If I had not already mentioned it, you might be wondering where the “awful” part comes in: that would be Sorata being tasked with looking after Mashiro as if she were another “pet.” When I learned this, complete with short preview videos that showed Mashiro in states of undress (to be leered at, obviously) and Sorata getting flustered but taking care of her…I had to shake my head in disbelief. I recall at the time many people who already stated they would be giving this show a pass and it was likely only curiosity that convinced me to watch it as it streamed on Crunchyroll. The curiosity of seeing a train wreck occur in slow motion as this series would unfold on a weekly basis. And the first episode did, indeed, give me serious pause as I saw a number of potential flags raised—not good ones. The other residents of Sakura Hall were all shallow archetypes. Two upperclass students: Misaki Kamiigusa, just another eccentric artist, but with a large set of breasts and no shame, constantly straddling Sorata (though without any sexual intentions from either party, interestingly) and running about at a breakneck pace as if she were born with crack cocaine coursing through her veins (bipolar disorder would be a more charitable assessment); and Jin Mitaka, a ladies man who strings along four different women, even though it’s blindingly clear from an early time that Misaki and Jin, who come from the same small town, have feelings for each other. The supervising teacher, Chihiro, who is “29 and 15 months old,” looks like a swimsuit model but has a “terrible” personality as she drinks and is forthright—yet wants to be married. And then another second-year, Ryunosuke Akasaka, a genius computer programmer and thus, obviously, a hikikomori who rarely if ever leaves his room and has even developed a highly sophisticated AI called Maid-chan to handle his phone calls and emails—so that he never has to deal with a real person ever again.
When you add in that Sorata is a rather bland aimless dreamer type…there is just so much generic crap floating around, I would have predicted that this show would not survive the 3 Episode Rule. So, color me surprised when I continued to watch it and came away after the simulcast many months later with a fairly positive feeling about it all.
What happened?
Watching the entire series again at once, it became apparent again what happened: the power of Mari Okada’s writing managed to overcome the crudity and thinness of the premise. Because it’s largely the work of Ms. Okada and the director Ms. Ishizuka that makes this seeming mess palatable and, at times, a fairly well-crafted melodrama. That would be because despite the horrible premise of a bland boy taking care of an extremely gorgeous girl (Mashiro is very attractive), a number of larger themes get addressed. Part of what helps that is the appearance of another character, the rival to genius artist Mashiro for Sorata’s heart: Nanami Aoyama, Sorata’s classmate whose dream is to become a seiyuu. The characters are formed into two groups: the Gifted (Mashiro, Misaki (who is an animation phenomenon capable of creating an entire high-quality work from start to finish by herself), and Ryunosuke) and the Strivers (Sorata, Nanami, Rita Aisworth (Mashiro’s friend from England who was always in her artistic shadow), and even Jin, who is a competent writer, but not at a level to match Misaki’s abilities). A central point that Kamoshida addressed in the early parts of his story and which was intensified in the anime adaptation is the power of Talent and what it does to those who were not blessed with it from birth. For Mashiro and Misaki, success and praise comes easily.
In a great many Japanese works, the essential unfairness of some people being, to use a baseball metaphor, born on third base while others have to start from the batter’s box, is often addressed by lauding hard work. Countless numbers of fictional works, anime and manga and such, stress the importance of hard work. Which is what makes some of what Pet Girl does a touch refreshing: we see that hard work does not even the playing field and it does not bring the kind of success which seems to be easily handed to the Talented. Sorata and Nanami are shown striving with all their might, but throughout the course of the series we are shown that life is not very fair. I am not going to get into the details, but the differing success of Talent vs. Effort is clearly shown. This leads to another central theme: Talent and Jealousy. Because it would be unnatural to be around talented and successful people and not feel any kind of envy at their easy successes. Sorata, Nanami, and Jin are all forced to come to terms with their inadequacies vis-à-vis their more talented partners/friends.
This is probably the strongest part of the work, as it apparently drew upon Ms. Okada’s own feelings from her early days attempting to rise in the anime writing world, a very competitive field. The other highlight of the show is probably the arc which closes out the first cour on something of a high note, as the residents of Sakura Hall work together to make an audience-interactive game as their school festival project, “Galaxy Cat Nyapollon.” This comes out of the dream that Sorata starts nursing of becoming a game creator, a dream inspired by his admiration—and envy—of Mashiro’s talent. Here, the friendship of the residents of Sakura Hall plays a big part and it works because the show does a decent job of beginning to slowly flesh out the characters from the rather thin stereotypes they began as.
It’s also fortunate that while this show is clearly based upon a fairly generic romantic comedy, the elements have been handled with a little more depth and deftness. The initial premise of Sorata seeing Mashiro naked all the time is quickly pushed aside and we are presented instead with rather complicated relationships. While the love triangle formed by Mashiro-Sorata-Nanami is pretty standard fare and nothing to write home about in execution, at least Nanami is presented as a complex and weighty rival, not a hand-puppet who appears just to prevent “the official couple” from finding “true love,” as we get far too often in otaku works. While Sorata is in awe of Mashiro’s talent and is urged on by that admiration to try his hardest in following his own dream, he is also resentful at how easily Mashiro achieves success, regardless of whether she works hard (she does put a lot of effort into her art) or not. In contrast, Sorata loves the way Nanami strives with all her being and fervently wants her to succeed in order to prove that hard work pays off. In many ways, it’s clear that Sorata’s bond with Mashiro is actually the more shallow and superficial one, even though it’s clear beyond all doubt that the two will form the “official” couple by the end of the entire story (as the light novel series continues events beyond the anime). As I’ve seen others point out in the past, however, Sorata and Nanami may be “too alike” for their relationship to have worked out in the long run, though the anime leaves the point vague.
The other major relationship (we can leave aside the Ryunosuke-Rita pairing, as that is rather thin and cliched on many levels), that between Misaki and Jin, reveals the same dynamic of love-envy that strains Mashiro and Sorata. Jin engages in multiple shallow relationships, including one in the past with Misaki’s older sister Fuuka, because he feels inferior to Misaki, while Misaki is overflowing with love for Jin but runs herself around in mental circles because she is unsure if Jin truly has the same deep feelings that she has towards him. Their constant friction and failure to connect can be a bit frustrating to watch at times, but then I think frustration, on many levels, is one of the subtle themes of the show as well. Sorata and Nanami are frustrated that they cannot succeed despite all of the effort they have put into pursuing their goals. Jin is frustrated that he cannot meet Misaki’s level of creativity. Misaki is frustrated that she cannot connect with Jin. And even Mashiro is frustrated because while her old life in England was extremely sheltered, she has begun to be exposed to the world at large and is starting to feel emotions which she had never felt before, such as love.
What keeps this show from being a classic for the ages is that it has a penchant for turning to heated melodrama at times in order to hit home its central themes. While most anime that isn’t comedy tends to be melodrama—and there’s nothing really wrong with that—in this case there were points where the melodrama felt a touch overdone (think of Nanami’s late-in-show breakdown or the graduation scene, which is both wonderful and entirely beyond the bounds of belief). It’s fortunate that we have the comic material to balance out that inclination to reaching for exaggerated emotional extremes at times, which is a bit unfortunate since there is a good amount of genuine feeling imbued in this series, especially in terms of those larger themes of Talent, Jealousy, and dealing with setbacks in an unfair world.
The animation is quite competent with relatively fluid motion when required and attractive character designs based upon Keeji Mizoguchi’s originals. The color palette makes use of unusual hues and pastel shades at times, perhaps meant to match the way Mashiro sees and represents light on canvas in her oil paintings. In terms of music, of the four theme songs it is the two by then-16-year-old Konomi Suzuki which really stand out: the first ending “Days of Dash” and the second opening “Yume no Tsuzuki” (“Continuation of a Dream”). The former has a powerful energy to it, matched by the very creative animation which shows the characters running up the hill towards school, but in the fictional world where “Nyapollon” takes place. The latter, even though it is set to a fast tempo, has a plaintive and wistful quality to it, a lament of sorts, which is intensified by the animation that focuses on the desires (not always achieved) of the characters. The score makes a lot of use of piano arrangement versions of the opening and ending themes, along with a few leitmotifs for the main characters.
Looking back at it, this is probably one of the better shows that came out in 2012 and is still worth seeing now, flaws and all. If you liked it and felt the desire to pick up the show for future viewing (streaming licenses do not last forever), this is probably your best way to get it all at once.
In Summary:
When you first read a summary of the premise to The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, there’s a good chance you’ll dismiss it out of hand. That is not an unreasonable reaction to have—at first. Because if you’re willing to work your way past that awful initial impression, there is a story here that features characters who can manage more than one dimension and situations that have some genuine feeling to them. Yes, there is also some overwrought drama and exaggeration, but on balance the good parts and good characterization outweigh the flaws enough to make this a very good show. If you’ve ever felt that hard work and effort are not quite enough to overcome the advantages that in-born talent confer, you might feel a special resonance with the trials and travails of some of the characters. There is frustration. There are tears. But…there are also some genuine feelings and awareness of what makes life hard and why we keep struggling despite everything that pushes us down. Here is where Pet Girl truly sets itself apart from many others.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, English subtitles, Japanese Promos, CD & TV Spots, Extended Previews, Japanese Premier Event, Clean Opening Animations, Clean Closing Animations, Trailers.
Content Grade: A-
Audio Grade: A-
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: A-
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: April 14th, 2015
MSRP: $89.98
Running Time: 600 minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL-32S5100 32-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Sony Bravia DAV-HDX589W 5.1-Channel Theater System connected via digital optical cable.
G.B. Smith
Greg Smith has been writing anime reviews and a review column on anime dubbed into English for several years, first at AnimeOnDVD and now for The Fandom Post. His occasional column on English anime dubs, Press Audio, appears whenever he comes across a dub worthy of a closer look. He is also the deputy editor for our seasonal and year end retrospectives.