ok so... am I the only one who thinks Nakamura and Otogiri are way too similar?? I don't know if this is intentional on the part of the author, and probably this is just a silly thought, but I noticed many things that make me think their similarities are intentional:

1)their **personalities**. they both have a mysterious aura, typical of someone who often prefers solitude and quiet. Nakamura often stays alone in his room at home, and even when he goes out, he does so alone. He has no friends, probably due to his shy and lonely attitude (seen from the outside, not from his own perspective). Otogiri is the same, but obviously a more mature version. He lives alone, doesn't have a partner, and his aura is dark, but he comes across as someone willing to help his students (just as Nakamura, who is actually sociable, if you get to know him better). The only colleague we've seen him talk to is the gym teacher, Aoki, and obviously, unlike Nakamura, he seems more authoritative and self-confident, but this is naturally due to the personal growth that comes with time.

2)**coffee**. this may sound funny but this is a parallelism i noticed that happened in episode 10. we could see that at the café, nakamura explicitly says to Hirose that he drinks lots of coffee and that he likes it. shortly after, the scene changes to teacher Otogiri drinking coffee during his break. this is a detail that, if considered alone, may seem silly, but if placed as a whole it says a lot about the similarity between the two characters.

3)the **haircut scene** in episode 11. honestly, why woulda they do a RANDOM parallelism between Otogiri and Nakamura in this scene? this part showed a difference in attitude between the two: Nakamura, a young goofy student, tries to cut his own hair, but fails(canon event lol). Panicking, seeing that the only shop he knows is closed, he goes to a random one. Otogiri calmly goes to a barber, most likely a regular and trusted one, whom he has come to know over time, to get the haircut. honestly a scene like this may seem just ironic, but I think the inclusion of otogiri is intended to draw a comparison between the two. i noticed, after briefly reading a part of the manga, that this scene was actually originally very different, but I think it was adapted into the anime in the form of a similarity. 

4)their **relationships**. Nakamura is madly in love with Hirose and acts like a classic awkward gay teenager. it's unclear whether his feelings are reciprocated, and most likely (especially given the last episode) we'll never know. Otogiri, on the other hand, seems to have a slight interest in teacher Aoki, who, however, has a crush on the florist. Otogiri acts ironically and detached about this, likely because, with age and the passage of time, classic adolescent hope fades into resignation to one's loneliness.  
this represents two similar situations faced by two similar characters but with different ages. it shows the effect of time and maturity in crushes and relationships, that probably will also affect Nakamura in the future.

**CONCLUSION**

Honestly, I don't know if these similarities were intentional or not, and, even if they wouldn't be essential to the plot, they make perfect sense to me, and if they're intended to be understood as I explained, then I'd say it's a perfect symbolic and cinematic choice. Otogiri represents an adult Nakamura, with more self-esteem and who knows how to control his instincts; he likely represents the Nakamura who didn't go for it, who found peace in calm and probably in not trying to have a homosexual relationship in a society that doesn't accept or normalize it.

TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS THINK! <3

IS PROFESSOR OTOGIRI ACTUALLY JUST AN ADULT VERSION OF NAKAMURA? HEAR ME OUT