Ep 1. My Childhood Friend

The story begins with our heroine Mikako Kouda demonstrating how she bootstraps herself for the inception of another school day and even wielding her childhood friend and neighbor Tsutomu Yamaguchi in a crass culinary comedy as she eats breakfast. We then have it demonstrated that it is normal for Mikako's mother Ruriko to frequently behave as a dependent elder sister rather than as a mother a session of nocturnal manga synthesis. The apartment manager Noriji Sunami often likes to tease Mikako and Tsutomu prior to their school commute; once at Yazawa Geijyutsu Gakuen, Mikako's friends Risa Kanzaki and Mai "P-chan" Oota teasing Mikako becomes the forum for demonstrating that Sensei Hamada has no qualms about detaining Mikako after school for clumsy handiwork. Tsutomu's friends Yuusuke Tashiro and Jiro Nishino are excited about a euphoric diurnal engagement of karaoke with Mariko "Body-ko" Nakasu; frightened for the oblivious Tsutomu when Mariko disposes him, Mikako races off toward Hiroaki Tokumori's bar after imparting her stamp of approval. Hiroaki ultimately mediates the lover's quarrel and warns Tsutomu to focus more for quality rather than quantity after Mikako heads home only to be forced into a rainy-day layover with a stray cat during which she reminisces about her collaborative prologue with Tsutomu who comes to her rescue and escorts her home.