Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! (宇崎ちゃんは遊びたい!, Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! or Uzaki-chan Wants to Play!) is a Slice of Life / ecchi comedy manga series by Take. The manga has been serialized by Kadokawa Shoten in the magazine Dra-Dra-Dragon Age since December 2017, and is licensed in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Shinichi Sakurai is a fit and grumpy-faced third-year college student who just wants to spend his free time alone. Unfortunately for him, an underclassman from his high school days, the short, energetic, and very buxom second-year student Hana Uzaki, has taken notice of this. None too pleased that someone she once admired has a nonexistent social life, she resolves to remedy that by constantly pestering and teasing him until Sakurai is forced to hang out with her on a regular basis. Slowly, but surely, he gradually starts enjoying his time with her to the point that, even with all their bickering, they've become best friends who are almost always seen together. And maybe with a bit more time, they'll become something a bit more...
The cast is rounded out by Sakurai's coworker Ami Asai, a slightly perverted woman and Shipper on Deck who works with him (and later Uzaki) at her father Akihiko's cafe; Itsuhito Sakaki, Sakurai's womanizing classmate and Only Friend prior to Uzaki streamrolling into his life; and Uzaki's much meeker but equally buxom mother, Tsuki, who is under the mistaken impression that Sakurai is some kind of scary pervert when he really just wants to pet some cats.
An anime adaptation from Studio ENGI began airing Summer 2020; the two promotional videos can be seen here
and here. A second season was announced shortly after the finale, which premiered in October 2022. The series was licensed by Funimation and can be watched here.
Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Throughout the anime, mainly with things like doors and bushes.
- Accent Adaptation: Fujio and Yanagi speak with a Kansai dialect, and the former was saddened after his two eldest children Uzaki and Kiri dropped it.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Hana, Kiri, and Yanagi find their boisterous, enthusiastic father tremendously embarrassing.
- Author Appeal: Almost all of the girls not named Uzaki wear glasses.
- Best Friend: Short of romantic development, Uzaki and Sakurai are this for each other.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Even after Uzaki's worrying about Sakurai graduating and leaving, and talking to Sakaki about how she should "hurry", she's refusing to do the simple solution stated by Sakaki to just tell him that she likes him and instead affirms to Sakaki that she'll get Sakurai to confess he loves her within a year. Dramatically averted by Sakurai, who ruins his own planned confession when his nerves overwhelm him and he simply blurts out "I love you" to Uzaki in the middle of the street during an otherwise routine walk home.
- Casting Gag: In the Japanese version, Yosuke Akimoto plays the café owner Akihiko Asai, a.k.a. Ami's dad, a Cool Old Guy with silver-gray hair and a Porn Stache. And at times he has Large Ham tendencies, much like his Mobile Fighter G Gundam character Master Asia. His café is even named "Asia".
- Color Failure:
- Ami experiences this after finding out Uzaki and Sakurai are finally dating.
- Fujio suffers this when he sees Hana and Sakurai Holding Hands.
- Comedic Work, Serious Scene: One of the chapters reveals that Hana's younger brother Kiri, known for his tsukkomi tendencies (especially compared to the rest of his family), developed his interest in older women because when he was in middle school, he had a female friend he was very close to. However, due to his own immaturity, he loudly declared he didn't like her all that much upon being teased by his friends. Naturally, she was standing behind him and their previously close friendship disintegrated, with the narration noting he'd never seen such sorrow on someone's face before. His own self-loathing and disgust at his actions caused him to want to be a mature adult as soon as possible, which eventually became a desire to be with someone he saw as an adult. Alas, he happens to meet Ami when visiting the café where his older sister Hana works...
- Comic Role Play: In Chapter 70, Akihiko, Sakaki, and Ami are helping Sakurai practice giving a Love Confession to Uzaki, but Ami gets a bit too into it. Of course, Uzaki walks in as Ami is taking Sakurai's shirt off.
- Connected All Along: Fujio is introduced as a personal trainer at a new gym Sakurai is trying out. Then he goes home, and we find out he's Uzaki's father. The two of them get to discussing relationships, and Sakurai mentions his complicated situation with Uzaki, without saying her name, while Fujio mentions that his daughter has someone she likes. It's not until Sakurai goes over to the Uzaki house for Christmas that they realize the other's relation to Uzaki.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!":
- Sakurai and Uzaki go to a batting center, and Uzaki decides to give it a go. She doesn't stretch properly, though, and being a rather top-heavy girl she wrenches her back when she goes for a full-powered swing.
- A later scene has Ami's father snapping his back trying to lift a box of supplies, causing him to close the café for the day.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: As Sakurai is trying to grab Uzaki out of some bushes, she asks him if he's "pulling out", all while her hips are towards his crotch. Not helping matters is when some passers-by see what he's doing.
- Dope Slap: When Uzaki tries hypnotizing Sakurai and starts making outrageous demands, he finally snaps and delivers the "karate chop atop the head" variant to her.
- Doujinshi: Take made a doujin of this series in 2021, but with a twist: Take chose to be a cheeky prankster who subverted expectations, instead of delivering actual sexual content. The cover is a spoof of the typical flustered married woman on the cover with Tsuki Uzaki, but right on it you can notice the prank, as the common Adults Only warning has Take just tell his readers to take care, due the ongoing pandemic at the time; the actual content of the short 11-pages book is Shinichi, Hana, Fujio and Tsuki going full meta, being self-aware they are in a doujinshi where nothing is canon but also everything can happen, Fujio immediately yells at Shinichi by assuming he wants to do all sorts of nasty stuff to Hana in this doujin world, Hana doubles down by teasing Shinichi he wants to run wild but he rebuked them both, saying he doesn't want to be part of their crazy assumptions and goes away; Tsuki tries to calm Fujio down by saying Hana and Shinichi are good young adults, they are actually just like them when they were younger, that's when Fujio abruptly says he and Tsuki should make love, they go home and when they are about to get funky the doujin ends, with nothing explicit ever shown. Before Uzaki was created, Take did draw erotic doujinshi before, so this one is definitely a subversion prank.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Although she doesn't have romantic feelings for Sakurai, Ami is guilty of constantly lusting over his body, something Sakaki hilariously calls her out on. She even tries to trick Sakurai into waitering at their cafe while only wearing skimpy shorts.
- Enemy Within: Played for laughs in Chapter 100 and 101. As Shinichi manages to stay conscious after groping Uzaki's boobs (with her consent), it breaks off some chains binding a dark entity within his subconscious. Shinichi confronts said entity in Chapter 101, who claims to be his 'perviest desires' and encourages him to break more of those chains.
- Everyone Can See It: Sakurai and Uzaki are made for each other... but neither realizes it or cares to admit it:Sakurai: You knew...? All of you!? ...Really!?
Sakaki: Yes, and by "all of us", I mean ALL of us.
Akihiko: Ami, the customers, EVERYONE. - Expository Hairstyle Change: Flashbacks of Uzaki and Sakurai in high school has Uzaki's hair at shoulder-length.
- Fell Asleep Standing Up: In Chapter 11, Uzaki and Sakurai get squished together on a crowded train. Sakurai is desperately trying not to get a rise out of the situation and focus on something else. Unfortunately, the whole situation becomes too much for him, especially when he notices how good Uzaki smells, and he ends up passing out standing up with his eyes wide open.
- First-Name Basis: Sakurai is on a first name basis with Ami but not Uzaki, who's been his friend longer. In Chapter 10, Uzaki finds out about this and it bugs her so much that she tries to hypnotize him into calling her by her first name. Long story short, it doesn't work. He then explains that he doesn't like referring to girls by their first name and only does so with Ami to avoid confusion at his workplace since he works with her and her dad. Comes back in Chapter 46. Ami, his boss, Tsuki and Uzaki finally strong-arm him into calling Uzaki by her first name, as she got offended after he starts calling Tsuki by her first name, but still continue to refer to her as Uzaki.
- Foil: Ami and Sakaki are this to each other when it comes to being shippers for Uzaki and Sakurai. Ami favors the passive approach, leaving them to their devices as much as possible, while Sakaki favors direct intervention by forcing them into situations where they're alone together. This makes them clash initially, but they start working together upon realizing they're ultimately working towards the same exact goal.
- Fun T-Shirt: Uzaki's iconic "Sugoi Dekai" shirt, which fits her given that it translates to "wow huge"/"super huge"/"really big"/etc.
- Hidden Depths: Underneath all the bickering, Uzaki and Sakurai are shown to be a very affectionate pair.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl:
- Uzaki is just a little shorter than average, as she's 145cm/4'9", where the average for Japanese women is 160cm/5'3", The main reason she looks so small though is because Sakurai is a lot taller than the average guy, as he's 180cm/5'11" versus the average for Japanese men at 170cm/5'7".
- Uzaki's parents: although her father is more or less of average height, he has a muscular build, and with her mom being so short he easily towers over her.
- Hypocritical Humor: Uzaki goes into a rant-inducing slight when Sakurai mentions he thinks mint chocolate tastes like toothpaste. She tells him he can hate whatever he wants, but to not mock what other people enjoy. He immediately mentions that she made fun of him for going to the movies by himself regularly. When he mentions he never tasted mint chocolate because of a bad childhood encounter with mint, she nearly punches him for that.
- Iconic Outfit: Uzaki's Fun T-Shirt, a white-and-blue top with the words "Sugoi Dekai"note plastered at the front.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
- All chapter names begin with "Kouhai and [...]" ("Kouhai" referring to Uzaki).
- The anime episodes have the verb "want" in their title. (i.e: "The Master Wants a Glimpse", "I Want to Meddle in My Friend's Business!", etc.)
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Invoked and played with. Ami encourages Uzaki to use her plentiful assets to lure Sakurai, but in spite of said bounty, Uzaki is not very good at doing this and most of her attempts backfire, ending up leaving her more embarrassed than what she bargained for.
- Implausible Hair Color: Hana, her siblings Yanagi and Kiri, and their mother Tsuki all have grey hair. Tsuki is only 43, and looks much younger.
- Indirect Kiss: Sakurai and Uzaki have one when she has him eat a mint chocolate using a toothpick. He realizes it at first, but goes through with it anyway, lest Uzaki gets mad again about him not liking mint chocolate. She then eats the last one and has this realization after eating it.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: In Chapter 33, after tricking Sakurai into getting very drunk, Uzaki decides to take advantage of the situation by getting him to tell her something he would never admit to her. He tries to tell her he loves her cooking but only gets halfway there before blacking out, so all Uzaki hears is "love you". Being "confessed" to is too much for Uzaki so she immediately starts chugging as much beer as possible to get black out drunk and forget the whole thing happened.
- Innocent Innuendo:
- In episode 9, Tsuki misinterprets Uzaki and Sakurai's conversation, with her in the room, about her cats as them talking about him being into her, and her daughter willing to help them hook up. The audience knows what's going on the whole time, though.
- Later in the episode, Tsuki overhears Uzaki and Sakurai in the café storeroom talking about aged coffee beans, but thinks Sakurai is talking about how he Likes Older Women.
- In episode 10, we see Uzaki and her mother (fully clothed, mind you) breathing heavily and moving slowly back and forth, and then see Sakurai doing the same while squeezing something that looks suspiciously like a pair of breasts in a white shirt. We even get a "Harder, senpai" and "You're so good at this" before it pans out to reveal that the three of them are kneading dough for udon.
- Just Friends: Uzaki and Sakurai have been caught in this ever since they met in high school.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Sakurai adores cats, but his scary face tends to drive them away.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the English dub, Ami notes how Uzaki's short stature makes her look rather babyish, but then she looks at her chest and notes that Uzaki is definitely not a baby. This is seemingly a nod to the controversy surrounding Uzaki's design.
- Lost in Translation: In Chapter 48, Fujio holds up a sign and asks his kids to read it out loud. Apparently, it's a joke about the Kansai dialect, but the translators couldn't figure out how to localize it, especially since it involves a certain electric company commercial.
- Love Confession: Overlapping with Did I Just Say That Out Loud?. In Chapter 72, Sakurai impulsively and absentmindedly confesses to Uzaki that he loves her after gazing at her; this, after trying to calm himself down to bide his time, not realizing that this would set him on the mind track to do so.
- Marshmallow Hell: Happens in a bonus chapter/Episode 6: Sakurai is taking a nap and Uzaki decides to lie down with him to get some embarrassing pictures of him, but in his sleep Sakurai hugs and pulls Uzaki towards him with his face getting very snug between her ample breasts. Uzaki is shocked and embarrassed, but does not object due to both understanding that Sakurai is unaware of what he is doing in his sleep and because she feels it is karma punishing her for her prankster antics. Sakurai never finds out this happened, but does remark that was the most comfortable nap he ever had.
- Meet the In-Laws:
- Subverted in the case of Sakurai, who ends up meeting Uzaki's family before they even start dating each other, albeit he remains unaware of Fujio being her father until Christmas time.
- Played straight in Chapters 75-76, when Haruko Sakurai comes for a surprise visit, right when her son has Uzaki at home. The two naturally get nervous and Uzaki does her best to leave a good first impression.
- No Communities Were Harmed: The unnamed town where most of the story takes place is heavily based on the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. Characters are often depicted walking the pedestrian bridges in front of Sendai Station, for one.
- Noodle Incident: According to Chapter 77.5, Sakurai's parents apparently almost got eaten by a tiger in India, but managed to scare it off.
- Not So Above It All: In spite of expressing annoyance at Uzaki's teasing, it's shown that Sakurai can't handle her actually being mad at him.
- Not What It Looks Like:
- In Chapter 6, Uzaki tries to chase a stray cat through a bush but ends up getting stuck. Sakurai tries to help her out by grabbing her by her hips and pulling her out. Unfortunately, because of the way the two are positioned and Uzaki yelling at him to "hurry up and pull out", two women passing by think they're having sex in public and immediately run away with Sakurai desperately yelling that it's not what it looks like.
- In Chapter 25, Uzaki's mother is visiting them at work, and goes to say goodbye to her daughter, who at the time is on the storage room with Sakurai. When Uzaki accidentally rips open a bag of coffee and panics, Sakurai tries to calm her down, but the way they say it makes Tsuki think they're having sex in there, to the point she's left trembling and has to ask the owner to call her a taxi.
- In episode 8, Uzaki is trying to apologize to Sakurai for ruining his futon (she puked on it after getting drunk), but much to Sakurai's discomfort, she does so in front of a large group of onlookers, who naturally assume she's talking about having sex when she mentions "It was my first time".
- In Chapter 70, Akihiko, Sakaki, and Ami are helping Sakurai practice giving a Love Confession to Uzaki, but Ami gets a bit too into it. Of course, Uzaki walks in as Ami is taking Sakurai's shirt off.
- Older Than They Look: This runs in Uzaki's family. Her mom is more than twice her age yet looks no older than her.
- One Head Taller: Sakurai is a little over a head taller than Uzaki and the two get confused for a couple constantly.
- Outclassed at the Gym: One chapter/episode follows Hana's younger brother Kiri, who tries to invoke this when he goes to the gym where his dad works and sees it's full of old people and tries to show off in front of them. He ends up on the receiving end when he gets outclassed by a muscular older man doing bench press, and an old lady on the treadmill. The worst part comes when he tries to "challenge" Sakurai, who doesn't even notice, to a swimming race at the pool and gets overtaken no less than six times.
- Parental Sexuality Squick:
- In Chapter 72.5, Kiri and Yanagi walk in on their parents about to have sex in the living room. Kiri admonishes them for trying something in the middle of the day and tell them to go to their bedroom at least.
- In Chapter 79, Yanagi and Kiri enter their parents' bedroom right when Fujio is about to get it on with Tsuki. Kiri is clearly disgusted and can barely talk while Yanagi tries to pull him out.
- The next chapter mentions they then left, presumably to take care of business elsewhere, which provokes even more disgust from Kiri.
- A couple of chapters later, Kiri complains to his friends because since then they've been acting "lovey-dovey" and he admits (to himself anyway) that the sight of his mom in School Sport Uniform was disturbing. His friends are no help, with one of them even openly fantasizing about Tsuki.
- Pass the Popcorn: Ami and her father have the habit of eating rice (or pretending to do so) when they witness interesting developments in Sakurai and Uzaki's relationship.
- Polyamory: Played for Laughs. Throughout the series, Tsuki is under the false belief that Sakurai is purely lusting after her at worst, or wants in be a romantic relationship with both her and Hana, with her daughter giving him cues in order to both seduce Tsuki and grab her boobs, at best. What makes this even worse is that Tsuki starts to get flattered at the possibility, recognizing Sakurai for his assets and kindness.
- Practically Different Generations: Chapter 60 introduces Shinichi's (21 years old) little sister Nodoka (8 months).
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: Uzaki attempts to hypnotize Sakurai, which he pretends to be just to see what demand she makes of him. Initially it was calling her by her first name, which he obliges, but then Uzaki moves on to making him buy items for her, which aggravates Sakurai into dropping the act and smacking her.
- Primal Scene: Or at least the prelude to one. Kiri wants give his father a parent-teacher conference handout, only to see the latter in the middle of taking his pants off, preparing to "get busy" with his wife, who's on her knees cosplaying in a School Sport Uniform. Kiri's face contorts in disgust.
- Relationship Upgrade: After some healthy teasing/scolding due to his stumbling confession, Uzaki accepts becoming Sakurai's girlfriend in Chapter 73.
- Rubber Face:
- The back cover of volume 1 of the manga has Sakurai pull Uzaki's cheeks in response to her calling him a slob.
- Hana finds herself on the receiving end of this from her mother when Tsuki scolds her for not telling her that her senpai was a guy.
- Serious Business: Ami angrily confronts Sakaki about this during his intro after Sakurai takes Uzaki to get some ice cream. They both find out they're a Shipper on Deck for the two, but go about it differently. Whereas Sakaki wants to actively try and hook them up, Ami prefers to watch from a distance. They get into an argument about which approach is better, as Sakaki says it'd take a thousand years for the two to develop into a relationship on their own. Ami then uses Insane Troll Logic and says she'll live a thousand years.
- Shared Family Quirks:
- Ami and her father are both oddly amused and both Shipper on Deck for Sakurai and Uzaki.
- Chapter 31 reveals that Uzaki gets her rude and judgmental nature from her mother. Although her mother is at least good at keeping her opinions to herself.
- Chapter 47 introduces Uzaki's father, Fujio, and it becomes apparent where she gets her loud and excessive personality from.
- Chapter 48 reveals that Uzaki's brother and father have a height complex.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Because of Uzaki's chumminess towards Sakurai and the fact that they spend so much time together, a lot of characters assume they're dating, something both of them vehemently deny.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Both Ami and Sakaki would like to for Sakurai and Uzaki to become a couple. They have opposing ideas on how that should happen. Ami wants the latter two to spend as much time alone together as possible believing that they'll naturally hook up, while Sakaki thinks they won't hook up unless someone forces them to acknowledge their attraction to each other.
- Uzaki's friends already assume she and Sakurai are an item due to how much time they spend together, and her denials are not taken seriously after said friends stumble upon Uzaki and Sakurai spooning when they happened to fall asleep at school.
- When Hana's younger sister Yanagi learns about Sakurai, she wants to know all about him and Hana, even asking their mother if she can skip school just to meet him.
- Ship Tease: Ami and Sakaki are Vitriolic Best Buds most of the time, but they get a bit of this in Chapter 88. During Valentine's Day, Ami gives Sakaki a gift bag of chocolate as part of the cafe's customer service, but she also gives him an extra box as a way of thanking him for helping her out. Sakaki spends a couple of panels looking at the box with a contemplative expression on his face, and decides he'd better not let Sasamoto know about it.
- Shown Their Work: Uzaki at one point resorts to surprisingly accurate flag semaphore in order to get Sakurai's attention.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Uzaki and Sakurai are this for each other, but they'd be the last to admit it.
- Sleep Cute: More than once, Uzaki and Sakurai have happened to fall asleep at the same time and end up either embracing or spooning. The fact that they do that makes their classmates affirm that their denial of being a couple is pointless. Regardless of their denials, they are two very compatible young individuals.
- Stupid Sexy Friend: While Sakurai will begrudgingly admit to Uzaki being his friend, he will deny dating or being attracted to her to the point were he forces himself to look away anytime he catches himself gawking at her.
- Tempting Fate: In Chapter 5, Sakurai remarks how much he loves working at the café because if its peaceful atmosphere... then Uzaki walks in. And shortly after that, she gets a job there working alongside him.
- Thanks for the Mammary:
- In Chapter 3, Sakurai unknowingly grabs Uzaki's breasts while getting really into a VR game. She lets it slide since he obviously didn't do it on purpose.
- In chapter 19/episode 6, Sakurai and his friends play a game on the beach where he has to smash a watermelon blindfolded. Unfortunately, he just he ends up accidentally tripping and getting a handful of Uzaki's breasts.
- That Came Out Wrong:
- To try and make Uzaki jealous, Sakaki accuses Ami in front of her of always giving lewd looks to Sakurai due to his fit body. Ami tries to defend herself that she finds him desirable, but not in a romantic sense, and ends up blurting out "I'm only interested in his body!". It takes her about three seconds to realize how wrong that sounds and the implications.
- Sakurai visits Uzaki's home and locks his sight on one of her cats, which is lying on Uzaki's mother's lap. He then spews things like he'd like to get closer and pet it, all the while Uzaki's mom thinks he's talking about her.
- Their First Time:
- After they start dating, Uzaki and Sakurai have a discussion about things they'd like to do now that they're a couple. Sakurai points out that a lot of things they were doing before were already pretty date-like, and Uzaki starts tossing out ideas they couldn't do beforehand. When she suggests going camping or visiting a hot springs inn, Sakurai suddenly realises that that meant they'd be spending the night together alone and starts blushing at the implication. Uzaki at first is confused by his awkwardness until she comes to the same realization, leading to her bashfully letting him know that, well, if the mood were right and things happened, they are both consenting adults. Luckily, Sakurai's mother unexpectedly arrives to dispel the sexually-charged atmosphere.
- By Chapter 105, Hana has become more insistent on doing the deed with Shinichi, due to her frustrations over his hesitation on the matter. Only after a heartful pep talk with him in the following chapter, to which he steels himself into finally accepting his Covert Pervert tendencies and following it up with a marriage proposal to her, do they finally decide to do the deed.
- Threesome Subtext: Ami's antics sometimes tread into this territory, like when she and Uzaki crash Sakurai's solo karaoke session with revealing cosplay and do A Lady on Each Arm, or when she gets disappointed that she was absent for Sakurai and Uzaki getting drunk and waking up in the same bed.
- Through His Stomach: One of the methods Uzaki uses successfully to get close to Sakurai, as she's an excellent cook.
- Undressing the Unconscious: When Sakurai gets wasted at the Uzaki family Christmas party, Hana and her sister Yanagi strip him down to his underwear and take pictures while he's unconscious. Fujio is understandably shocked when he comes back home from the store and orders them to put Sakurai's clothes back on him. The next day at work, Sakurai doesn't remember anything, so Hana and Ami show him a picture.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Uzaki constantly teases Sakurai about his loner tendencies and Sakurai will often regard Uzaki as a nuisance. Still though they often hang out together and are clearly friendly with each other. So much so that most other characters think the two are dating.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Uzaki is so embarrassed by what happened on her birthday that she seems like an entirely different person afterward. Although Sakurai admits that he finds her a lot more bearable since she's quiet and timid for once, the fact that she's not her usual self bothers him and he tries to cheer her back up to the way she was normally. Unfortunately, he overdoes it and pays a price for it.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 100, appropriately enough. Uzaki asks if Shinichi prefers smaller boobs, and offers him to grope hers. To his credit, Shinichi does not faint as usual, but it also awakens something in him, shown as chains breaking off a dark silhouette...
- Chapter 106! Owning up to how much distress he’s been causing Hana by resisting physical intimacy and running away from his own feelings, Shinichi goes all in and asks her to marry him. She says yes! This seems to complete the process of Shinichi breaking free from his self-imposed chains, so that he finally returns her desire to have sex. The pair spend the entire day making love, with Hana afterwards comically chastising Sakurai for continuing on after she was already exhausted.
- Wham Line:
- Sakurai reminding Uzaki that he's graduating and leaving in two years. This has Uzaki explicitly mention her feelings for him inside her own head as well.
- In Chapter 55, when Sakurai tries to find an excuse of why he's not calling Uzaki by First-Name Basis:I feel like I can call other people by their first names easier... But it's hard for me in your case for some reason. That must be... Hmm... Because you're special to me... ... Wait, what did I just say?
- Wham Shot:
- In episode 11, Uzaki arrives to Sakurai's house drenched in rain. Before he could say anything, she tearfully tells him that she couldn't hang out with him anymore. The next episode reveals she completely forgot about her report she was supposed to do over the summer and needs to finish it before they can hang out more. Sakurai just closes the door on her.
- The end of Chapter 100 shows some chains breaking off a dark silhouette representing a part of Sakurai's subconscious. Chapter 101 reveals that this entity is Sakurai's "perviest desires" and encourages him to break more of said chains.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: After the Christmas party, Sakurai says he drank so much he doesn't remember anything from that night. This is subverted in that he definitely remembered Uzaki and him having an Almost Kiss.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Uzaki's dad actually berates her when he hears about the precariously-balanced nature of her relationship with Sakurai, especially due to the fact that they're not dating in spite of being so close. Though he's initially irritated at learning that "Sakurai-senpai" is a man, he becomes even more irritated at the fact that his daughter is so obviously in love with him while not dating him.
- Ami berates Sakaki when they first met because she thinks that he's meddling with their relationship for kicks and giggles, and it's not until later that she realizes that his intentions are pure.
- When Sakaki of all people has had enough with Uzaki's dishonesty and ego, he threatens her with an ultimatum: if she can't acknowledge her feelings for Sakurai soon, he will sabotage their relationship and break them up permanently.
- Will They or Won't They?: Sakurai and Uzaki, despite their constant bickering, have an obvious attraction to each other that everyone can see. Their friends resolve themselves to helping upon realizing that neither is the type of person who would make relationship progress on their own.
- World of Buxom: None of the named female characters look under a D cup, and readers will notice the anonymous store attendants that are female seem to all be busty Bespectacled Cuties. Furthermore, the volumes have extra art of some of those attendants being scantily-clad. This makes Uzaki's reputation as the most buxom girl around all the more impressive.
- You Keep Telling Yourself That:
- Uzaki has rather callously claimed to most of the people she meets that she is close to Sakurai just because she pities the fact that he's a lonesome and antisocial guy. However, their interactions show said people that it's certainly not pity. Later on, when she does realize there could be something there, she continues to do this, claiming that it's just Sakurai who's madly in love but too cowardly to confess. At that point, even Ami starts to get pissed at the situation.
- Both Uzaki and Sakurai are given to deny their closeness and the possibility of becoming an item to their friends and classmates. Problem is, they're fooling no one. In one instance, Sakaki even threatens to interfere and ruin her relationship with Sakurai for good if she keeps letting her pride get in the way of recognising her feelings, and warns her that he is perfectly capable of doing so.
