Tangerines tumble behind the store in Smoking Behind Supermarket episode 10, interrupting Sasaki’s Christmas-season walk with a problem closer to hand. Anime News Network’s Lucas DeRuyter and Beneath the Tangles’ Twwk describe an installment that brings produce manager Obata into the foreground of Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You. His admiration for store manager Goto drives the second half, while Sasaki’s conversation outside confirms a connection to Yamada’s past. Spoilers follow for episode 10. [1, 2]
Smoking Behind Supermarket Turns to Obata
Sasaki has barely noticed Christmas arriving. Work keeps him occupied while the streets light up around him, and he approaches the supermarket’s smoking area carrying that sense of falling behind the season. Twwk describes the opening as a holiday setup that quickly moves away from Christmas itself. The lights supply the setting; Obata’s trouble with a carton of tangerines supplies the encounter that changes the episode’s direction. [2]
Daigorou wants attention. Obata panics. In Twwk’s account, the spilled fruit follows an approach that Obata treats as an attack, although Daigorou is simply trying to get some affection from him. Sasaki finds a fellow worrier preparing for the sales rush, and the two begin to bond. DeRuyter describes their shared eagerness and warmth, even as he finds Obata’s exaggerated reactions difficult to enjoy. [1, 2]
Obata admires Goto. Both critics also read a crush into his enthusiasm for the manager, giving the new arrival a personal stake beyond getting the produce ready for customers. Sasaki takes on a mentoring role in their exchange, according to DeRuyter. The man whose own awkwardness often drives the comedy now has someone younger looking to him, and their conversation also reaches back to the grocery store that previously occupied the site. [1]
Sasaki’s Past Reaches Yamada
Sasaki remembers the earlier store, and episode 10 confirms that he was the person who inspired Yamada eight years before the present events, according to Anime News Network’s review. The flashback now has a confirmed connection. DeRuyter welcomes that answer as one of the installment’s pleasures, even though his attention repeatedly returns to the volume of Obata’s performance. Yamada’s history advances during a conversation that initially seems to belong to the new character. [1]
Yamada then appears as her customer-facing self (rather than her Tayama persona) and questions Sasaki about his conversation with Obata, bringing the episode briefly back to its central relationship. Sasaki charms her again. DeRuyter describes the resulting reaction through the familiar tension between Yamada and Tayama: the same woman responds differently through the two identities. His review sees the exchange as encouragement for their romance, without reporting that the pair begin dating in this installment. [1]
Yamada gets little screen time. Twwk reports that Sasaki disappears from the second half entirely, leaving Obata and Goto to carry it. [2]
The Christmas setting also offers a loose visual companion to PerEXP Teamworks’ City Lights. Here, though, Sasaki’s walk ends at the workplace, where the next scene follows Obata toward a much less composed version of his boss.
Goto’s Tears Change the Conversation
Obata catches Goto crying at her desk. For an employee who admires her confidence, seeing the manager upset presents an unfamiliar problem: how can he approach someone he usually regards with such awe? Both reviews describe his effort to speak to her as the center of the second story. Goto’s authority has impressed him, but he now has to respond to the person sitting in front of him. [1, 2]
Manga explains the tears. Goto has reacted emotionally to a development in a series she follows, a reveal that brings her private enthusiasm into the working day and gives Obata a way to talk with her. DeRuyter reads the ensuing conversation as a reminder that capable, impressive people need support and companionship too. Twwk focuses on leadership, noting how Goto’s usual strength coexists with vulnerability. Neither review describes a loss of professional competence; both locate the interest in what Obata learns about the manager once she lets an ordinary personal feeling show. His crush now shares space with a more approachable view of Goto. [1, 2]
Goto’s manga habit drives the scene. In Smoking Behind Supermarket episode 10, a workplace encounter grows out of something as specific as a reader’s emotional investment in a story. The reviews agree on the value of seeing Goto beyond her confident manner, although they respond very differently to the man trying to comfort her. [1, 2]
Obata Divides the Two Reviewers
DeRuyter enjoys the episode overall. Obata’s shouting tests his patience, however, especially because Sasaki already supplies plenty of exaggerated reactions and social awkwardness. His preference is blunt: he would have enjoyed the installment more with “50% less yelling.” He still appreciates Sasaki’s mentoring, the flashback confirmation and Goto’s human side. His criticism concerns the delivery of the comedy rather than a rejection of the stories surrounding the new arrival. [1]
Twwk hears charm in those reactions. The Beneath the Tangles reviewer credits Rikuya Yasuda’s voice performance, singling out Obata’s small shrieks and utterances as part of the appeal, while also appreciating how readily he sees good in Sasaki. Obata’s nervousness initially risks becoming tiring for Twwk, too, but the character’s kindness wins him over. The same mannerisms that frustrate DeRuyter help make the newcomer likable in Twwk’s account. [2]
The reviewers diverge on Christmas as well. Twwk wanted more from the holiday opening and expresses hope for a later Christmas episode centered on Sasaki and Yamada. That is a reviewer’s wish. Neither supplied review establishes that such an episode is coming, and Twwk’s imagined romantic setting should not be read as a confirmed development in the remaining story. [2]
A Workplace Detour, With Questions Ahead
Twwk compares the episode’s move toward workplace comedy with Working!!, pointing to the recent attention given to Yamada’s colleagues as preparation for the change. He welcomes time with the supporting cast. He also wonders whether the creator is running short of romantic ideas, but offers that as speculation, without production evidence. The episode’s change of focus does not establish why the creator made it. [2]
How many episodes does Smoking Behind Supermarket have? The supplied coverage reaches episode 10, and DeRuyter refers to a few installments remaining, but neither review gives a confirmed season total. They also do not establish how the anime or manga ends. Episode 10’s developments concern Sasaki’s past, Yamada’s reaction and Obata’s relationship with Goto; a final romantic outcome would go beyond the events these sources describe. [1, 2]
Both publications identify Crunchyroll as the streaming service carrying Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You. Their reviews provide no regional availability details or remaining release schedule. DeRuyter hopes Obata will become quieter in the episodes ahead, while Twwk wants more time for Sasaki and Yamada’s romance. The next installment faces those competing expectations after giving the supermarket’s staff room to lead. [1, 2]
- ONLINE NEWS DeRuyter, L. (2026, September 11). Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You — Episode 10. Anime News Network. [Article Link]
- WEBSITE Twwk. (2026, September 10). Smoking Behind the Supermarket Ep. 10 review. Beneath the Tangles. [Article Link]
