Some Quick First Impressions – Sunoharasou no Kanrinin-san, Harukana Receive and Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro

Sunoharasou no Kanrinin-san

Short Synopsis: A young boy travels to a new city and moves in with four women, one of whom has some pretty big tits and shit.

Wooper’s “review”:

I watched less than a minute of this before turning it off. The character animation looked like the popsicle stick episode of Kare Kano, and the story turned left onto Wish Fulfillment Avenue within seconds of its opening scene. This is a show for people who need to see their very specific fetishes reflected on screen, and don’t care how cheaply they’re portrayed. If that’s you, then please watch this trash so I don’t have to.

Potential: Check out Banana Fish instead

Mario’s review:

Boy, even with me, who is fond of slice of life shows, couldn’t find anything remotely interesting regarding this. This first episode had only two things going on: that this kid is a boy despite looks (and behaves) like a girl, and his boarding house caretaker has a massive bouncing boob. There’s no story to begin with, but the fan-service fares so much worse, uncomfortably so. You see, not only she waked the kid up by putting her chest to his face, she determines to wash his back naked and lets him touch her chest. Aahh! The show looks bland and other characters have some sort of fetish, not in the good way. This is just a huge waste of time.

Potential: 0%

 

Harukana Receive

Short Synopsis: A high school girl moves in with her cousin for summer vacation and learns to play beach volleyball.

Wooper’s review:

The best word to describe this show is “mediocre.” It’s a disappointment in most departments, but not a failure. Some examples: the character movements are stiff, but consistent throughout the episode. The girls’ personalities are simple, but effective for a sports series. The music doesn’t make any waves on a compositional level, but it has a coastal flavor that fits the beach volleyball theme. Harukana Receive epitomizes the bar that all anime should reach before setting their sights any higher. It even features a few quiet slice-of-life moments near the end that make it a bit more than just a sports series. In a season full of zero-effort productions and soulless cash grabs, this show is just good enough to merit a second look (but only if you’re a fan of the genre).

Potential: 25%

Mario’s review:

We have the second cute girl playing sports anime this season, and this one wasn’t half bad, all things considered. It isn’t anything stellar by any stretch but it does its job on selling the appeal of the sports and introduce characters we can get behind. Although aware of beach volleyball as far back as I can remember, I don’t really know much about it. So on that front this show does make me feel a bit interested and I particular like it when they frame the sport as partnership instead of team or single sports. Second, the two main girls are the exact opposite so their differences bounce off each other well, and having complex about height is something I feel as reasonable. The main story, however, is formulaic as we can all figure out that what this story is gonna head. The new girl will learn the sport, drag her partner to some sort of tournament and they will play against these girls in the final. I would love to be proven wrong on this.

Potential: 20%

 

Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro

Short Synopsis: A girl takes an enthusiastic shortcut to school.

Aidan’s review:

Now this is just fun. I admit that as far as humor goes I didn’t really laugh but more found the events on screen amusing but it was still quite the enjoyable watch. The main character is hella relatable at least for a gaming side to me and even I had the awkward moment where you thought someone was waving at you but turned out they were signaling to someone behind you. Either way I love the contrast of Chio’s social insecurity contrasted with her ridiculous means of going to school and dealing with situations. This is a girl that wants a normal life and yet goes to absurd levels to preserve it. It’s certainly fun, though not sure why we needed those boob bouncing animation and sound effect. Might be because the author of the manga is a genuine hentai artist which isn’t quite as rare as you might think. Anyway this looks to be a fun weekly dose of madness but it’s going to have a hell of a competitor once Grand Blue starts airing.

Potential: 70%

Mario’s review:

Chio-chan is a show with one simple premise: Chio’s misadventures on her way to school, which arguably is more suitable for shorts than a full-fledge 1 cour series. But if this premiere is any indication, I think we’re up for a good fun here. This episode walks a fine line between bizzare and relatability, boasted by the absurd situations she faces herself in, Chio’s colorful, silly yet rich inner voice and the unpredictability both in how the story progresses and in Chio’s mindset herself. These two skits paint two different aspect of her (her game nerdy side and her social anxiety side), and the tone and style in general remind me a bit of Nichijou, which is one of my favorite comedy anime. The animation is fairly basic, and not all the jokes land, most notably the bouncing boobs that just gets pale fast. Still, as someone who was dreaming the same goddamn things (what if something extraordinary happened on my way to school) in my junior years, this pretty much lands within my territory here.

Potential: 70%