A bond formed through smutty magazines.
What They Say:
A blush-inducing, coming-of-age comedy about manga-loving book store employees!! The unique cast of characters — all hard-core manga fans and maniacs of some sort — work at comic shop “Uma no Hone.” On a daily basis, they display new releases, shrink-wrap comics, shudder at their lack of feminine qualities, question their love for porn literature…and basically have fun while working hard (?). Girls and guys call each other by nicknames and some begin to develop close relationships! It’s non-stop humor and romance in this book store rom-com!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Now that we’re very much in the home stretch of the series, it’s definitely been interesting to see how perceptions have changed. While I had hoped for a bit more of a workplace comedy and was fearful of a character like Hiotan, she and Kantoku have been the saving grace for it here. Which really isn’t saying much when you get down to it. The workplace side of the show has been cute at best at times but it’s been minimal overall with only some decent moments here and there. The bulk of the cast has gotten the short end of the stick otherwise with only Sensei getting some bigger moments since she can be more outlandish and comical with her actions. And because she’s the only one that has something of a life outside of the store, though she tends to spend that time inside the store as well.
With this episode, we get some pervy stuff right from the start when we see a much younger sommelier with some male friends of his checking out dirty magazines, only to be caught by the class rep, who herself doesn’t want anything to do with it. With this being young kids, it’s not a surprise that boys would be looking at it. What isn’t welcome is that we see the other two boys running after her and dragging her back for Sommelier to deal with her. Of course, while it looks like something bad is going to happen, Sommelier keeps offering her, without word, various dirty magazines until they find her interest. Which, of course, happens to be boys love style material. Such is the origin of G-Men, who finds herself a part of the secretive group now that enjoys all manner of works. Having seen her in the present from time to time and really working across the range of emotions, It’s fun to see how she started all of this through Sommelier.
The first half really does go in some interesting ways with how G-Men in this young form does her best to get into things and actually ends in a great deal of danger in protecting the goods along the way. Bringing these two together at a young age isn’t a surprise, it’s a standard cliché, but it works nicely to make her a lot more interesting. It’s also better than the second half of this episode where the focus is on the girls watching Sensei at the family restaurant trying to get some of her work done and hoping that she does it. It’s a very tedious watch on their part because Sensei just does everything she can to delay and distract herself along the way, which means she gets very little accomplished over the course of the day. The show also gives us a little time with Sommelier at work in the present as Fuga is doing her best to get his attention, which even draws Umio into it in a bad way. It’s not deep comedy or rich comedy, but it has its mild slapstick that’s cute enough for the moment.
In Summary:
Denki-Gai has some fun moments with the extended piece in the past as we get to see Sommelier and G-Men together when they were children. For some, fascination with sexuality starts at a very early age and is a key component of who they are. Seeing the two paths they took and where they are now is certainly interesting. I’d have preferred a little more of a proper re-connect in the present, but the show is more intent on showing us the bond they had them, which was mostly wordless. The rest of the episode is just simple fluff and largely forgettable, even if it does have its cute moments. With one more episode to go, there’s little that Denki-Gai can do to really redeem itself, but it’ll likely end similar to how most of its run has been with light moments and maybe a little character material to tease us with.
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.
