REVIEW: ‘Komi Can’t Communicate’ Episode 6 — “It’s Just a Joke. Plus More.”

Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 6 is a Netflix Original anime series,  directed by Ayumu Watanabe and animated by Studio OLM. The comedic slice-of-life anime is an adaptation of Tomohito Oda’s popular manga series written and illustrated. The main recurring voice acting cast for the Komi Can’t Communicate consists of  Aoi Koga (Love is War) as Shouko Komi,  and Gakuto Kajiwara (Fire Force) as Hitohito Tadano, and Rie Murakawa (Re: Zero) as Najimi Osana.

The series follows Shouko Komi, an insanely popular girl, and Hitohito Tadano, an average boy. After entering their first year at their prestigious prep school Tadano discovers that Komi suffers from social anxiety and is bad at communicating with others. Behind Komi’s seemingly intense, beautiful, and poised demeanor she is perceived to have by others. In actuality, all she wants is to make genuine friendships. Unfortunately, her social anxiety makes that difficult for her, but with Tadano’s help her dream of making 100 friends by her side she may have a chance to make her dreams come true.

In Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 6, It’s Just a Joke. Plus More, following the previous episode, when Tadano gets to school in the morning he finds Komi eagerly waiting to hand him a letter. Komi decides she wants to give giving jokes a try, but she needs a little help with her delivery. Najimi volunteers Tadano to show Komi how it is done. After joking around it is time for Komi, Tadano, and Najimi to get serious and study for their upcoming exams. And later Komi goes clothes shopping for herself for the first time with some help from Tadano and her other newfound friends.

When it comes to plot Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 6 doesn’t have a large main plotline. Unlike some of the previous episodes where there seems to be one segment that takes up the majority of the episode. Instead, this episode was packed with a lot of shorter segments where Komi does a lot. For example, in this episode, Komi tries to tell a few dad jokes, studies for exams, gets her haircut by herself, tries on new clothes, and more.

One of my favorite things about the series is how it manages to pack so much into each episode. I am always so impressed with how well the director, writers, and animation studio are able to adapt so much from the source material into each episode. However, for Episode 6 I feel like they managed to pack even more smaller stories into this episode. All while not making the pacing of episode feel rushed or hard to follow for the audience.

Additionally, although there wasn’t an overarching major plotline for this episode, we still how each segment contributed to Komi’s growth as a character. As I mentioned in this episode we see Komi either alone or with friends in various scenarios. Some of the best moments in this episode are when we get to see Komi consistently grow and further develop as a character while she works to overcome her fears and social anxiety. For example, prior to the series Komi going through different experiences, that at first before she had friends she may have never done on her own.

Lastly, the relatability in Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 6 as it delivers some hilarious and heart-wrenching moments with great accuracy is precisely why Komi Can’t Communicate is such a refreshing anime series. In this episode, there are two great examples of this. One is where Komi is up late at night in bed replaying all of her embarrassing moments from the day in her head. The other is during the start of summer vacation, she is alone, bored, and wants to reach out to someone to go do something. However, she gets anxious about contacting someone first and we see her starting to feel isolated.

Both of these moments are great examples of how the series and Komi herself can be very relatable to the audience. Who has not ever stayed up late at night replaying all of the most embarrassing moments from the day in our mind while we lay in bed? I know I definitely have, and I would not be surprised to hear other people doing the same thing either. And on the other hand who hasn’t ever felt so nervous or anxious to reach out to someone, so much so that your anxiety might start to isolate you from others. It is the small relatable moments or jokes like these that really make Komi Can’t Communicate stand out to me in the slice of life genre.

Overall, Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 6 was a great watch and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for an adorable, light watch. Although there isn’t much of a main overarching storyline in this episode, it is packed with a wholesome slice of life goodness. I loved that this episode shows Komi’s growth and development as a character. The relate I applaud the director, writers, and animators for doing an amazing job adapting so much of the source material into one episode without affecting the pacing of the storytelling. Komi Can’t Communicate continues to be a refreshing series that delivers hilarious and heart-wrenching relatable moments that most people can identify with.

Komi Can’t Communicate Episode 6 is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.