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.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Love Hina 2014.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I hope it doesn’t get that out of hand. I actually stopped watching Love Hina at about episode 10, because it was just too crazy. Like crazier than Nyarlko-san.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
That seems to be the effect that Akamatsu has. I barely got past about six episodes myself, and he just pilled it on way to much in Negima, I left the manga at around the 12th book.
I don’t think this will get that out of hand.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
I hear Akamatsu’s latest manga, UQ Holder, contains even more outrageous action & near-nudity scenes.
That said, he says he is considering retiring from the manga industry after he finishes UQ Holder.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’ve been meaning to get to UQ Holder. It’s right there on my PManga tablet app. But other series keep pushing themselves on me.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 104 comments
EXACTLY! You’re the 2nd person besides me that I saw compare it to Love Hina instead of Sakurasou.
I watched Love Hina way back in my early days of anime but damn,Narusegawa annoyed the crap out of me. Luckily,Ritsu doesn’t seem to be like her and boy,am I glad because of that. I’m like Usa more than Keitarou too.
I’ll label this as “that relaxing anime of the week”. It’s also seems to be one of those shows that’s easy to decide early if it’s for you or not. In my case,I’d only drop it if the characters would turn out to be incredibly annoying but all’s good so far.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Kawaisou‘s manga creator is Miyahara Ruri, who also made the Love Lab manga(which got a good adaptation last year, I hear).
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 44 comments
Really, that sound interesting I’ll check it out. The animation is so beautiful but the characters and comedy is so messed up. It’s great. 🙂
XD
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I think if they keep up the craziness with enough plot/character progression, we will have a winner.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Love Lab was a fun show to watch, and while it got close to a line of too much craziness, it never really crossed it.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Desho! Don’t you want your own Dakki? … no? …Only I do?
(,,◕ ⋏ ◕,,)
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Obaa-chan will turn the most hardened lolicons into obaacons!!!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
HELL YEAH! xD
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
embarrassedface.jpg
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Can we help it that pettanko is obviously the best? :3
Obaa-chan reminds me of Dorm-sensei…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I’m honestly surprised, here I was thinking that the art style would be a huge turn-off, but I ended up liking it (having good animation helped)! The mix of the old character designs with the modern scenery works just right, somehow.
Don’t see the Love Hina similarity though. It gave me more of a Mahoraba or Sakurasou feel to it to be honest. Actually, I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen the anime. Not sure if I’ve read the manga either, but the anime is 24 episodes so it’s short enough, although I don’t remember the animation. The whole story and characters are really familiar however, so, hmmm… maybe I did read the manga….
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Love Hina is a LOOOOONG 24 episodes. Like I said, I only made it through about half of them, and while it might be an early harem show, it’s obvious that they’ve made a lot of progress on them since then.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Hmmm, long as in painful or long as in nothing happens? While the progress was slow in the manga (if I did read the manga because I can’t remember >.>), I don’t recall if being to the point of annoying.
Unlike Pastel omg (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻