If you have this kind of deer living near you… move!
What They Say:
I accept her challenge. What is the principal doing to that deer? Death or die! Mio-chan, stop! You’ll kill yourself!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
My Ordinary Life rolls along with another episode and I find myself increasingly hard pressed to find much to say about it. It’s the kind of show that I do find can work as a series of tweets about it, where you can comment on things like “That gag was funny” or “Whoa, check out that psycho deer.” It simply isn’t a show that requires any real thought or discussion about things as it adapts the four panel comic in a very simple but effective way. In a lot of ways, it’s the kind of show where you look at it and have to admire it completely and wholly on a technical level. It has some impressive animation and computer designed camera work, such as when it does a spin around the school desks in this episode, and I really like the way it handles its sense of color design with the animation, give it a feeling like it’s a color manga really ported to the screen in a way few shows manage to ever really do.
You can also easily envision this show as one massive drinking game to be played on a number of levels, because of the diverse cast of characters and the antics they go through. There’s certainly an appeal in that, but by and large I keep finding myself faced with the same problems week after week this show in that it’s not working for me in the way that the creative side wants it to. I smile at the occasional gag, but that’s the overall extent of it. In some ways, the diverse cast is both its advantage and disadvantage. Because it spreads things out so evenly in letting everyone have their screen time, you never get enough to really get to know the characters. They continue to largely be stereotypes, which can work when dealing with episodes where it’s focused on a particular character and you can slowly develop them, but that’s not the point here. They are who they are, they serve the gag and then you move on to someone else.
In Summary:
I like that cat. Sakamoto is the only thing in the show that really works for me when it comes to the actual cast that I can connect with and actively want to follow. I can pick out the other characters by their traits, like the robot girl, the professor and the Mohawk kid, but that’s about the extent of it when it comes to this series. I find myself smiling at some of the gags, but not really enjoying it more because I barely even register the characters. Which I find sad and unfortunate because the show has such great production value behind it when it comes to the animation and execution of it all. It’s a show I find myself wanting to like, but it’s also one that I’m finding that if you’re trying to critique it, you find more wrong than right and that just makes the experience worse. Which is why I think My Ordinary Life will be one of the very, very rare casualties in my schedule that may actually get no further reviews.
Grade: C
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
I couldn’t agree more with your review. I wanted to like it since it’s so similar to Pani Poni Dash (which I loved) but it just doesn’t have the same appeal. Maybe if it gets licensed and receives a Shin-chan/Ghost Stories-type dub it’ll be more enjoyable.
Thanks for the review!
It’s OK if you drop this series for reviews!
You don’t need to waste your time on this show. There are plenty other shows that need your attention more!
I know that it’s your style to review a show till the end, but I think you have enough reviews for any potential viewers to reference!