English Dub Review: Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! “Yanagi and Kiri Want to Have Fun, Too!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Hana has a meltdown at the cafe because Shinichi doesn’t call her by her first name, although he does with other people, and he calls Yanagi by her first name not ten minutes after they meet. Then, Kiri goes to the gym after feeling stressed studying for exams. However, when Shinichi also shows up, Kiri ends up feeling completely outclassed.

Our Take:
In an unsurprising turn of events, Yanagi’s visit to the cafe concluded in a humiliating fashion. In Hana’s case, Yanagi embarrassed her by talking to Shinichi, resulting in him calling her by her first name. It pains me to wonder why Shinichi didn’t do the same for Hana, even though they’ve been together for a while. But I’m willing to get past that since I’m still having fun hanging out with Hana’s family.
Last week’s episode gave us a taste of what’s to come for Hana’s weird siblings, with Yanagi being the most troublesome from Hana’s perspective. Kiri, on the other hand… Well, he’s just Kiri. “Yanagi and Kiri Want to Have Fun, Too” continues to put the spotlight on the siblings by showcasing their own adventures outside of Hana and Shinichi’s complex friendship. But, of course, it’ll depend on your tolerance towards their actions in the previous episode, mainly Yanagi. Since I had no problem with these quirky characters, it made my experience with this episode easier to sit through.
As mentioned earlier, the first half focuses on Yanagi humiliating Hana at the cafe. Afterwards, Hana gets into a heated argument with Shinichi, with Ami, Akihiko, and Yanagi witnessing the whole thing. While the episode does focus on Yanagi for a bit, it doesn’t lose sight of the chemistry between Hana and Shinichi, with the latter struggling to admit his feelings towards Hana. It retains the hilarity of their reactions toward each other, but it also delivers another tiny hint of development for Shinichi when he tells Hana how special she is to him.
Finally, Yanagi tells Tsuki about her experience, resulting in her mother being swarmed by a flurry of misunderstandings again. Tsuki thinks Shinichi might try to win over Yanagi as he’ll do to her and Hana. As a result, Tsuki wants Yanagi to take her to the cafe from now on. The thought of Shinichi winning over Yanagi was definitely blown out of proportion considering that Yanagi’s in middle school, but that doesn’t make it less hilarious.
The second half then shifts its attention to Kiri, which is long overdue, considering his short screen time throughout the series. Here, we see Kiri finally getting out of the house to get a workout and clear his head from studying for his exams. Upon arrival, he runs into Shinichi, whose daily routine outshines Kiri’s confidence. But in reality, Shinichi is working out so hard to clear his thoughts on what he said to Hana earlier.
“Yanagi and Kiri Want to Have Fun, Too” gives the siblings the spotlight they deserve following their introductions in the earlier episodes. Yanagi’s story offers the heated, yet humorous, confrontation between Hana and Shinichi, with Yanagi realizing they’re dating. Honestly, I would be angry at Yanagi for causing this mess if her personality didn’t amuse me.
However, I was surprised that the second half was better than the first regarding the humor. Not only was Kiri outshined by the older people, who he thought were seniors from school, but his confidence was entirely obliterated by Shinichi. Even worse, he got traumatized from seeing Shinichi’s incredible body. It looks like Kiri will be doing nothing but studying for the rest of his semester. It’s an amusing outcome that’ll likely carry over to the next Uzaki family outing.