Opinions (B+):

The progress is slow and faint, but its there nontheless. As we see Working!!! for the last time, Its hard not to see just how chill and lax the show is still. In some ways being relaxing, mildly funny and making everyday mundane life entertaining with a dose of the odd is what’s in Working’s DNA. And yet, despite all of that, it was nice to see the show starting to answer some questions, some that we had, and others that we wish we’d see some answers to already.

The first half of the episode actually focused on the Takanashi family, and just how friggin weird it is. The event of the week was a visit or meeting with Kozue’s ex-husband and full on masochist Minegishi. Its rather telling when every member of the Takanashi family save for blissfully ignorant Nazuna want nothing to do with him. Naturally, given Kozue’s history, it ends up falling on Souta to actually go ahead and meet with Minegishi.

Complicating matters even further is the fact that Minegishi works for the Takanashi’s siblings mother. This is the first time we’ve heard of Souta’s parents, and it seems like the mother is yet another odd individual that Souta can’t stand. The fact that Souta would much rather talk to Minegishi than his mother, speaks volumes for the family.

Its kind of a wonder how Nazuna turned out as normal as she did, and I’m totally with Souta in keeping her as normal as possible.

Having said that, Working!! is a comedy show, and it would be remiss to say that I didn’t find Minegishi and his interactions with Souta pretty funny. Don’t get me wrong, if I had to deal with such a person, I’d sure as hell be devastated, but it’s funny to see just how much Minegishi can drive the Masochist thing into the ground. And man, it seems like the ground is a bottomless abyss XD

I’m curious if we’ll get a chance to see Souta’s mother, and if perhaps she ends up interacting with Inami. Speaking of which, I was pleased to see the whole Inami situation get a brief nodd this week. After Souta loses his titan of a pair of glasses, He ends up being unable to see. There were some nice jabs and prods on the fact that its pretty darn impressive to see Souta’s glasses undamaged despite the constant beatings it and he have received.

But a very blind Souta ends up running gob smack into Inami’s “no fly zone”. I honestly expected Working!!! to devovle into another bit about Inami punching Souta to the ends of the earth, but surprisingly, we saw her just blush her way into a loss of consciousness. For anyone following Working!!! for the last few seasons, the significance of the moment is immeasurable.

If Inami has any sort of chance of being with someone, its Souta. And given that Souta tolerates a whole wealth of odd women, I think he’d be up for it. And we’ve seen with his interactions with the Yamada brother that he very much cares for her too. I’m rooting for this romance to happen, and I’m hoping we get to see a conclusion to this whole thing this season. There is a chance that Working!!! just dances over the whole issue, but the signs point to some kind of resolution. That excites me, and I hope the resolution is equal parts touching and funny. It has to be done the Working!!! way afterall.

And speaking of progress and romance, the other couple waiting to happen, Yachiyou and Satou got some progress this week. I think Souma is very much acting like the audience proxy in his frustrations with the lack of development on that front. That said, there is development, and Satou does the unthinkable! He kind of asks Yachiyou out for a drink, only to kinda dial back at the last second.

Its frustrating sure, and kind of funny, but it does show significant progress. Again, its hard not to root for Yachiyou and Satou, especially given how much Satou’s been through in the past few seasons. This, even more so than the whole Inami/Souta situation, seems like its at its boiling point. I for one, am more than ready to see it resolved, and hopefully with a good ending.

What is that ending? I’m not sure. The odd thing about Satou and Yachiyou is that despite how awesome they are, Its just hard to picture them together. It would change the dynamic of their relationship significantly, and maybe change THEM as people. Can Working!!! pull that off? Especially after two seasons of more or less keeping the status quo for everyone?

I’m not sure, but I sure as hell do want to find out. In the meantime, I’d say its going to be fun, relaxing and hilarious ride to whatever finish Working!!! has planned.

Preview:

Seems like we’re getting into the whole Satou situation next episode. This has me super excited!