Well, it had to happen sometime. Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 was the first episode of the series to not be as universally beloved as its predecessors. Let’s find out what went wrong in this review!

Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 Overview

Komi Can’t Communicate, or Komi-san wa Komyushou desu in original Japanese, is a comedy and slice of life anime based on an extremely popular manga written by Tomohito Oda. It is being adapted into an anime by Studio OLM, a very well known anime studio known for bringing several well-known projects like Pokemon and Odd Taxi, among other things.

The anime is being directed by Ayumu Watanabe, a veteran director known for directing several critically and commercially successful anime such as Space Brothers and Doraemon. He is also being assisted in direction by Kazuki Kawagoe, another veteran director primarily known for directing Beyblade. You can check out our review for the third episode here! This episode is also known in original Japanese as Komi-san wa Komyushou desu Episode 4.

– Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 Review does not contain spoilers –

Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 Review- Plot and Characters

Your reaction and opinion on this episode depend on how you like a certain character archetype that’s somewhat unique to anime and manga culture. Since Komi-san was tackling all the high school stereotypes in her bid to obtain 100 friends, it was bound to happen that she encountered one of this kind in her journey. I am, of course, talking about the Yandere, represented here by Yamai Rin.

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If you don’t know what a Yandere is, first of all, congratulations for never having encountered this particular affront to God. In all seriousness, a Yandere is someone who is obsessed with the person she loves to a level that borders on psychotic and destructive, often showcasing this nature in a violent manner. When one thinks of this character archetype, the characters that come to mind the most are Lucy from Elfen Lied and Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki.

I realise that the humour in Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 is of an extravagant and over the top kind. As such, introducing a character who does what someone would dream of doing in an over the top manner in real life goes a bit too far. In this case, Yamai kidnaps Tadano and keeps him snuck away in her closet with the intention of never letting him leave ever again. If this situation was treated only as a joke, it would have been fine, even funny. However, the show took it entirely too seriously, for some reason.

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The result was that Yamai never really fit the style of the show despite acting somewhat close to how the other characters act. She was good in small doses in earlier episodes, but her increased presence in Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 resulted in a lacklustre showing for the show this week. Even worse, she didn’t even get adequate repercussions for the literal crimes that she committed and got off scot-free. I sincerely hope that she doesn’t become a regular character like Agari or Osana.

The rest of the Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 was as fantastic as it always is. The emotional moments between Tadano and Komi were fantastic, and the show even managed some decent wordplay this time around. Any slice of life show lives and dies based on the characters and if you like them. In this particular episode, I didn’t like all of them. Hence, the entire presentation suffered.

Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 Review- Art and Music

It was business as usual for Komi in this outing, as it has some beautiful visuals complemented by some terrific music pieces. Special commendation this time around goes to the voice acting, as the Yandere character that I didn’t like had a silver lining to her- her voice acting was pristine. The way the voice actor switched the tones and cadences deserves special mention, as well as how snugly she fit the role of Yamai. A great performance, no doubt.

Verdict

Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 4 was a fine episode affected by one of its characters not fitting well with the story. While the show mostly maintained its quality, the one character made it not as good as the previous outings.