One Room Third Season, Ep 1: Kotokawa Akira is Clingy

You and your Gardening Club junior Akira Kotokawa begin the summer vacation activities of caring for the school’s rooftop garden.

Episode 1 – “Kotokawa Akira is Clingy”

First Thoughts.

The third season of One Room, the short form anime series featuring the original character designs of talented artist Kantoku, starts off with a brand-new girl. The hook of the first person POV premise is discovering who you are in relation to the cute and chatty girl giving you all her attention in three-minute increments. In the first season of One Room, the one room you were in, an apartment somewhere in Tokyo, served as the same place for each of the three girls you met. You could have been the same person too, since those girls never met each other. Another feature for each girl’s short story is that the time you spent together related to a particular season, like spring, summer, or fall.

In the second season of One Room, it became clear you were not supposed to be the same person because one of the girls you met lived at a public bathhouse where you rented a room as you worked there. After that, I could relax my brain from trying to figure out how this particular “me” fit in with the stories of the other girls. The POV character is always different with a different girl, but it’s still fun discovering your personality reflected in the cute girl’s experiences.

Here in the third season of cute, petite girls whose smiles you want to protect. I hope to see if the same pattern of spending time with three girls holds. From the One Room’s anime poster on its website, it looks like we have some returning characters from the first and second seasons. I’ll need to remember “myself” from those previous story arcs too.

Hmm.

One thing I enjoy about One Room’s structure of a chatty, cute girl always speaking and throwing you meaningful glances is how I need to pay attention to everything the girls say. We only have three minutes to play with, so I expect every detail to be important somehow for character and plot development. I also appreciate the POV glances “you” shoot the girls, confirming “you” have a healthy interest in the opposite sex. I especially like it when the girls catch “you” looking. Good times!

Heh.

Ah. The intro to One Room feels like coming home. Ooh. Cute girl spraying eggplants. She’s got an interesting mole on her neck. “You” are in the Gardening Club with Akira Kotokawa. Where is “your” one room with this girl? It’s hot. She’s hot. “You” are shy about indirect kisses. Oh. “Your” one room is the Gardening Club room. Ha. Akira gave the club room a woman’s touch. Lots of matching decorations and accoutrements.

Akira complains that her only plans for the summer are Gardening Club activities. She doesn’t want to spend all summer in this one room. She’s fishing for a date, “Senpai!” Akira also fishes for compliments. Don’t be stingy. Oh ho. Hilarious accent. Akira needs to make up her mind. “You” complimented her cute rural accent, but she doesn’t like that kind of teasing.

Nice. The empty school is “your” private garden with Akira, not just the one room of the Gardening Club. “You” better take advantage of the situation. Oops. Here’s the foreshadowing. Akira explains she’s transferred schools many times, so she’s okay being alone. “You” are going to change that this summer, right?

Akira wears a cute straw hat in the end card.

One Room Third Season streams on Crunchyroll.