Iori Kitahara is a college student living along in a coastal city who meets scuba-diving and fun-loving upperclassmen. – ANN
Streaming: Amazon Prime
Episodes: 12
Source: Manga
Episode 1 Summary: Iori is about to start college, so moves in with his uncle and cousins so he can be closer to campus. He’s got an image in his mind of how he wants his school life to be, and that image includes none of the juvenile antics he experienced while attending an all-boys high school. Unfortunately he seems destined to repeat the past, since the school diving club members use his uncle’s diving store as a hangout – they spend their evenings drinking alcohol and taking off their clothes, and now they’re eyeing Iori as a potential new member. As much as Iori tries to resist, the guys trick him into drinking and then blacking out. He wakes up the next morning on campus in his underwear, leading to several uncomfortable situations throughout the day. Vowing never to repeat this debauchery, but in need of clothes to wear, he ends up in cahoots with his diving upperclassmen again to trick another freshman into joining the club. Their “victim” is Kouhei, an obvious otaku, who they literally grab off the sidewalk. The club welcoming party is – you guessed it – another excuse to get black-out drunk, and Iori and company end up making the same mistakes as last time.
Impressions: I’ve seen plenty of anime over the years, but I can’t recall the last time I watched one that seemed so obviously inspired by what I’d call Western-style “bro” comedy. Other people might also describe it as frat-boy nonsense, and I would tend to agree; it’s the type of comedy that romanticizes binge-drinking, lusting after women, and behaving immaturely in ways that are over-the-top and probably not entirely realistic. It’s not to say that these antics never happen in real life since they surely do, but the thing is I don’t think it’s as common an experience as some people would like us all to think, and I honestly don’t want or need to hear about it.
This episode actually started off on better footing than later portions exemplified. The idea of a diving-based anime is an appealing one, especially during the Summer; the very opening scenes are of characters beneath the surface of the ocean, swimming among schools of fish and coral formations. It’s exceedingly pleasant. Soon enough, though, it becomes pretty clear that this is less Amanchu! and more American Pie, and to be honest I probably should have realized right away; there’s a very intrusive warning plastered across the screen in the episode’s opening moments that attempts to get ahead of its later content by warning about the illegality and dangers of underage, forced drinking. Yes, there’s a ton of alcohol flowing throughout this episode, and it serves as the source of the majority of its comical situations. Whether you find this funny will depend on a couple of things, one of which is the role that alcohol plays in your own life. If you’re someone who can relate to the type of uninhibited debauchery on display throughout the episode, and if you’re someone who enjoys letting loose and getting drunk on occasion, I’m guessing you might find a lot of the material here relateable if not also chuckle-worthy. If you’re more like me, though – someone who gave up alcohol quite a while ago and who doesn’t really think it’s a necessary component to every party or meal, the amount of alcohol on display here might be a little overwhelming, intimidating, or otherwise unpleasant.
There’s also the general but important concept of consent, which comes into play as Iori, and then Kouhei, are made to drink against their will. At the welcome party, Iori asks for oolong tea; his upperclassmen offer him some terrifying brown-colored blend of alcohol made to look like tea. They’re then offered water, but what’s in the cup is actually vodka. This gag is repeated again and again ad nauseum, and time after time the characters are “tricked” into getting black-out drunk. Obviously, if this show were more realistic, the characters would likely know if whether the liquid they were drinking were alcohol before chugging half a glass of it or lighting it on fire to verify its makeup, so there’s definitely some plausible deniability on the part of the creators – if someone really didn’t want to drink alcohol, they’d know not to take whatever their booze-fueled senpai was offering under any circumstance. I also believe, though, that if you literally need to spell out how the material in your TV show isn’t meant to glamorize something and really, it’s “just a comedy” and should be viewed as such, you already know in your heart-of-hearts that there’s something fundamentally problematic with the material you’re choosing to portray.
There are several other little things in this episode that rubbed me the wrong way, though I don’t really have the energy to go into extreme detail about any of them. Consent (or lack thereof) seems to be the name-of-the-game overall; Iori is physically forced to sign up for the diving club, Kouhei is grabbed off the street and forced to come to the welcoming party. Iori is forced to deal with other men constantly exposing themselves in semi-public places when he clearly doesn’t want to see their penises. I’m all about characters learning to extend themselves outside their own comfort zones as this is one way to spark personal growth. What I’m not interested in is seeing characters forced into cringe-worthy, uncomfortable situations and then laughing at them for reacting in completely understandable ways to the discomfort.
I also want to mention that the two young women introduced thus far occupy yet another disagreeable space in this episode. Chisa and Nanaka, both Iori’s cousins, seem to exist in this weird limbo between being seen as accessible (and thus open to Iori’s lusts) and also familial (therefore off-limits). Nanaka also exhibits demonstrably erotic feelings towards Chisa (when Chisa drops off her used wet-suit, Nanaka starts rubbing it on her face and blushing). I’m not really sure what this incestuous spiderweb of feelings is supposed to accomplish other than to add another weird level of debauchery to an already over-the-top series. The net effect is that it brings the entire production from “stupid” to “squicky.” That’s not even taking into account Kouhei’s hunger to obtain a harem of high school girls who worship him (one of his otaku fantasies clearly allowed to go too far).
The longer I thought about it and the more I wrote about this episode, the further its grade continued to drop. I’m sometimes accused of reading too far into some of anime’s more low-brow material and maybe that’s the case, but I also feel like putting my thoughts and feelings into concrete words and reactions gives me the opportunity to articulate why I think some of it is upsetting, especially when I don’t see those reactions being shared across the anime fandom at large. Take what you will from this review; I know there are fans who get a kick out of guys behaving badly, and that’s just how it goes. I unfortunately can’t look past some of its worst moments to appreciate it as nothing more than a big dumb “bro” comedy.
Pros: In spite of everything else, the few scenes which portray the sunny setting or which take place under the water are quite relaxing.
Cons: Binge drinking, gags about underage girls, incestuous lust… take your pick.
Grade: D