Tokyo in April Is… – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Episode 2

Tokyo in April Is… Episode 2 serves lunch at work, with Kazuma providing a bento box for Ren. They’ve barely dug in when Ren gets a call, needing to run off.

After work, Kazuma runs into another friend from middle school. They have dinner together and Kazuma surprises Hide when he mentions that he works with Ren. Hide remarks on having heard rumors back in school but doesn’t say anything else. After Kazuma heads home, Hide gets tearful about something he can’t tell him.

The next day at lunchtime, Ren instructs Kazuma to avoid Hide but doesn’t give a reason. In a voice-over, Kazuma recalls having spent a month in the hospital during middle school – yet he and Ren have avoided discussing that time.

Flashback to a school-age conversation about dating. Ren’s curious about what he’d like to do if he had a girlfriend and Kazuma rattles off a few things. Ren notes that that’s what they already do, instead asking him about sex.

Back to the present, Kazuma is sent to pick up Ren from an awards ceremony to ensure he shows up to his own party. Waiting in the hallway, he’s surprised to see Ren with another guy’s arm slung around his neck. Ren says they were friends in high school in France but Kazuma calls him out on never telling him anything.

Kazuma recalls a middle school conversation about Hide and not wanting to get caught. He remembers noticing a weird text on Ren’s phone, setting a time to meet to feel good.

Ren gets smashed at his celebratory party and Kazuma is assigned to take him home. He remembers that day, waiting for Ren after the weird text of meeting up. He’d spotted a man with his arm around Ren. Kazuma interrupts, saying he’ll call the police and the man scurries off. Ren confirms that he wanted to have sex with the guy, he wasn’t coerced. So Kazuma offers to have sex with him instead.

In the present, Kazuma drags a flailing Ren through the door only to have him fall on top of him. When Ren backs away, Kazuma suggests they go to bed.

The Episode Review

There’s already a feeling of a domestic if not a romantic relationship in moments like Kazuma making Ren’s lunch and Ren demanding Kazuma avoid Hide – with Kazuma obeying. But they’ve not shown us a relationship based on anything from the present apart from familiarity or even any clear emotions. Instead, we get assumptions based on their relationship of 10 years ago. But something is coming to shatter this illusion.

So, leaping from old friends who quickly become close again, we’re already jumping into bed. But is that what’s really happening? Who thinks it’s a feint and they’ll be climbing into separate beds?

Meanwhile, they’re dropping little clues like breadcrumbs but not yet telling us anything that happened in the past, what separated them, or why they’re even so close again – so there’s still lots to discover over the next 6 episodes. And time to get clear on what each truly feels.

Let’s hear what you think in the comments below.