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Jan 11 2013

Categories: episodic review, sasami-san@ganbaranai
Tagged: sasami-san@ganbaranai

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“I won’t let you have your way today!”

Name: sasami-san@ganbaranai
Studio: Shaft
Director: Duh
First Impression: Arakawa Under the Bridge meets Denpa Onna
Ceiling: Chu2 meets Shakugan no Shana

Akiyuki Shinbo is to Shaft what Steve Jobs is to Apple. It’s hard to think of Shaft without thinking of the wholesame Shaft being Shaft moments that Shinbo introduced, just like how it’s hard to think of most Apple products without Jobs. And his touch is definitely here in sasami-san@ganbaranai (Sasami-san@CannotFestItUp), especially in the watercolor-ish look of Sasami’s room and the alternate world. And, of course, an attention to detail that only Shaft can deliver.

I was quite confused throughout the show. I had quite a few questions running through my head:

• Why is the brother pulling a Wilson?
• Why is the brother doing the Hare Hare Yukai dance?
• Are the three real sisters? From the same parents? Really?
• Was that milk chocolate or dark chocolate?
• If Sasami cannot leave her room, how did those camera get there?
• Should I buy a ROTH IRA or traditional IRA?
• Magical girl show? Harem anime? Hikikomori documentary? Fanservice festival?

If Tamako Market is peppered by rabbits, then this show is peppered with gadget pr0n. I swear I have that same mouse. And Sasami’s monitors have the familiar shape of Dell Ultrasharps circa 2010.

Chiwa Saito voicing the unholy lovechild of Shana and Professor?! I’m in. Tsurugi is basically a shortie with red hair, lab coat, and a katana. I mean, how can she not be?! I like how Shaft spent a good portion of their animation budget on the battle sequences, but I didn’t like the cheesy 80s guitar riff BGM. Wait a second, I enjoyed that too. My bad. Made me feel like I’m watching Police Academy 4, Citizens on Patrol, again.

(Though I’m not sure why there needs to be chocolate monsters inhabiting a chocolate world. Is this like Lemongrab monsters living in a Lemonworld? Also, this world seems to have no other people in it besides the cast. This is fully a Shaft thing now.)

The empty world thing doesn’t work too well. The brother is obviously in Costco, and I have never seen an empty Costco before. There should be carts pushed by elderly people trying to run him over, little kids running up and down the halls with hot dogs hanging out their mouths and mustard stains on their clothes, fundraising people waiting in line to buy boxes of candy that they will resale at 3X the price, college students stocking up on cashews and ramen, idiots like me who try to get a sample of that teriyaki chicken, and housewives with shopping carts filled to the brim and blocking any possible escape route. That is Costco. There isn’t a more fucking dangerous place than Costco. Except the Costco parking lot.

(The only good part of going to Costco is munching on a victory churro afterwards.)

Breast missiles make me happy. There hasn’t been good breast missiles in anime since Mahoromatic…. and Kagami reminds me a lot of Chise from Saikano. Must be the flamethrower hand or the wings or the breast missiles.

Tama is nine years old? Really? REALLY!? Anime… oh anime.

So Sasami is tsundere towards her brother, and this emotion somehow manifests itself a la Haruhi Suzumiya on the real world. And then the three Yagami sisters must fix the disturbance in the force caused by Sasami. Isn’t this basically Haruhi with Haruhi being in on the game instead of being oblivious to it? Or maybe better example: Kyon is oblivious but Haruhi knows whats up.

When they want to do it, they are one of the best studios at animating stuff. Fluid character animations, great backgrounds, and interesting camera angles. They are also harnessing Shaft being Shaft for better effect with the normal world being normal while Sasami’s world being Sasami, like a lighter version of how witches were handled in Madoka. So far this season, only Tamako Market tops this show in animation.

(I should quality all of this with, “They are on schedule,” as the ED is clearly not done. It took them, what, six episodes before Bakemonogatari got its animated ending sequence?)

When Sasami had all her Amazon results turn to chocolates, I thought it was a commentary about how Amazon tracks your searches and purchases. I recently bought a new camera from Amazon, and now all my suggested products are either tripods or memory cards. They are scary good.

(Why are all hikikomori, even female ones, presented as fanatics of anime and manga and eroges? Surely there must be other varieties of hikikomori. There are people who do not leave their house on weekends in the fall because of football, for example. And there are people who just have anxiety issues on going outside. Not everyone is a shut-in because they want to watch Senran Kagura.)

Wait, what? Why are only some scenes censored? What’s the point of not censoring all of it? Also, it seems like Shaft isn’t even trying to disguise the censoring (like what they did in Vampire Bund). It’s almost like they forgot to censor the scenes until an hour to airtime, so they just scrambled… quick! We need to block out her ass!

Seiyuu for Hidamari‘s Yuno voices Sasami. Appropriate, I think, as I always suspect Yuno would eventually snap and toss a knife at Miyamiya.

Suggested Amazon purchase for this episode: chocolate fondue fountain. The end of this episode is basically a huge earth fondue, so why not have some chocolate fondue dessert to pass the cold winter evenings? This one has a 4+ star rating, and it is on sale. What are you waiting for?