“Ashihara Takumi Is Climbing”
What They Say:
This series is set to look at three men in the same tone as the One Room series that focuses on three women across the run.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The opening installment of this series provided a decent look at what’s going on with the setup as the viewer as the new apartment manager arrived and got a feel for the three young men that live there. With it keeping the three of them together rather than separate arcs/stories, this one changes its focus along the way a bit to Takumi as he’s invited to a rock climbing event, which he really doesn’t like because he doesn’t want to be the center of attention or noticed. That has us, as the manager, coming to talk to him when he heads to the top of the complex to get some calming moments and figure out his best approach. Visually, it’s definitely one of those nice moments with him being able to look over the city and how it looks while talking about himself a bit, though not really revealing anything. We, naturally, cheer him on and that provides a touch of inspiration for him.
In Summary:
With a nice little save that Takumi gets to perform, Room Mate gives us some time with a focus on him while also keeping the other kids involved as well. Though the show isn’t as well animated in some ways as One Room was, it’s definitely keeping to the overall quality of designs and working its own kind of moodiness as it plays with the boys instead of the girls. The differences are certainly interesting but it’s also something that isn’t working quite as well since it’s a bit more cagey about how much we know about them, and our relationship with them being so different.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
