Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Shorts

Hello, friends! While I’ve decided not to tackle sequels this season for various reasons (lack of time being one of them, relative difficulty being another; I’d also rather not get Index or SAO fans after me), I wanted to poke around this season’s short anime.

Shorts are always kind of a mixed bag. While there are some shorts I’ve really enjoyed, their short run-time often feels like a sample rather than a meal. For the purposes of this post, I’ll be watching 2-3 episodes (or more) of each, so that I can ensure I’ll have enough material to work with. Though some anime series are accompanied by more gag-focused shorts, I’ll only be watching original short-form anime for this post.

Himote House

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Summary: Tae is about to experience one of her dreams – living in Tokyo as an adult. In order to make this dream a reality, she’s sharing a living space with three sisters and another former classmate. Tae is outgoing and has no trouble settling into the home, but there’s one minor detail that she didn’t know about ahead of time – in addition to their different personalities and style-sense, all of her new roommates also harbor within them special abilities. One can stop time, another can shoot energy beams, and there’s even a young woman who can duplicate the abilities of other powerful individuals. Tae feels like the odd-one-out… until she discovers a special ability of her own.

Impressions: Himote House is a bit of an odd mixed-bag. The show is one of few that focuses on adult women, as opposed to teenage girls. This in itself is unique and definitely a welcome change from other slice-of-life anime. It’s these types of characters who feel a bit closer-to-home for me. Though I watch plenty of anime with teenage protagonists, my personal day-to-day experience gets further and further away from theirs with each passing year, so it’s nice to have some version of my life feel legitimized as relateable entertainment in this way. In the two episodes that I watched, the characters discussed chore duty (including how to do laundry), gave speed dating a try, and attempted to unscrew a jar lid. Not exactly highly-stimulating entertainment, but definitely at least based in reality.

On the other hand, I don’t think the “super power” angle does the show any favors. In the first couple of episodes, the women’s powers serve as sort of a novelty, as well as an unusual way to aid in their problem-solving endeavors. This feels like a hook without a purpose beyond grabbing the attention of an audience that may not give the show a second look otherwise. It’s a gimmick that feels ill-fitting and kind of awkward, and I believe the series could have stood on its own without it.

The series is also animated using CG that just doesn’t look very good. When we’ve entered a time of motion-capture YouTube virtual idols that look cute and mimic the presentation of typical animation fairly well, it’s jarring to watch character animation that’s clunky, stilted, and about as far from life-like as you can get. The animation in this series is a bit like Kemono Friends, though without that series’ inexplicable charm. There are some moments throughout the episodes, mostly during flashbacks and characters’ internal thoughts, that are hand-drawn in a more traditional way, and to be honest I would have preferred that the series sacrifice some movement to be fully rendered in that style instead of having more animation in the unappealing CG we ended up with.

This series seems to have some funny moments, and assuming one can ignore the goofy CG (I started to look past it a bit by the end of the second episode), it might turn out to be a fun, quick viewing experience.

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Pros: The character interactions are pretty fun and amusing. The series stars young adults, which is uncommon.

Cons: The animation isn’t the best. The “super powers” don’t really add much.

Grade: C+

Jingai-san no Yome

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Summary: Tomari is a typical high school student, but he’s soon selected out of many others to become the wife of a tall (and very fluffy) creature named Kanenogi-san. While the situation is somewhat of a surprise to Tomari, he’s not alone; there are other guys in his class married to a variety of individuals. Tomari quickly adapts to his wifely responsibilities, and through living with Kanenogi-san, learns to appreciate their various qualities.

Impressions: I stopped 4 episodes into the series, because if I hadn’t I think I could have downed the entire thing in one sitting. The show is a bit of a charming mystery, filled with questions that I seriously doubt have any chance of being answered by the end of 12 episodes. Why are students entering into arranged marriages with various creatures? Why are the boys specifically referred to as “wives” rather than “husbands” or “spouses?” What draws these creatures to couple with human beings? Even though this batch of episodes represents about seven minutes of actual material, my mind is swimming with questions and theories. It’s definitely a very unique story.

For all its weirdness, it’s also a very chaste story. The boys seem to serve as caretakers more than wives, helping their diverse spouses navigate the human world and providing them some measure of comfort through grooming and companionship. There’s something very sweet about the whole thing; if this were a more “adult content” story it might not read as such, but as it stands I feel that it puts forth very nurturing ideals. This might be another great example of a series that contradicts toxic masculine ideals, or it might just be a very cute diversion, but either way I feel like I might just drop everything and go finish it.

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Pros: It’s a good combination of sweet and mysterious. There’s a focus on nurturing in the relationships.

Cons: The short run time means that many questions may not be answered. The situation has some odd implications if you’re looking closely.

Grade: B-

Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-San

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Summary: People may have their misconceptions about booksellers, but Honda-san and his coworkers are here to set the record straight. Bookstore employees are hard-working people with a very hectic job – one which caters to people with all sorts of different tastes. Workers have to be experts in their departments, not only to keep track of incoming and outgoing stock, but to provide guidance to customers searching for their perfect volume among the store shelves. It’s a world of stockrooms, sales figures, and stress, but it’s fulfilling work for those who have the constitution for it.

Impressions: Though I’ve been keeping up with this series to some extent via the memes, clips, and screen captures that have continued to pop up throughout the internet over the past several weeks, it was nice to finally watch the first couple of episodes in their entirety. The full product is a definite must-see for anyone who’s had a job serving the public, as well as those anime fans that might see themselves represented in the many oddball types of customers who show up on Honda-san’s doorstep.

Do you ever feel as though there are pieces of media that speak to you directly? Though I’ve never worked in a bookstore specifically, I have worked in retail and I feel like many of Honda-san’s customer interactions ring true (though with much more pleasant resolutions). The story about the hectic days at the bookstore leading into the Japanese holiday week gave me flashbacks to the hustle and bustle of the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, hurrying to stock shelves, ring up customer purchases, and generally keep the store from looking like a tornado has blown through (though that last one was probably futile). It does a good job of capturing the mental and physical strain that comes with a line of work that many people would incorrectly assume is easy.

These couple of episodes do a decent job of representation, which was something that surprised me. While there’s always some room for improvement, the segment about BL fandom had customers of various body types, nationalities, and gender presentations represented in a way that demonstrated some affection for the global nature of the fandom. It was sort of a nice treat after some of the other things I’ve forced myself to sample lately. Of course Honda-san and his coworkers are represented by various people in masks, where even gender is occasionally a half-mystery (and also thankfully pretty inconsequential in this context to begin with). I found this very freeing, because the episodes are then focused more on the characters’ experiences and expertise rather than the way that they look.

The one thing that might not sit well with some folks is the animation, which is Inferno Cop quality – mostly static character drawings with a few reaction shots and such. For a series like this which seems more focused on dialog, I feel like this is fitting, but others might disagree. Overall this is one of the few anime of late that has tickled my funny bone (har har), and I’m excited to finally get to watch the rest of it.

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Pros: Does a good job representing the experience of working in retail. Shows kindness to all different types of manga fans.

Cons: The animation is very static.

Grade: B+