Do you love boobs?
What They Say:
Summer Comika, an event so hot that you can see clouds forming inside the venue! S here’s he onsen – Japanese hot springs- episode! When you have to sweat, you need an onsen. Umaophone supports Oedo Onsen Monogatari!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Getting a good bit of focus on Sensei the last time around worked nicely, even if it went with the familiar deadline push angle that had coworker/friends helping out a bit to get it all done with her. That provided some time to get to know her a little bit better, but the characters are all still pretty superficial when you get down to it. This time around, events move to the next phase where we get the Summer Comica event, which has everyone going, leaving you wondering who’s minding the store. Comic events like this are generally fun since you get to do some silly stuff along the way, and as we see at the start, you see people that you only see at such events, which can be a surprise for others that you hang around with regularly.
While that starts the show off, we end up somewhere different than we might expect as the group, along with a new friend that Umi knows, at a hot spring. The Oedo Onsen Monogatari is a pretty nice place with a lot to offer and there’s definitely pleny of reasons to spend time there as it’s a beautiful looking place. What we also get is lots of stripping down, done in a way that’s not all about accentuating things which is nice, and the struggles that Sensei goes through as she’s never gone with other people before and doesn’t know the social conventions. Not that it matters as there’s some hilariously bad material where the girls all end up outside naked in front of everyone briefly. Bath sequences can go a couple of different ways, but this one plays out pretty tamely overall and it’s just fun to see the girls enjoying it while also having someone that’s a stickler for yukata’s being worn properly for after the bath and everything else that they get to do.
The fun of the hot spring and other activities gives us some nice time in seeing the group hanging out together in social settings and some of the basic friendships that exists, though it’s mostly between the girls. The second half takes us back to the store where they’re preparing for the last big event of the summer with the summer festival and all that’s required there. The at-work activities are pretty bland overall as it progresses with a lot of little moments, but no true unifying idea to work with as the various component players of the story deal with their little issues. There is some fun in seeing Hiotan freaking out a bit when it comes to the Director and their working together with how it gets kind of awkward, but considering her interest in him and the kinds of things that they play at here, it is cute. But it’s also, once again, completely superficial and goes in a direction that just leaves you rolling your eyes as she panics and simply asks if he likes her boobs. Can you imagine his shocking answer? Of course you can.
In Summary:
Denki-gai moves along as one would expect with this kind of material and it has a basic kind of decent aspect about it, providing you have no real expectations of it. This is a show that could be just as much fun as Genshiken in a way, but it doesn’t invest you into the characters because they’re all very bland personalities with no history behind them. The situations have their cute moments, but then there it seems like it’s not a deep humor but rather a very light situational humor. Which, of course, resonates only so far since we’re dealing with archetypes. They have some fun with fanservice here, but even that’s done kind of tamely. Sadly, we get the whole “I love boobs” conversation – or speech really – which just leaves you rolling your eyes even more.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
