“A Beach Hut!”
What They Say:
After inheriting his late grandmother’s failing café, Hayato sees it as a bother and plans to sell it for a quick buck. Until he discovers five beautiful girls staying there! When they beg him to keep the café open, Hayato reluctantly gives in. Can he manage the seaside shop while learning to live with these unruly women?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The series has done some good work exploring its cast and delivering us a look at how they’re growing together. It’s had its moments of fanservice and accidental elements as well, but it’s been surprising how limited and tame that it’s been at times compared to what it could be. I also like that we don’t have Hayato solving every problem and working through some of his own as well, which led to some fun as we got to see him work alongside Akane so she could deal with her mother. That’s a familiar storyline but it avoided bringing in all of the characters to help out in a big way and allowed for Akane to truly assert herself. She just needed the support of someone like Hayato in order to do it. And those kinds of moments are what the show handles so well. Of course, the saucier moments when they arrive don’t hurt either to balance it a touch.
This episode starts off the fun with a payday and everyone is celebrating, though Hayato grouses a bit about the college life he could have been living. That makes for some fun as Riho teases him that he could be enjoying college life right here and right now in a flirty way. This episode does some nice cleanup with Akane fixing things with her bandmates now that she can stay and it comes after we get Hayato talking about setting up a beach hut for the summer since it could make them some additional money. With all of that being put together, it’s just fun to watch the simple shenanigans of the group together talking about things, how to do the drinks, and Ouka being a lot more teasing than usual once she does the swimsuit top while wearing jeans shorts things. The dynamic between her and Hayato continues to be amusing and full of friction. Of course, once one wears a swimsuit, others must get into it and Riho really takes the cake with it.
This episode plays a bit looser in general with its structure and does a lot of little things around the summer season idea, from trying new desserts to a little photoshoot on the beach in their uniforms. They also come up with some cute summer versions of the uniform, basically the maid outfit just as a swimsuit top with the jeans approach, and it works well in so many ways. That we get so many people in with swimsuits helps as it warms up as well so that it does feel natural and right though most places wouldn’t do this. We do get a little serious material along the way, mostly in how Riho is working hard and doing a bit too much, and that gets Hayato to step in and try to get her to ease up a bit because she’s overheating herself. She’s still struggling with what she said to Akane before and is trying to throw herself into other things. It’s a small bit that plays out but it’s welcome to see it paid attention to and given the room to breathe there.
In Summary:
This series continues to scratch an itch I get for something with fanservice and saucy moments without it going into overdrive. Just the continued fact that these are all college-age folks helps a lot to tamp down on some of the problematic areas for older viewers and the fact that the show spends a lot of time on character and small storytelling pieces for progress helps a lot. It continues to be a charming series and even when it leans into the skin and fanservice side as it does this time around, it’s still tempered in a good way that at least makes some amount of sense and plays with it right.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
