KS: As “boarding house filled with eccentrics” is a formula I’ve only seen in a few shows, I’m curious what your impression of relatively recent example The Pet Girl of Sakurasou was. Kawai Complex did manage to impress me a bit for a few reasons, some of which you mentioned, but Sakurasou is something I’ll still point to as taking bunch of formulas, many of which I’d generally view as negative even without overuse, and making a remarkably wonderful show out of them. For the boarding house element, I’d certainly say Sakurasou takes the cake, while Kawai Complex probably beats it for the main romantic pairing. The first few episodes of Sakurasou honestly still leave me wondering why I ever stuck with it, but now I couldn’t be happier that I did, and its similar rate of improvement to Kawai Complex makes me wish that the latter had also gotten a second cour. And to tie Sakurasou back to another show from the season in question, it was by the same director as No Game, No Life! That’s another mention; I’m doing well.
GBS: Pet Girl was a show that managed to win me over quickly after its horrible premise was swiftly dispensed with. Before the season started, I had it on my list of shows that would likely repel me. Two cours later, it was one I had on my “To Buy” list after Sentai announced they had the rights. The comparisons with Kawaisou come naturally, though in essence they’re really quite different shows. There wasn’t much of a romance between Sorata and Mashiro—at least I didn’t feel it much. Sure, she’s in love with him and he develops feelings for her, but it’s not close to what was going on between Usa and Ritsu, which was more front and center in its way.
Their appeal is rather different for me. Pet Girl is all about the interplay between all of the characters. In some ways, Nanami, Misaki and Jin are as central as Sorata and Mashiro. In Kawaisou, by contrast, while I really do appreciate Mayumi, Sayaka, Shiro and Sumiko, they come across as much more secondary. Not minor, just not quite getting the same level of attention as the two leads, though the shorter length of this series plays some role there too.
KS: Oh, I’ll certainly agree that the two are very different shows with very different themes; it’s just the one that came to mind with the boarding house formula being brought up. The relationship between Usa and Ritsu being so much more prominent than that of Sorata and Mashiro is the reason I consider it probably the only relatively easy-to-compare element that Kawai Complex did a better job with. Much of that was due to Mashiro not being Sorata’s only romantic interest, and Nanami being a far more interesting one in my eyes.
The fact that nearly every resident of Sakurasou gets to be a central character in some ways is another reason I really loved that series, and that was certainly helped by it getting two cours to let them develop as individuals and as members of a community. While Kawai Complex has a great lineup of supporting characters who don’t feel like more rote repetitions of character types to fill out a cast, Sakurasou has more of a feeling that, as you said, none of the residents are merely supporting characters, but all real people with real lives that inhabit the same world and setting.
Please…Shut Up
GBS: There were a couple of characters who have been doing too much talking this season. One was Midousuji, the opponent-villain of Yowamushi Pedal. While we can reasonably expect him to get in an annoying speech at some point, it feels like he’s been handing out his own personal brand of “selfishness is good” lectures every episode for the past month. Enough already.
The other is the wooden plank masquerading as an action man Tatsuya Shiba of The Irregular at Magic High School. It feels like almost every episode, without fail, we get a load of bollocks about magical particles and activation sequences that completely takes the magic…out of magic. Part of what makes magic work in fiction is that it’s mysterious. Irrelevant…ahem, excuse me…Irregular ruins the fun of magic by trying to reduce it to a science. And Tatsuya ruins the show by blandly, boringly explaining everything that really doesn’t need to be explained. Don’t tell us, show us. The original author needs that maxim branded into his brain. The anime adaptation staff too.
KS: Irregular is great as long as the only voice you’re listening to is that of LiSA. As for Midousuji, I’m writing this shortly before the first season finale of Yowamushi Pedal and I’m fairly confident that it will all pay off wonderfully. Admittedly, that won’t undo my recently-grown tumor with Midousuji’s obnoxious face on it. Now that I think about it, Irregular would probably improve dramatically if one of Tatsuya’s speeches was cut off by a rival school destroying First High School in the final competition while singing their favorite anime opening.
MvP: Chaika – the Cavity Proliferator. Holy Christ, how did this script get off the ground? It’s like insipid baby talk for 22 solid minutes with an occasional laugh conceded for cleverness. After three episodes of not knowing why she talks like she does, I wanted to chain her down for some electroshock therapy.
GBS: Then you might be interested to know that there might be a cure for her speech condition. Well, depending on where things go in the second half of the show (to start in October). Annoying as it is, though, I’d take Chaika’s pidgin sentences over having to listen to Midousuji’s slimy speeches or Tatsuya’s pompously boring monologues any day.
BM: I’ll add another vote for Chaika and her annoyingly stilted speech. And any scene in Black Bullet where Enju or one of the show’s other, err, younger characters expresses any desire to marry Rentaro. That line always felt well out of place against the rest of the show.
That Reminds Me: The Regular Seasonal Memo to Japan–Enough with Brocon
GBS: Bryan and I have pleaded for quite some time now, but they still keep doing it. This season’s worst offenders are Miyuki Shiba of The Irregular at Magic High School and Akari of Coffin Princess Chaika. Please, Japan, enough of little sisters who want to roll the genetic dice with their brothers. Yeah, I know, doesn’t apply to Akari since she’s just an adopted sister, not a blood relation…
BM: …which is a trope itself that needs to die…
GBS: …but you get the general idea. It’s the thought that counts and this is a fetish that really just needs to go away.
MvP: Let’s face it, “adopted” is just implied incest. It’s what the show wants to think and want the viewer to think. Why, WHY, Japan, do you consistently want us to think like that?!
GBS: I have a theory. Many of the original creators of this stuff, often found in light novels, don’t have younger sisters. The segment of the Japanese audience that likes it also don’t have younger sisters. If they actually do have younger sisters…okay, I don’t want to know.
