Never, ever, let Sensi cook.
What They Say:
A blush-inducing, coming-of-age comedy about manga-loving book store employees!! The unique cast of characters — all hard-core manga fans and maniacs of some sort — work at comic shop “Uma no Hone.” On a daily basis, they display new releases, shrink-wrap comics, shudder at their lack of feminine qualities, question their love for porn literature…and basically have fun while working hard (?). Girls and guys call each other by nicknames and some begin to develop close relationships! It’s non-stop humor and romance in this book store rom-com!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Denki-gai at this point certainly works in a weird way for me in that when it focuses on Hiotan and Kantoku, we get a decent little slow simmering potential romantic storyline going here. There’s appeal in it because of the nature of the characters, though they draw it out as you’d expect considering its origins. When it focuses on the other characters, it’s with mixed results, especially with Sensei since her stuff tends to go over the top. But the rest of the cast is fairly negligible at this point so you need someone that can attract a little attention. When most of the cast feels nameless, how invested can you be in it?
With the Valentine’s Day event coming up, having the girls go through the cooking phase to make chocolate and other delicious items for those that they like is a given. That Sensei can’t do it? Also a given. So naturally there’s an impromptu class by Tsumorin that lets them have a lot of fun with trying to make things and to make them right – i.e. not with bean sprouts. It’s fun watching them go through it all, though it’s very light and empty when you get down to it. Sensei is fun to watch as she gives out her chocolate, mostly because it goes so horribly wrong that you have to just laugh at the absurdity of it. Everyone else largely handles it well without much issue, so we get some nice and sweet moments to go with the sweet chocolate.
The second half plays with Kantoku and Hiotan a bit more, which is fun as the two of them are spending more time together while not being fully a thing yet. There’s a kind of relaxed feeling about them that’s amusing to watch as they hang out, though of course things have to go in an awkward way, though more from Hiotan’s point of view as she ends up forced into a shower scene because of her own tiredness. The two do end up in a more physical way for a bit as things get surprisingly intimate, but it also turns tender and sweet along the way as there’s some back and forth about answers and being ready for such situations to really become a reality. Of course, having Hiotan getting all hot and bothered with the memory of it is priceless.
In Summary:
The first half gives us some decent fun when it comes to chocolates, baking and giving of chocolate, but it doesn’t offer anything new. Sensei is awkward and can’t bake and others help her with a showy sequence. The second half gives us a bit more to chew on with Kantoku and Hiotan, and there are some great moments here where you feel like we might get real progress, and we do in a way, but it’s more interested in just maintaining the status quo like so many series unfortunately. At this point, I’m simply enjoying the basic nature of the show until it closes out.
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.