Panties determine personality?
What They Say:
A hilarious slice of life comedy that leisurely depicts the day-to-day life of manga artist Aito Yuuki and his assistant, Ashisu Sahoto!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Like a lot of series of this nature, the end draws in a predictable way because nothing is resolved. There’s not much to resolve though as the fun is just in watching the interactions between the characters. Following Ashisu as she’s gone from working as Aito’s assistant to putting forward her best for her debut effort that could net her an award is a very positive thing for her. Her growth path has been simple but it’s good to see a character with a realistic dream striving to achieve it. Of course, while there’s positive feedback from folks, there’s an attempt to redraw things and turn Aito into the assistant in order to get it done within the deadline so she can have her best shot at winning. His motivation style is certainly comical as he swings from nice to cruel with a whole lot of vitriol along the way. All while forgetting his own work at that.
With her winning the award, it’s a nice bit of progress for her and we get to see some amusing aspects of it, especially since Aito’s help turned the whole thing too erotic which in turn will delay her debut since it can’t run in the magazine. It’s definitely the quirk you expect, but you have to laugh at the way it all unfolds and how it impacts Ashisu. That plays into the whole end of summer act that plays out here as we see how she’s trying to fix things but hitting all sorts of roadblocks. There’s a nice balance of interaction between her and Aito as it progresses and while it has its creepy moments, it’s also got a sense of humor that works for both of them, even if Ashisu can’t quite admit it. But she also realizes that Aito really does like her in his own peculiar way and she may be softening up to that a bit.
Thankfully, the show does round out in the fanservice department as it focuses on that of panties themselves. That’s been a theme from the start so going with the end story like this lets it just have fun, even if Ashisu wants to just beat up Aito all the time. With its focus on talking about the way ones panties represent their personalities, it has some fun moments – including one character revealing that they go commando – as Aito tries to figure out their personality through what they wear. It’s also amusing that it even as Aito what he wears, since that’s a question that doesn’t always get answered and the tables are turned nicely here. With all the girls here for the final act, it naturally goes over the top and dirty in a somewhat restrained way for this series that just leaves you grinning at the whole absurd thing.
In Summary:
This series is one that’s easy to be dismissive of because it’s a goofy fanservice piece that goes with all kinds of themes and story ideas that can be considered of poor taste, to say it politely. It’s perverted, fanservice oriented a lot of the time and just uncomfortable in other ways. But what I kept finding is that when you view Aito as he truly is, not the base thing you think he is, you understand his socially maladjusted nature and have to compensate and cut him some slack based on that. He’s got problems – they all do in their own way – and there’s an innocence about him that manages to work, even if it doesn’t charm. In the end, it left me laughing more often than not, but it’s still not a high grade series for what it does.
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.
