“Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You” is a slice-of-life subtext romance starring Yamada and Sasaki. Both are very much overworked workers for their company. Supermarket and office work, respectively. The aim of the story is to show what a bond of spending time together can evolve. Here the way they hang out is smoking. Granted it doesn’t really have to be smoking. Though smoking does make it work because it is a very casual activity where you can easily talk.
The one humorous thing about this relationship is Sasaki is much more of a “fan” of Yamada at work. So she ends up calling herself Tayama around him. Sasaki is quite dense, but Yamada’s true personality being so polar opposite from her work personality actually makes it work. A lot of the time she ends up teasing Sasaki, but the teasing goes both ways even though Sasaki does it unintentional.
Still over the course of the show you can feel the two of them become close together. The relationship becomes significant for both of them, but there is no real way you would define it. It’s not lovers, not friendship, but more than just acquaintances. More proof of how much bonding and spending time as people can help us in different ways. Sasaki in pushing himself when he needs to and for Yamada having a comfort spot.
One huge thing for this show’s favor is how the main duo acts like adults. Unlike a lot of anime where it is very troupy both Sasaki and Yamada acts like adults. Granted Sasaki at times can feel overconsiderate.
Side casts is really solid and they play off the main duo well. Production-wise,it is very solid. It’s nothing remarkable, but it’s one of the better works from Asahi Production.
If you are a big fan of comfort and slice-of-life type shows then this is one you immensely will like.