunchyroll is releasing minisodes of the series so I just checked out the
first one rather than the full length premiere.
And you know what?
It still works
well selling the premise and just what kind of an experience you might be in
for.
In a way, it reminds me of the
first episode of Komi Can’t Communicate.
The slice of life aspect and the bonding over one small element of daily
life gives anything the power of a really well done Pixar short.
For Komi and Tadano, it’s Komi’s fear of
speaking.
For Sakaki and Tayama, it’s
just chilling out after a long day of work and sharing cigarettes with a
friend.
There’s a nice, relaxing quality
to the whole thing.
And like I said,
even though I don’t smoke personally, I get how it can bring people together
for some much needed downtime after a hard day.
I will say (SPOILER, though maybe not really), is
Yamada’s appearance as Tayama really that jarring?
I mean I’m not saying she’s pulling a Clark
Kent and Superman but still, you’d think that Sakaki would have some kind of
inkling as to why this girl suddenly wants to start hanging out with him behind
the Supermarket that she claims to work at (and I guess is technically
correct).
Idk, it doesn’t kill the setup
at all.
It’s cute that Yamada can go
from kind and smiling housewife to punk rock with pierced ears and tights and
fool the world into thinking she’s an entirely new person.
Why she isn’t just up front and honest is
surely a question for the show to answer.
For what it’s worth, I like both but Tayama is a stunner for sure.
I think I might keep up with Smoking Behind the
Supermarket With You if only for it’s “come home, plop on the couch or bed and
just relax to something” vibe.
In an age
where we’re going big or going home with larger than life Shonen battle epics,
this one is a good change of pace.
We
all need to chill and we all need someone to chill with.
Sakaki and Tayama/Yamada sem like the pair to
do so with, either as a regular watch or as an every once in a while
visit.
They’ll always have a seat ready
behind the Supermarket for sure.
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