The protagonist of Kemono Jihen is an out-and-out stoic who is seemingly devoid of emotions; however, despite his appearance and personality, Kabane is trying to learn more about functional human society in his own way. Raised by relatives who feared and hated him for his kemono side, Kabane grew up with no love or joy in his life. All he knew was work and ill-treatment, which molded him into the emotionless husk he appears to be in the present. The concept of family does; however, cause his deeply hidden emotions to emerge in various ways. When Shiki’s little sister, Aya, hilariously asks Kabane to be her boyfriend, he obliges without so much as a thought to what that means (Goku may have more children than he thought).

When the kitsune Kon clashes with Aya due to her own latent feelings for Kabane, Shiki and Akira have to explain to him what romantic relationships entail and what the girls’ feelings imply: love; which Kabane understands to be a feeling one has for someone they greatly respect and appreciate. When asked if he has anyone he feels that way for, Kabane immediately says “Inugami-san”, to the shock (and dismay) of the four onlookers. Kabane clearly has a lot to learn about love!

Kugisaki Nobara is a bit of an anomaly as far as female main characters in shounen tend to go. Her personality is rough and brazen, she is cocky, materialistic, and even cynical – and we love that about her! Jujutsu Kaisen episode 22 saw Nobara, Yuji, and Megumi visit the middle school Megumi used to attend with his older sister. Upon arrival, the trio spots a duo of, in the words of Nobara, “clear delinquents”. Abandoning all moral thought, Nobara humorously suggests beating them up to milk them for information about the strange series of curse-related deaths of former students.

5-toubun no Hanayome ∬ (The Quintessential Quintuplets 2) emphasizes the individuality of the five identical Nakano sisters, Ichika, Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki. Each has her own strengths and weaknesses; for instance, Yotsuba is an athlete, Itsuki is a talented eater, Nino is stylish and a talented baker, and Ichika is an actor but she can’t seem to act right these days. The point is, each Nakano sibling shares a plethora of traits and abilities with her sisters but also bears traits and abilities that her sisters do not. Since they are living on their own, each sister must find work to help Ichika support the family, so Miku first tries to work at the same family restaurant as Futarou. She loses out on the vacancy to someone more competent in a kitchen than she: Nino. Miku quickly dusts herself off and gets herself a job at a local bakery, despite her lack of talent when it comes to cooking or baking.

When Yotsuba visits Miku at work, she is presented with a sample of Miku’s baking—a croissant burnt to a crisp! When she sees the poorly baked croissant, Yotsuba very innocently attempts to confirm her whereabouts. “This is a bakery, right? Not a rock shop, right?” Perhaps Miku should consider her ability to turn any recipe into a disaster a very special talent!

This moment came very early into the Winter season, at the very beginning of the new skateboarding anime, SK8 – The Infinity. The snowboarder turned skater Langa had a rocky start to skateboarding just like any other beginner, and his first-ever race or “beef”, as they call it, started off with a hilarious scene that basically sums up what it’s like to be new to skating! To start off the banter, Langa first asks Reki to literally duct tape his feet to the board so he can maintain balance (horrible, horrible idea, we know), but since both his feet are strapped to the board before the race against Shadow even begins, Langa finds himself unable to do the kick-push movement he needs to get him going! His solution: to push himself along using his hands, eliciting the laughter of everyone in attendance!

Horimiya is this season’s breakout romantic comedy, and with good reason! After the anime’s highly anticipated release, the series has gone from strength to strength, displaying an evolution in romance anime, as well as giving us a whole lot to laugh about, including one of the main character’s kinks! Hori mentions how her boyfriend Miyamura tends to be a lot less reserved with their friends than he is with her, and in response, Miyamura asks if she’d prefer it if he were rude and violent with her too. After imagining being berated and handled roughly by Miyamura, Hori drools at the possibility and eagerly awaits being roughed up and forces Miyamura to don the mannerisms and speech patterns of a classic delinquent!

The gag climaxes when Miyamura and Hori run into a pair who used to bully Miyamura in middle school. Hori, aggravated after seeing girls in the class flirt with her boyfriend, throws hands at the two bullies who then develop an immense fear of the person they call Miyamura’s “Summon”. A few days later, they run into Hori while loitering in the parking lot, and their friend tries to antagonize her; however, Tanihara and his friend quickly rein him in out of their fear. As she walks away, the three see Miyamura arrive and slap Hori across the face before dragging her away, which freaks them out because what kind of monster does Miyamura have to be to be able to “handle” Hori like that? Hori herself can’t contain her happiness at being treated roughly, and poor Miyamura can’t help but wonder if his girlfriend is really okay upstairs! We don’t kink-shame in this house, though!