He arrives back home to find a half-naked Sakurai, slumped on the floor with Yanagi snapping pictures, Uzaki struggling to get his pants down, and Ms. Tsuki folding Sakurai’s shirt. It’s quite a startling sight for any father to walk in on. Ms. Tsuki and Yanagi advise Uzaki on being more gentle as she strips their unconscious house guest.
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Yanagi the Menace
After the credits roll, viewers see what happened leading up to the moment Fuji walked in on. Yanagi watches Uzaki and Sakurai playing a game, and she plots to make it more interesting. Uzaki is drunk too, so Yanagi convinces her to strip Sakurai as a penalty for losing and Uzaki is quick to take her up on the idea.
Fuji mentions that Ms. Tsuki should’ve stopped them, but in her slightly drunken state she’s no match for her daughter’s menacing energies, and she says all she could do to help was fold Sakurai’s clothes.
After Sakurai is back on the couch, fully dressed and slightly more conscious, Fuji and Uzaki decide to take him back home. No longer drunk, Uzaki starts to feel a little bad about taking advantage of Sakurai in his drunken state. During their ride, Fuji invites Sakurai to visit again either at the gym or the Uzaki home. Fuji accepts that Sakurai is a good guy and Uzaki is happy, which is all that matters.
Once they arrive at Sakurai’s home, Uzaki takes him up to his place and sets his futon up for him. Now the moment that viewers saw a silent preview of in the first few moments of this season’s first episode has arrived. Before Uzaki heads out, Sakurai apologizes and promises to do things right, so he won’t make any trouble for her. She hugs him and tells him to make all the trouble he likes. He collapses onto the bed on top of her. Meanwhile, Fuji sits in the car wondering what’s taking her so long.
After seemingly leaning in to kiss Uzaki, Sakurai falls onto the bed and passes out. Uzaki leaves and heads back to the car with her father. She thinks back about the timing of that sudden collapse, and it leaves her a little flustered, wondering how she’ll face Sakurai at work the next day.
The Day After
The next day at work, Uzaki is welcomed by a very grateful Asai, who’s grinning from ear to ear. Asai shows Uzaki the photos she received from Yanagi of Sakurai in “various states of undress” and barely conscious. Asai offers to pay Uzaki for the photos. Uzaki questions Asai’s willingness to spend her money so wildly, but she makes a point about how she’s helping to keep the economy running. Sakurai shows up for work and his mere arrival has Uzaki uncharacteristically shy.
Somehow he doesn’t have the king of all hangovers after almost drinking himself into an early grave the night before. The café owner and Asai sense some drama about to unfold, and they whip out the rice machine to prepare rice for the show they’re about to get, but Sakurai’s memory is blank.
Uzaki shows him one of his premium photos from the night before, and he insists he doesn’t remember last night as he goes through the gallery of Yanagi’s snapshots.
After a full day of work, Uzaki and Sakurai walk together. They discuss New Year’s Eve plans and go their separate ways after hitting a fork in the path. Sakurai then books it home and thinks to himself at home about the evening before. Turns out he did remember, and he actually kept his cool remarkably well. This is the best he’s ever kept his composure so no wonder Uzaki couldn’t tell a thing.
Viewers then see snippets of Sakurai and Uzaki’s next day at work from his perspective, with small interactions here and there. It seems to imply that he spent much of the day focused on her, but it felt rather lacking. At Sakurai’s family home, he spars with his father and his father tries to get more details out of him since he sees he’s lacking focus.
Speak Up, Sakurai
At the New Year’s Eve festival, Sakurai meets with Sakaki and the café owner before the others arrive. They want more details to give him the advice he asks for and Sakurai spills what he heard about Uzaki’s feelings. He’s surprised by how unfazed they are, and they mention that everyone already knew. Sakurai goes back and forth with Sakaki about what the right thing to do is since he knows about Uzaki’s feelings without her confessing them to him.
Eventually, Sakaki convinces him to push forward by facing the situation head-on. This all feels very familiar and that’s because it is. Sakurai has already come to this conclusion several times this season, but it’s done nothing to spur him into any actual action.
After the group visits the shrine, the others leave Sakurai alone with Uzaki. Sakurai thinks to himself about how there’s only one answer now after he’s thought so much about it. Sakurai and Uzaki watch the first sunrise of the new year.
Sakurai reaches for Uzaki’s hand, and it seems like his words will finally bubble to the surface like soda pop, but viewers are met with the same indecision that’s become a frustratingly constant part of Sakurai’s character. He decides not to confess his feelings, and instead, he says they have lots of hanging out to do in this new year, to which Uzaki pleasantly agrees.
For the second season finale of Uzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out! this episode just felt lackluster when compared to other more enjoyable or more interesting episodes of the season. One could argue that the characters ended the season in a different place emotionally than when they started the season, which would be a positive point. When the season started, Uzaki and Sakurai were both either in denial about their feelings or completely oblivious to them, which kept anything from progressing. Now, things are still staying relatively stagnant, but it’s because they have admitted to themselves that they have romantic feelings for each other, but they haven’t admitted it to each other. Admittedly, it is progress, but it’s just far too slow and relatively uneventful compared to other romantic comedies of the same nature.
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