Tomo-chan Is A Girl – Season 1 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Junchirou’s Promise / When Tomo Puts On A Swimsuit…

Episode 7 of Tomo-chan Is A Girl begins with a flashback to when Tomo and Jun first met each other when they were kids. Tomo notices Jun playing with a game system and accidentally breaks it.

After settling the matter with a punch, Tomo and Jun introduce themselves to each other. Later, Tomo returns to Jun’s place with her father to apologize further. After being weirded out by Tomo and her family, Tomo, and Jun eventually become friends. After playing together for some time, Tomo introduces Jun to Misuzu and asks if she can play with them. Misuzu doesn’t give the best introductions to Jun, but he allows her to play with them. The three go bug-catching in the forest. Jun forms a rivalry with Misuzu and compete for Tomo’s attention by catching the best rhinoceros beetle.

Tomo acknowledges Jun’s beetle and notices he’s starting to smile more. Jun’s present-self comments that he started to adapt to Tomo’s strange activities around this time. It made him feel like he was getting stronger. One day, Jun gets his game system stolen by a couple of bullies and refuses to tell Misuzu and Tomo the truth. However, Tomo catches on and retrieves Jun’s game system from the bullies. She returns to Jun’s house to hand it back to him. He’s upset that she went alone to confront the bullies. The two wrestle with each other.

Even though Tomo doesn’t know that Jun’s upset because he knows he can’t perform similar actions for Tomo in return. He lets Tomo borrow the game system and doesn’t want her to return it until he proves he’s a stronger man than her. This influences Jun to take lessons from Tomo’s father. At present, Tomo plays Jun’s gaming system. The segment concludes with her wondering when he’ll take it back since she feels he’s gotten stronger than her. The next set piece starts with Tomo, Misuzu, Jun, and Carol visiting the beach for summer break.

Misuzu didn’t want to attend the trip at first, but Carol convinces her to come because she wants to see Jun’s reaction to Tomo wearing a swimsuit. At the portable toilets, Jun waits for the girls to put on their swimsuits. Carol and Misuzu ask him why he’s looking up, and he says he’s waiting for Tomo. Tomo refuses to come out, and Jun accidentally sees her in her swimsuit and gets embarrassed. Tomo and Carol rush to the ocean while Misuzu and Jun sit on the beach. Tomo grabs Jun and tells him to play with her. Jun tells Tomo to stop clinging onto him as Misuzu notices Tomo’s not worrying about the swimsuit due to having fun on the beach.

Carol clings onto Jun, resulting in Tomo throwing some rocks at both of them. Carol sits next to Misuzu and wonders why Jun doesn’t want to be near them on the beach. Misuzu says it’s because Jun’s weary of Carol and Tomo’s cleavage. A beach boy tries pulling Tomo aside to get quirky with her, but Jun steps in and tells him to back off. Jun apologizes to Tomo because he feels he shouldn’t have butted in. However, Carol calls for help. Jun has no qualms with the boys hitting on Carol to think he’s her boyfriend, startling Tomo. Tomo complains to Misuzu, who advises her to stay within Jun’s line of sight for the remainder of the day.

After getting ice cream, Tomo and Jun rush into the ocean. Jun ponders why he’s starting to feel strange around Tomo today. On a bus, Jun and Misuzu talk about what happened today. The episode concludes with Misuzu confirming that Jun doesn’t see Tomo as anything but a girl anymore.

The Episode Review

This was a silly and enjoyable chapter of Tomo-chan Is A Girl. It’s difficult for most anime to dodge the “beach episode” and it contains as much fan service as you’d expect. It had some funny situational humor from Jun getting embarrassed over Tomo’s attributes, but leaned into the romantic development between the two well. If there’s a chance for Tomo to impress Jun, this is the time to do it.

On the other hand, the first set piece gives us more insight into Jun and Tomo’s early beginnings. Fans also will appreciate discovering where Misuzu’s irritation for Jun started. Considering events that have happened in recent chapters, it wouldn’t be farfetched to assume that Misuzu doesn’t want Jun to steal Tomo away from her.

Maybe not in a romantic sense, but in a friend-oriented light. Regardless, fans will adore getting to peer into Tomo and Jun’s backstory concerning how they became friends. By the end of the series, it’d be great to see Tomo return the game system to Jun after they inevitably hook up. It would be a nice image to leave fans off on.

Overall, this was a fun chapter of Tomo-chan Is A Girl that explores our characters further and steadily develops Tomo and Jun’s feelings for each other. I’m looking forward to glimpsing what additional situations our characters get roped into for the anime’s remaining episodes.