Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You Ep 3: Japanese Fans React — "Watching Others Fall in Love Becomes Entertainment"
スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり3話に日本ファンの反応「歳を取ると他人の恋愛はエンタメになる」
Three days after Episode 3 of Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You aired, the show's official channel posted its usual post-broadcast highlight clip, and the 23 comments underneath barely mentioned the two title characters — the most-liked reply, at 142 likes, wasn't about romance at all, it was about how bone-deep relatable working the night shift is. From there the thread pivoted hard toward a side character nobody expected to become the main event: the store manager, who picked up a wave of "she's surprisingly girly" and "give me more of her" comments for a scene that was originally supposed to be about the two leads. By the end, one commenter had joked that the manga's real final chapter should be retitled from "the two of them" to "just one of them, alone," and another admitted, with a straight face, that a woman in her forties had never looked this endearing to them before.
This titleJapanese reactions to Smoking Behind the Supermarket with YouRead all 2 roundups on the title pageThree days after Episode 3 aired, the show's official channel posted its usual post-broadcast highlight clip, a short cut captioned "It's fine, I already said so..." It's a quiet corner of the internet compared to this show's bigger uploads, and only a couple dozen comments showed up underneath, but almost none of the ones that did land were about the two title characters everyone assumes this show revolves around. Instead the thread split its attention between two things: how painfully relatable adult working life can be, and how one background character quietly walked off with the entire episode.
“You know, once you hit a certain age, just watching other people fall in love becomes entertainment all on its own.”
年取るとな、他人の恋愛を見るのが それだけでエンタメになるんだよ。
That sentiment set the tone almost immediately, and it didn't stay abstract for long. One of the top replies zeroed in on a much more specific, much less romantic kind of adult misery, and a couple more comments piled on right behind it.
“I relate so hard to soul-crushing night shifts, lol”
無味乾燥な夜勤死ぬほど分かるw
- “Please, just be happy.”👍90
- “I'm a fortysomething smoker myself, and watching these two every week genuinely warms my heart.”👍7
But the real surprise star of the thread wasn't either lead. It was the store manager — a side character who's barely been more than background scenery until now — suddenly getting talked about like a main character in her own right, comment after comment.
“The manager's a catch too — and turns out she's surprisingly girly.”
店長もいい女しかも以外と乙女だし
- “The manager is swoon-worthy.”👍24
- “Honestly, I really like the manager's character too 😊”👍31
- “Give me more of the manager.”👍9
Once the manager-appreciation society got going, the shipping instincts kicked back in for the actual leads too, right on schedule, like nobody had ever left the topic in the first place.
“The romance potential just went through the roof, lol”
ロマンスの予感が天元突破しとるw
“Yamada's happy about it! Wait, is that how it is!? Can't wait for the day Sasaki finally notices~”
山田さん！喜んでる！そうなのか!?佐々木さんが、気づいた時が楽しみですね〜
A couple of people also flagged something worth knowing if you're reading the source manga alongside the show: this particular episode leans further into original material than usual.
“Episode 3 has a lot of anime-original material mixed in, so it's fun to watch.”
3話はかなりアニオリが含まれてるので見てて楽しいっす
And then, because this is still a comment section for a show literally named after two people smoking together, somebody had to go and imagine the worst-case ending.
“I'm convinced the manga's real final chapter is going to be titled "Smoking Behind the Supermarket ALONE" — swapping "the two of you" for "just one of you."”
俺はこの漫画の最終話のタイトルが「スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うひとり」だと思ってるんだよ
“Never thought I'd find myself going "wait, she's actually adorable" over a woman in her forties.”
まさか40代女性に｢かわいいなおい｣と感じるとは思わなんだ
Funny enough, that last line doubles as a decent summary of the whole thread: a bunch of grown adults, mildly surprised at their own feelings, rooting for two coworkers well past the usual anime-protagonist age — and, apparently, for the store manager standing just off to the side of them — to all just be happy already.
FAQ
- Why did the store manager end up dominating the comments instead of the two leads?
- The clip was originally framed around Sasaki and Tayama, but commenters kept steering the conversation toward a background character, the store manager, instead. One reply put it as "the manager's a catch too — and turns out she's surprisingly girly" (72 likes), and others chimed in with "give me more of her" and "honestly, I really like the manager's character too."
- What was the most relatable, non-romance comment on the video?
- The single most-liked comment (142 likes) wasn't about the couple at all — it was someone saying they relate hard to how soul-crushing night shifts can feel, followed by a reply from a commenter who described themselves as a smoker in their forties who looks forward to the two leads' weekly scenes.
- Did anyone say whether Episode 3 sticks closely to the source manga?
- One commenter noted that this particular episode "has a lot of anime-original material mixed in, so it's fun to watch" — a heads-up for anyone reading the source manga alongside the show that this episode diverges more than usual.
Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You: Japanese Fans React — "The Pretty One of the Nicotine Anime"
“The pretty one of the [two] nicotine anime.”
Read this roundupThis is one of 2 Japanese-reaction roundups for Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You. See them all →
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I Read Both Comment Sections Every Night. Yours Is Louder.
I split every night between two rooms. The English comment section and the Japanese one. Same anime, same game, sometimes the exact same video, and the air changes the moment I walk through the door. You already know your room. What you probably haven't seen is ours, because for once the language lock is working against you. So let me show you around both.