Yuuta starts to get to know the girls better before everything goes to hell.
What They Say:
What was supposed to be a week-long vacation has turned to a time of mourning. The plane that the Takansahi’s were riding on has crashed, all passengers are missing. Shingo’s relatives agree that splitting the girls among them is the best choice, can Yuuta convince them otherwise?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After the first episode which introduced the basics but didn’t go all the way to where the series title comes from, Listen to Me Girls is the kind of piece that can definitely make the viewer feel awkward with where it sort of kind of hints where it wants to go. A lot of it is jus tbased on perceptions and the title itself, and a history of series going in such awkward directions, but the first episode proved to be pretty damn appealing overall with what it did, from the characters to the animation. Yuuta’s arrival in the house for a visit with his sister and her kids and stepkids is a lot of fun to watch unfold since it’s been awhile since he’s seen them and there’s all sorts of issues.
Watching as Yuuta and the three girls hang out and get together for awhile works rather well, even if some of it with Sora is forced with her attitude. It’s cute an silly and easily paints the picture of how these three girls are and Yuuta’s sort of uncomfortable nature with them. He handles it well for the most part and it doesn’t dominate events but there’s just an edge to it at times where it comes out more. The whole thing even brings back some really great memories for Yuuta from when he was much younger and his sister was taking care of him. It’s the kind of endearing moment that really does work well to make Yuuta a fuller person since he’s not the type to have just bad or difficult memories of his older sister.
With things later turning into an event where Yuuta comes back to visit to watch the girls for a week while their parents go off on a trip, it includes a good bit of silliness since they’re more comfortable with each other from the start this time around. While the main sticking point of how Sora interacts with Yuta is still there, it is easing as well as she’s softening up when it comes to him. The softness and lightness of the time the four spends together is really well done, especially as it becomes colored by the tragedy of their parents plane going down and everyone listed as dead. The shift is quick to this and it’s not done with emotion, instead focusing on the funeral itself and the somberness of it all. And dealing with the additional fallout, separating the girls to different homes, again is used to show the strong bond that Yuuta has with his sister and makes his motivations very clear, honest and real in its way. It may be hard to believe that it would be accepted in a lot of ways, but it also makes the strongest sense both for the girls and for Yuuta.
In Summary:
While it took a little bit to get here, more than most other series would, the approach used has worked very well as it’s painted Yuuta in the proper light and made it less a difficult issue of having him thrown in with the three girls quickly, such as them simply showing up on his doorstep. It’s the kind of approach that does shape the mood of the series well and helps to soften some of the other areas that some would find creepy, even though in a literal since it’s not. I had a lot of trepidation going into this series, but others of a similar nature have surprised me in the past and I wanted to definitely give it a chance to show what it wants to be. While I expect awkward moments to come, the first two episodes have established the show wonderfully and really has me curious to see where it will go from here.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed 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.