“Yes, she was … the bullied girl” — but actually this is all about how we two kept watching the bullying and felt really sorry for her but moreso for ourselves for not being able to do anything.
This started strong and then it ended because it turned out to be only nine minutes long, which was just long enough to set up the situation but not to do anything about it. And so much misery is heaped upon poor Minori-chan it isn’t funny. Not only is she poor, but she has a weak constitution and her parents are dead, so the rest of the class bullies her. Bullying is not a new subject in anime of course, but it’s unusual to see it as it’s portrayed here; is this an actual bit of social criticism? In my anime? The posters shown above and the ineffectual teacher trying to get anybody to lend Minori a pencil after somebody stole her pencil case during a test seem to hint that this is indeed a more realistic bullying story, not just the usual sob story to make us sympathise with a character.
The nominal protagonists themselves are not that interesting yet. Their dilemma of wanting to help Minori but not wanting to go against the class hierarchy is familiar and relatable. But I think this may have worked better had this been the first half of a normal length episode, rather than having to wait a whole week or more to see what, if anything the two will do to help Minori.
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