Tonari no Seki-kun Episode 18
What They Say:
Class is in session at a certain high school. While the teacher isn’t looking, a boy named Seki-kun is playing games by himself on his desk, while the girl who sits next to him, Yokoi-san, observes (or interferes or participates). Each time, Seki-kun’s games reach unimaginable levels… And this time the game is…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While Seki and Yokoi have been sitting next to each other for awhile now, and they’ve interacted in certain way, it’s been very distant overall. This time around, the two have to push their desks together due to not enough worksheets being printed out and they have to share. That has Seki completely mad about it since it means he can’t do his usual playing. Or at least that was the idea at first but he ends up just going into it. Seki decides that he’s going to interact with her directly with card tricks, but she does her best to ignore him and focus on the classwork .He gets so into it though that you have to laugh because he’s so outgoing and cheerful with it, but also crafty. It plays out pretty well as she does her best to avoid things but he just goes at it in some cute ways.
In Summary:
With the two of them closer together and actively interacting with each other, the show has a pretty good approach to take here. But with Yokoi doing her best to avoid interacting with him, she ends up providing less amusement than normal since she’s just focused on her work and her usual inner dialogue, now aimed at ignoring him. That has Seki leading the way and he definitely has some good moments, especially as he gets so many great expressions. But it’s still one of the weaker episodes of the series for me so far.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.