What are the Japanese putting in their cigarettes?!
Twice this week – first while reading a new Japanese thriller, and then while watching ‘Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You’ – I came across characters enjoying a smoke and calling the taste ‘sweet.’ In this show’s case, it’s Sasaki who makes the declaration. The logical guess is: maybe they’re smoking flavored ones, because ‘sweet’ is the last adjective most of us would associate with tobacco.
Also Read: Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You Episode 4 Review
Anyway, episode 5 of the anime series funnily begins with an awkward encounter between Sasaki and Goto, the latter being Yamada/Tayama’s boss at the supermarket. Goto like a true manga fan, is already shipping Sasaki and Tayama, she even makes the poor Sasaki flustered by asking if he is in love with his new smoking buddy.
No straight or direct answers there, just the older office worker squirming in discomfort, struggling to put his feelings into words. Tayama interrupts the conversation just when things were getting comically out of hand. Although her arrival heightens his embarrassment.
Bulk of the episode focuses on Sasaki being burnt out at work after a senior goes on vacation and some of the juniors take emergency leaves too, so the rest of his team is forced to slog for fourteen days straight, without catching a break. In those two weeks, he isn’t even able to find the time to go see his crush Yamada at the supermarket to boost his motivation.
While some viewers might find the scenes of Sasaki simply chatting with colleagues or anxiously getting things done at his desk a little mundane, I find them among the most relatable moments in ‘Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You’. It’s precisely because of this taxing work culture that the poor man has virtually no social life and finds solace in the kind smiles of a supermarket cashier.
Sasaki’s conversations with Tayama during their little smoke breaks are perhaps the only real semblance of friendship he has in his life right now. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they just remained friends, but given Tayama’s increasingly flirty attitude, maybe their relationship will eventually grow into something more. While she doesn’t voice anything about not seeing him for two weeks, one can sense her fondness for Sasaki.
Overall, this was an entertaining episode of the anime series, and keep slowly developing the bond between its leads.
Watch ‘Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You’ on Netflix/ Crunchyroll.
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