The grass may look greener but you don’t know what it’s roots are like..
What They Say:
Ichiko decides to make Tsuwabaki, the boy she sits next to, her boyfriend. After a visit to his home, however an argument over money all but ruins that proposition. Ichiko tries to get back at him through his brother, which leads to an unexpected outcome.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a couple of episodes under its belt, it’s been relatively easy to get into the relationship thta exists between Sakura and Momiji. As we found in those first two episodes, the show moves quick, talks quick and has things in the physical realm happen just as fast. With Momiji causing as much trouble as she can, even taking on a Lupin appearance at one point to great hilarity, she’s doing what she can to try and fix the unbalance that exists due to the great luck that Sakura has. Sakura on the other hand is just trying to get through her days and to make sure that Momiji doesn’t screw it up for her.
Being a teenage girl, she’s also now wistfully thinking about getting herself a boyfriend, which should be easy considering her popularity, wealth and general appearance. Her personality has a lot to be asked for though, but that’s just as an outside observer. So what she ends up doing is deciding on a particular boyfriend through less than smart choices with Tsuwabaki, a sleep induced student with good looks. He may be sleeping in class all the time, but we also see that he’s fast on his feet once class ends. That at least gives hope that he can keep up with the fast paced life she leads and talks about.
Tsuwabaki is pretty amusing, especially since she thinks he’s of a wealthy background at first only to find the opposite is true. As Momiji points out, the more we learn about Sakura, the more bankrupt she comes across on the inside. And Momiji knows how to use that to her advantage to tweak her. Things do go in a serious direction pretty fast though because of how Tsuwabaki lives his life and the things Sakura gets involved in with his younger brother. You come away really liking him and his family, even if we do get the usual younger sibling in distress story, since it shows us someone with a good head on his shoulders that wants to do right. Something that Sakura really needs more of in her life to better ground her.
In Summary:
Binbogami ga! changes things up a bit here with the introduction of Tsuwakaki and I like what he brings to the table overall. There’s a bit more humanity to him and some real world issues that while forced are kind of staples for a lot of male anime characters. His time here outside of the school generally serves to slow down the show a bit and that’s a positive considering it’s often going a mile a minute. This doesn’t sway me over to the series in a big way but it does give me hope that it can adjust things a bit along the way and show more of what it can really be about. I’m still struggling to like Sakura and Momiji overall though.
I continue to love the end song though, especially the start of it with its 50’s American feeling.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: FUNimation
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.
