One Room Third Season, Ep 8: Orisaki Saya Cheers You On

Saya helps you take mock exams and roots for your success.

Episode 8 – “Orisaki Saya Is Cheering You On”

Hmm.

One Room the animated series is a testament to Japan’s deference to standardized testing and certificates. The first girl we met in the first season, Yui, who we’ll meet again in One Room Third Season, lived next door to “your” apartment while she studied to take the entrance exam to “your” university. This arc with Saya makes “you” a ronin trying to get into university on “your” second try. In America, the importance of standardized testing has been growing smaller since early in the 21st century to the point that the famous SAT now has an essay portion. That doesn’t sound very standard to me, but I’m becoming an old man shaking my fist at progress, starting all my complaints with “In my day…”

Still, many anime, and One Room in particular, capture the stress and preparation we associate with the test taking experience. The only thing missing is Saya giving “you” a headband with the kanji for “victory” on it to help “your” motivation. J-List has headbands like that too, but we have better motivational statements, like “Notice me, Senpai!” or “Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend.” Maybe “you’ll” get these things to happen to “you” at university, which is all the motivation to ace those standardized tests “you” need. That, and waiting to look down Saya’s blouse again, right?

Heh.

Uh oh. Saya fell asleep in “your” one-room apartment again. Not as fun as crawling into bed in just her blouse and panties, but she’s as defenseless as ever. Aw. Her sleep-talking refers to apologizing for a work mistake. She’s so cute when she wakes up!

“You” are making a tradition with giving Saya instant miso soup for breakfast. Saya still has no comment filter early in the morning. Ah. Saya needs to keep up her lie about having a boyfriend. “You” sure are gullible, ronin. Hilarious. Saya warns “you” about careless mistakes, but she doesn’t realize how many undone buttons she has on her blouse. Yes, we commend blouse-kun and bra-kun for the impossible task of containing the wonderful chest of Saya Orisaki.

That little park also became “your” one room for meeting Saya. A big conversation is going to happen there. Eep. How can “you” concentrate with the Grand Saya Canyon distracting “you” from all sides? Also, I’m impressed an OL still remembers trigonometry. Saya isn’t a bad cook, but a strange cook? Why would anyone put sweet melon syrup in a stew? “You” didn’t tell the audience whether it tasted good or not.

Here we go! Age gap flirting! I love how the artist Kantoku draws smug faces. Is Saya going to be a better OL because of “your” inspiration? Let’s hope we get proof in the next episode of One Room. I think “you’ll” be getting more than a fist bump too.

Saya watches “you” work hard in the end card.

One Room Third Season streams on Crunchyroll.