Komi Can’t Communicate is a heartwarming slice of life animated series starring the shy Komi Shoko, who has trouble communicating with others. She led a terribly lonely childhood, but now she feels ready to make 100 friends and reinvent her social life — and it all began with the aid of her kind classmate, Tadano Hitohito. He’s done a lot for her.
Tadano, as an ordinary but highly empathetic fellow, realized the truth of Komi Shoko: that she simply wants to make friends rather than bask in the glory of being an ice queen. With Tadano’s help, Komi Shoko has come a long way already, and she has returned the favor without even realizing it. Tadano stands to gain something from all this, too.
Tadano Hitohito, Komi Shoko’s Plus-One In Everyday Life
Komi Can’t Communicate focuses mainly on Komi Shoko developing her social life and forming new connections, while discovering new interests and hobbies along the way. This is the core of Komi’s personal growth and character development, but she’s not the only one experiencing this. Hitohito Tadano is actually in a roughly similar position as Komi, except he doesn’t actually have a communication disorder. Instead, he simply fails to make a strong impression on anyone, and he tends to get overlooked and taken for granted.
In middle school, he tried to become a stylish delinquent, but it didn’t work out, and even worse, his sole love confession failed miserably. Discouraged, Hitohito abandoned his cool-guy persona and stopped engaging with the people around him, aside from his childhood friend Osana Najimi. He was almost like Komi as he entered high school.
Then he met Komi and learned the truth of her social anxiety and disability. Tadano extended a hand of friendship that Komi accepted, and since then, Komi has challenged herself to exit her comfort zone and bravely make new friends, no matter the risks. This has worked well so far, with Komi making many new friends via Tadano and his classmates. However, the Komi-Tadano relationship cuts both ways. Inadvertently, Komi used her sheer popularity to expand Tadano’s own social circle and horizons as well. Tadano had resigned himself to a life of being invisible and overlooked, but this is no longer an issue.
Through Komi and her new friends, Tadano’s life is a colorful adventure, and even if people don’t like him as much as they like Komi, Tadano is still getting a slice of the pie. He’s experiencing all sorts of wonderful high school hijinks he would never experience alone, all because he’s like Komi’s plus-one to all sorts of gatherings and activities both in and outside of school. He ends up being Komi’s “date” to every worthwhile event taking place.
How Tadano Reinvented His Own Life
A handful of amusing and heartwarming scenes in several Komi Can’t Communicate episodes make it clear just how much Tadanao accidentally benefits himself by expanding Komi Shoko’s horizons. Thanks to him, Komi is much more socially active now, and Tadano gets dragged along as Komi’s plus-one, benignly feeding off Komi’s immense popularity. One example is the maid cafe event in Episode 11, when most of the boys felt odd about dressing as typical maids. Tadano got used to it more easily though, and he was deeply motivated when Komi realized she liked Tadano’s new look. With Komi fueling him, Tadano embraced his maid status and had the time of his life, even if his little sister Hitomi found it weird.
In the previous episode, Komi went to the mall with her new friends, and Tadano got swept up in it too, joining the group for photos and finding a lovely keychain as well. His old self would never have taken part in an outing like this, but being Komi’s best friend changed all that, and Tadano likes it. And in the episode before that, Tadano was invited along with Komi’s friends to play off-brand Super Smash Bros. If it weren’t for Komi being his friend, Tadano would have, at most, played this game with just Najimi. This time, he’s part of a proper squad of friends, and Komi is the centerpiece of it all.
Most of all, Tadano isn’t merely Komi’s first real friend. By now, it’s clear that he means a lot more to her than that — he is special in her eyes. Komi may be timid about romance, but her feelings are real, and she hinted at this during the festival in Episode 8. Having a beautiful, smart and popular girl like Komi crushing on him should be hugely validating to Tadano and greatly boost his self-esteem. Any of the other boys would give anything to be in his shoes.
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