Mika Egashira deserves more love imo

The beautiful thing about this anime is that every character is likeable and treated with a lot of care by the author. So, I can't really complain about someone being more popular than the other. I love all 5 of those characters. I do relate with Egashira Mika more. But not everyone will.

Yup, all of that is true. At the same time, I think Mika is a very relatable and likable character.

The volleyball practice episode reveals a lot about who Mika is as a person. She had joined the volleyball club to improve herself and become closer with talented and interesting people. She's always on a diet and studies fashion magazines to look presentable. She's calculating and abrasive in order to appear strong and charming. Behind all this, there's the belief that she's nobody special and that she has to work hard for people to like her. And she is fully aware of what she's like and is not particularly proud about it.

Which is why she finds Mitsumi frustrating but also impossible to hate. She admires how "herself" Mitsumi is and still makes friends. She is envious of how Mitsumi acts without an ulterior motive and takes things at face value, including Mika herself. She also finds it amusing how clumsy and clueless Mitsumi can be, but can't just sit by when she's bumbling into a disastrous situation.

It feels like there's an actual person there, warts and all, rather than an anime character that fits a role in the story. (I feel like this can be applied to basically every character in this anime...)

I should mention that I'm caught up with the manga, and I did warm up to her over time. But I think anime-Mika is still a very good character as is.

Of course not. But I can still like a character even if they're not "good people." And I feel the show is very good at depicting why and how she's like that in a believable and somewhat sympathetic way.


Everything you said about Mika in your reply, I mostly agree. But I really disagree with this part.

I don't think Mika is being a "fake friend" towards Mitsumi. Yes, in the first few episodes she was only using her to get close to Shima, but I think she genuinely starts to understand and like Mitsumi around the time of the volleyball episode. For one, she mostly "drops the act" of the cute, extroverted girl, and does try to help Mitsumi and look after her in small ways, if a little reluctantly.

Mika does realize "how bad she is" when looking at Mitsumi. She looks genuinely ashamed when Mitsumi mentions the people that helped her while Mika was focusing on the students that wronged her. As I mentioned, she's already pretty aware of her own negative qualities.

"Then why doesn't she change herself?" You can't tell selfish people to stop being so selfish. Or emotional people to stop being so emotional. Sure, they can outwardly act like they've changed, but it's a slow process to actually change.

I think the show is explicitly not about "you should change yourself to be more like Mitsumi." The show understands that people are wired in certain ways and don't change very easily, even if they're trying really hard. Mitsumi tries harder than anyone to improve herself, and a lot of comedy comes from her clumsy attempts to become more diligent, tactful, fashionable, etc.

In fact, every character in the show has got their weird idiosyncrasies and unhealthy personality traits that they have a hard time getting rid of. It's made clear by the end of the season that Shima is a pretty messed up person himself, beneath the handsome, agreeable persona. Mitsumi too is somewhat full of herself and self-righteous, and she's not very considerate of other people's feelings (which Mika often points out, funnily enough).

Characters try to help each other (slowly) fix these inadequacies, or at least try to understand, work around and accept them. The show stands out to me for being so sensitive and kind-hearted about this, even towards Mika.

Of course not. But I can still like a character even if they're not "good people." And I feel the show is very good at depicting why and how she's like that in a believable and somewhat sympathetic way.


Everything you said about Mika in your reply, I mostly agree. But I really disagree with this part.

I don't think Mika is being a "fake friend" towards Mitsumi. Yes, in the first few episodes she was only using her to get close to Shima, but I think she genuinely starts to understand and like Mitsumi around the time of the volleyball episode. For one, she mostly "drops the act" of the cute, extroverted girl, and does try to help Mitsumi and look after her in small ways, if a little reluctantly.

Mika does realize "how bad she is" when looking at Mitsumi. She looks genuinely ashamed when Mitsumi mentions the people that helped her while Mika was focusing on the students that wronged her. As I mentioned, she's already pretty aware of her own negative qualities.

"Then why doesn't she change herself?" You can't tell selfish people to stop being so selfish. Or emotional people to stop being so emotional. Sure, they can outwardly act like they've changed, but it's a slow process to actually change.

I think the show is explicitly not about "you should change yourself to be more like Mitsumi." The show understands that people are wired in certain ways and don't change very easily, even if they're trying really hard. Mitsumi tries harder than anyone to improve herself, and a lot of comedy comes from her clumsy attempts to become more diligent, tactful, fashionable, etc.

In fact, every character in the show has got their weird idiosyncrasies and unhealthy personality traits that they have a hard time getting rid of. It's made clear by the end of the season that Shima is a pretty messed up person himself, beneath the handsome, agreeable persona. Mitsumi too is somewhat full of herself and self-righteous, and she's not very considerate of other people's feelings (which Mika often points out, funnily enough).

Characters try to help each other (slowly) fix these inadequacies, or at least try to understand, work around and accept them. The show stands out to me for being so sensitive and kind-hearted about this, even towards Mika.