Factories far away

It’s time again for some more MGX as these two episodes bring us towards the halfway point, where Tsubaki is already fortunate enough to be able to take Urabe to the beach. However, will the return of Tsubaki’s former crush put a hindrance on his relationship with Urabe? And if not, will Urabe refusing to smile for pictures end up doing the trick for him? Find out or I’ll take your soul

But first, would you like to see a totally related 16-year old girl in a bikini?

Yes

> Yes

If you chose "Yes", good choice. If you chose "No", how did you do that with two "Yes" options? Is it magic? Cause I wanna learn magic.

Anyways, after the OP we get further messages that summertime is heading towards us with the girls having their swimsuits on for their PE course. While Oka spends this time admiring Urabe’s body, Kouhei is admiring Oka’s as he goes the Mr. Kimura route of peeking through the gate to look at the girls in their swimsuits.

"Those white streaks that her Speed Stick left look delicious"

It’s okay though, because it’s for science since the guys are intentionally kicking the ball into the bushes for Kickball so that they can all record the cup sizes of every girl in the pool. Tsubaki has to go and screw that all up though as he ends up doing his best Charlie Brown impression and falls flat on his back when he tries to kick it.

Who knew that MGX was going to throw in some manservice here for those who want to ravish Tsubaki

As Urabe and Tsubaki walk home, they get rained on heavily and must take refuge under a tree. It’s here where Tsubaki notices that Urabe smells very sweet and asks if she’s wearing perfume. This is where it takes a turn for the squick for those who were already iffy about the saliva since her sweat has the same magical properties as her spit. Tsubaki licks up her sweat and starts thinking about the ocean…

As long as he doesn't start drinking her piss, I guess it's alright...

Tsubaki spends the remainder of the summer break trying to convince Urabe to go to the beach, but she is oblivious to it and never brings up the beach again whenever they walk home together. Nevertheless, he still has a lot of dreams that would make it into Fucked Up Stories in no time during this period.

You gotta lay off the spit, Tsubaki

When Tsubaki finally gets assertive about it, she tells him that she can do it after she gets back from a family visit. However, that family visit involved a private beach her dad owns, causing her to get tan in the process. Nevertheless, the two end up having to take the train to the beach (having to take a train to go to the beach…. )

Delicious Black Urabe

They have fun in the beach and all this cutesy stuff happens like Urabe ordering her yakisoba with nothing but tons of pickled ginger and Tsubaki finding out that she has a tan mark from her scissors because she brought them with her when she went on her dad’s beach. The episode pretty much ends as they head back on the bus and Urabe promises that they’ll go again sometime.

IIIIII know aaaaall there iiiiiis to know-

After that wonderful episode, we lead into a classic of the modern ages, as we begin with Oka convincing Tsubaki to come eat ice cream with her. While he doesn’t want to be seduced by Oka’s charms, he finds it’s easy to succumb to her charms.

Don't even think about it! You gotta stick with Urabe! Don't be Makoto and take Kouhei's girlfriend!

This isn’t just an opportunity to get lucky though  as she’s telling him about how calling people by their first names is a true sign of intimacy. This seems so foreign to Tsubaki since Urabe would probably never be for it, but that doesn’t stop Oka from taunting him with it and reading his mind about Urabe via ice cream dregs.

Alright, if you must cheat, you can go with Oka...

Kouhei is even more suspicious of Tsubaki because he had a farmer’s tan from the beach episode and he just asked him about whether he’s been hanging out with Oka lately.

Hey, Operation Babehunt was only a failure because they brought the wrong dudes

On the girls side of things, Oka is telling Urabe about how she mentioned first names to Tsubaki. Urabe is all shy and defensive about it, but her saliva is telling Oka that she is very blushy when thinking about Tsubaki calling her Mikoto.

These two should be the ones that are dating

Urabe dozes off as Tsubaki gets a round of drinks for the two. When she won’t wake up, Tsubaki takes this opportunity to call her Mikoto, thinking that she wouldn’t respond to it. Urabe gets up and responds to this very well with a blushy smile but Tsubaki doesn’t know whether she heard it so he gets nervous when he tries to call her by her 1st name again.

Alright, so that's ONE romantic thing that Urabe will be able to accept

Of course, this joy is derailed pretty bad when Tsubaki wants a picture of Urabe smiling for him to cherish. Urabe bluntly refuses, as she doesn’t want to be disingenuous and force a smile just for Tsubaki’s happiness. Y’know, for someone who genuinely likes Tsubaki, she can be a real pill about the most harmless aspects of romance.

"Just run me over and get it over with before this day sucks any worse!"

Oh but it does, as Tsubaki comes across his old middleschool crush Aika who wants him to come with her to the cafe. While Tsubaki would have been thrilled about this a couple years ago, he is now stuck with Urabe and refuses to partake in such adulterous advances.

Well there goes my theory that she was Urabe this whole time

Not that this stops Urabe from being depressed as she heard the whole thing (which consisted of “Hey I haven’t seen you in a while, wanna go get coffee” “No thanks, I’m taken”). Despite this, she is still moody as fuck about it and when Tsubaki hypothetically asks what would happen if he did go get some baked goods with Aika, her saliva makes Tsubaki cry.

Tears of joy for concocting a threesome? What is this sorcery?

Tsubaki vows to Urabe that he will never leave her and had already cast away any notions of trying to get with Aika. Urabe is relieved by this, but when Tsubaki wants to take a picture of her smiling, Urabe is still feeling very pissy about it and gives him the tongue face when he snaps the picture. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Tsubaki is wishing that he was with Aika who would gladly smile for one harmless picture.

To be fair, this is a lot cuter than any smile

Overall, these episodes have been just “OK” at best and “Meh” at worst. There’s still some cuteness in Tsubaki getting closer to Urabe, but the major Achilles heel in the series within these two episodes has been Urabe’s behavior itself. She’s wants Tsubaki and wants him to like her, but whenever he tries to do anything remotely romantic that isn’t even that serious (hugging, going to the beach, taking a picture, etc) it’s either met with indifference or hostility on Urabe’s end.

Out of these two episodes, the only moment where they feel like a genuine couple is when Tsubaki calls Urabe by her first name “Mikoto”, and even then the only way that he can get close to her is through trial-and-error assertiveness (Frankly telling her to go to the beach with him: GOOOOOOD! Taking a picture smiling: BAAAAD!). I want to like Urabe and the series but the relationship here is so loveless that it’s almost depressing seeing Tsubaki fail so hard when he is one of the few rom-com protagonists who doesn’t have their head fully in the gutter and truly wants their relationship to work. Hopefully next time, they’ll be a lot closer than the show has been making them out to be.

Freckle girls now!? Dammit MGX, stop trying to make me like other girls more than Urabe