Fuuka

Episode 5

At long last, we've gotten to the actual plot of the show, Our Heroes Starting a Band. Their ambitions are quickly thwarted, however, when they realize that none of them can actually play their instruments. Our heroes are stumped, until they hear a sweet guitar riff coming out of the other room. They look inside to find their classmate, Sara Iwami. It turns out that she's the younger sister of the Hedgehogs' guitarist, and she was just fired from her previous band. Convenient! Unfortunately, she's also a standoffish jerk. Uh-oh! Yuu makes things worse by immediately faceplanting into her boobs - a common social gaffe, I'm sure. For some reason, Sara agrees to accompany them to dinner, where they try (and fail) to recruit her for their band. By the end, she and Yuu are left alone together. As they awkwardly fumble with their phones, Yuu realizes that one of his twitter followers is posting images of the same restaurant he's in. Rapidly, it dawns on him that Sara is in fact his long time twitter buddy! Upon this mutual realization, her demeanor takes an instant 180, becoming outgoing and friendly. She's now totally on board for joining their band, though she'll have to take the initiative in turning this band of teens into actual musicians.

Well, that's what should have happened. What occurs instead is that their drummer, track guy Nachi, happens to have a full set of band equipment in his garage. They go play it and are instantly really good, despite having only practiced in private in the short interim.

There's also some more going on with Yuu's childhood-friend-turned-idol, Koyuki. It looks like she's not moving in – she just let herself into his house while he was away. They spend an evening revisiting their childhood memories, during which Yuu accidentally hits on her. Overcome with emotion, Koyuki runs off. Yuu thinks that he's offended her, since he's too dense to realize that she's 100% into him. Eventually, I'm sure that these feelings will come to a head and interfere with Yuu's burgeoning relationship with Fuuka. Eventually. For now though, Koyuki just continues to be frustratingly shy and desperate for someone who should be aware of her status as one of the most desirable teenage girls in the world.

It's some pretty ridiculous narrative convenience that Sara is Yuu's internet friend and she's a great guitarist and she's in need of a new band, but I'd say that it's within the scope of the show's melodramatic tone at this point. Yuu's already childhood friends with the biggest pop star in the world, and his homeroom teacher was a member of his favorite band. Fate couldn't be pushing this kid harder into a musical career. At least Sara is fairly likable. She's very #relatable as a girl who comes off as a disinterested loner until she runs into her online buddy, at which point she turns into a giant goober. Of course, it's all still filtered through lame anime clichés, like her having a crush on Yuu as a consequence and the aforementioned tittyslam. It's hardly great, but I'll take whatever drop of personality I can get out of Fuuka.

Speaking of personality, the band's keyboardist, Makoto Mikasa, continues to be a (mild) bright spot. It was previously established that he's gay and pleasant, but that's about it. There's also a gay panic moment in this episode where some girls see Yuu hanging out with Makoto and speculate if he's gay as well. Yuu has a homophobic freak out, so Makoto starts roasting him by playing along with the girls' assumptions. I'm not sure what the scene was trying to achieve – the tone was off, so I'm not sure who I was supposed to be laughing at. However, assuming that Yuu's homophobia was the butt of the joke, I thought that part was funny, and it made me like Mikasa more. Otherwise, it looks like his arc will revolve around rediscovering his childhood passion for music.

Fuuka's still just slightly to the left of totally rote, but at least the actual plot is starting up now. I hope that things get more interesting in the coming weeks.

Grade: B-

Fuuka is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.