Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou – First Impression

We are all pretty pitiful, aren’t we?

The weekend surprise for me was Kawaisou because I just went in without expecting anything and came out liking it very much. Glad to have some common ground of feel good to share with Highway for this tag post. xD

Hi Kyo! A couple FI’s for us together, and the first one is Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou, a show that I’ve been looking forward to, probably the most of the shows coming up this spring season. But is that expectation an unrealistic one from comparing it in my head to Sakurasou?

Kawai Complex and its Stars

Usa and Sumiko worked pretty well

Kyokai // What a weird bunch, the first thing that will come to your mind. But personally, I love weird bunches and maybe the reason for me liking Gintama and even Nichibros. These two are really no way a comparison to Kawaisou, which is more heavy on drama, romance and slice of life but for a world and character setting, first episode did it quite well in introducing everyone. In particular I’ll talk about our problem child protagonist and the adorable grandma; these two were the stars for me.

For a relatively new seiyuu, Yuuichi Iguchi has done an amazing job of a tsukkomi (straight man) throughout the craziness of his house-mates. Though, good thing is that he’s not a goody-two-shoes himself rather is a problem child of his household with his independent ways. The first rule of becoming independent is doing everything yourself rather than depending on others. I feel for his mother in conveying the same fact to him. But anyone would have problem in sharing a room with a pervert. But, he doesn’t seem to be a bad kid because he tries to help whenever he can and does not have porn magazines lying about like the protagonist of Majin Bone… Yeah, there are so many reasons behind us not boning that series.

The girl of his dreams

Highway // Usa’s new school life starts off with seeing the girl of his dreams. Isn’t that how it always happens? For her part, Kana Hanazawa’s Ritsu Kawai gives that quiet and disinterested feeling, but she starts to show that she’s more engaged in the world around her than you’d first think from having her nose in a book all the time. For instance, always knowing exactly where the line to the Girl’s Area of Kawaisou is. And when she really comes to life in this episode is when she interacts with Mayumi (Rina Satou, the Railgun herself), the drunken girl of questionable taste in men… and another resident of Kawaisou.

An Auspicious Meeting, and not in a good way

The other resident we met this episode was Shirosaki, Usa’s ‘roommate’ even though there’s a light partition between the halves of the room. Pretty standard loser-y kind of guy, perverted and knows it, and likes looking at grade school girls, getting beat up, treated badly. The other girl we don’t meet is college student Sayaka, who is to be voiced by Hisako Kanemoto. We’ll find out what her damage is, but it’s a shoo-in that she’s not going to be normal.

This picture might be false advertising

Kyokai // Coming back to the grandma, OMG, I just want to tweak her cheeks and hug her. She’s such a cute chibi-chan! Forget about the HanaKana character, this here, ladies and gentlemen is the REAL heroine of the series. She’s got oomph, amazing hairdo, cooking, cleaning and many other experienced skills that she brings to the table and let’s not forget that she rocks that traditional kimono. She’s the manager-san, for whom you would do anything (Shirosaki would), as soon as she commands! Comedy aside, she really has a nice heart and mothers the problem children under her apartment complex quite well. You really don’t find a sharp witty tongue and a caring hand like hers these days.

Look and Feel

Mayumi makes the first move on Usa

Highway // The show has a really good look to it, with Brains Base giving us a much more artistic style than most romantic / slice of life anime get. Even if they are trying to do their best GoHands impression and make every flat surface in the world have a strange color gradient. But even though the character designs seem more mature, the bright solid coloring makes them stand out over the darkish backgrounds, giving the show a nice feel. The OP song took about a single word to recognize as fhána, and it’s a fairly standard song by them. I find their songs better to listen to in the context of the show, without having too much interest away from the show. The ED is sung by the three girl residents of Kawaisou and is a nice poppy song.

Sumiko can lay down the law, but she does it out of love

What a crazy bunch indeed! I guess, we are short of another character hinted in the opening theme to complete the tenants list of Kawai Complex. Not sure if we will get more school action for Usa but I guess with Ritsu being from the same school, they will either be joining a club together or have some common interest to talk about between them. Besides this, I definitely want to know more about the long-haired hentai pervert because this bum seems quite interesting with his fixation and fetishes. His profession could be a novelist or manga artist (ecchi kind?). but who knows as this is just the beginning. Overall, a good first episode and I’m sticking around to see if the pacing keeps up with character development and plot progression.

Well, this show wasn’t like Sakurasou, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. A lot of fun for an opening episode, and the chemistry so far between Usa, Shirosaki, and Sumiko is really great. Ritsu will need to engage the rest of the cast a little bit more for more interesting things to happen between her and Usa, but I’m sure that’s what’s going to happen. I do have to confess a little interest in seeing a twist out of this show, tho. For instance, I think it would be a great twist, if they were to make this be a romance show, to have Mayumi become the big love interest, because a relationship between uptight Usa and free Mayumi would be a lovely thing to see. Sure, he describes her as out of his league now, but that would make it even better.

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.