It’s graduation season, so the Chimame team wonder about the future. And take some time to learn about “grown up” things.
What They Say:
Bunnisode 4: “Cocoa-senpai’s Elegant Tea Party Tutorial”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This time, we have a rare gathering of the whole larger gang as they all go out for a tea party to celebrate moving up a grade. No one is graduating just yet, but the younger girls’ minds are on the future. As there wasn’t a table large enough for them all, the younger set are seated apart and gaze at the “refined” “grown ups” near them (the quotes are necessary when you recall what Cocoa, Chiya, Sharo, and Rize are really like).
Of course, the more that Team Chimame stare at the older girls and try to emulate them, the more Cocoa catches the vibe and attempts to act in a refined and mature way (though Cocoa and Chiya’s idea of a mature conversation is to start spouting random feelings about “the theory of relativity and the special theory of relativity”—as if Einstein’s hypotheses about the nature of physical reality are what most normal adults talk about while drinking tea and eating cakes…or hot dogs in this case). Eventually Rize sets them right about the ins and outs of behavior at a tea party (with pretty down to earth advice).
But the theme of older and younger sisters and more mature behavior recurs in the second half as Cocoa gets a letter from her own real older sister which…seems to break her brain. Cocoa wants to seem more responsible in front of her older sister and so she strains herself doing so. The other girls eventually decide to try to help her…with predictably strange results. It doesn’t seem to be the case that Cocoa’s elder sister is very strict or overbearing, just that Cocoa is very nervous about wanting to appear to have grown a bit during her time away.
This is basically one, long setup episode to herald the arrival (teased at the end) of the senior Ms. Hoto. It mixes the usual cocktail of oddball humor (theoretical physics? Really?), cuteness and cuddly fuzziness that is what this series is all about. It is interesting to see the girls think about the future, as otherwise works such as this one generally just lounge around in an episodic format without too much forward movement or change. It’s not that the show is moving towards developing any kind of ongoing plot (it doesn’t need one), but this season has been interesting in how it’s taking note of how the characters are developing a bit. Rize’s gaining of friends was noticed by her father; Chino’s breaking out of her shell, under the strange but beneficial influence of Cocoa, has been discussed by her friends and her father and grandfather. This time around, it’s Cocoa who is noted by the others as having matured and progressed a bit, as her latte art has improved among other small things. Perhaps her sister’s visit will mark some kind of major advance for Cocoa.
All of this while the show remains filled with funny double-takes, cuteness, and sweetly weird comedy.
In Summary:
The girls all go out for tea in order to celebrate the end of the school year and moving up to another grade. It’s a chance for the younger set (Chino, Maya and Megu) to see the older girls displaying (or not) their greater maturity. Then, Cocoa learns that her older sister is coming for a visit, which sends her into a bit of a mental panic as she desperately wants to be seen as having matured a bit. The other girls help her train her “older sister” abilities with predictably humorous results. This is a fluffy cotton candy of an anime, but I really like the taste.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite
