“Itadakimasu~”
Summary
Sasami is a hikikomori, who stays at home all day watching her onii-chan interact with others through her computer. On Valentine’s Day, after Sasami gives Kamiomi some chocolate, he unwittingly gives it to Yagami Tama, not knowing the meaning behind Valentine’s. After Tsurugi informs him about the tradition, Kamiomi finds himself wishing for chocolate from Sasami, and inadvertently turns the entire world into chocolate using his power as a god. The Yagami sisters, noticing the abnormality decide to battle the chocolate and return order to the world!
Impression
Without a doubt, in terms of pure wackiness I can attribute Sasami-san@Ganbaranai as the most unique anime of the season – because it turned out to be much more than anyone expected from glimpses of the synopsis and the PV. The story follows Sasami, a cute hikikomori who stays at home all day, trying to…try her best to do things, and ends up watching her onii-chan Kamiomi all day through her Onii-chan Surveillance Tool as he interacts with the three very odd Yagami sisters – Tsurugi, a high school teacher, Kagami, Sasami’s classmate and Tama, an elementary school girl. To be honest, I’d be happy if that’s all the show was, and it was a simple, if not slightly odd romcom, but the show gets truly entertaining when you find out that the main cast are all gods of some sort, and the entire world turns into chocolate! SHAFT or Shinbou Akiyuki have no relation to creating the plot of the show, but it’s very apt that SHAFT are the studio producing this nonetheless. But more on that later – let’s talk about Sasami-san herself first.
I love Sasami’s personality, and as a hikikomori, you can get lots of laughs from her unwillingness to go to school, as well as her various attempts to leave the house after putting on her school uniform to confront Kamiomi or one of the Yagami sisters, only to be plagued by what I’m sure is her own version of the NHK, or whatever troubles hikkies nowadays xD She’s also everything you would probably want in an imouto, and is cute to very dangerous levels – and SHAFT know this very well, hence why there were so many obligatory fanservice scenes stuck everywhere, from bath time with Sasami to covering Sasami in the chocolate that used to be her clothes. They also have this strange fascination with showing frames of her ass – they censor it in the bath, yet it’s okay if it’s just a chocolate outlining of her? xDD Anyway, she’s quite tsundere with her actions towards her onii-chan, with her not explicitly mentioning what the choco she gave him was for, yet being very peeved when Kamiomi casually gave it to Tama for lunch. Props to Asumi Kana and her hnnggg voice acting too – that “Onii-chan no baka…I won’t forgive you!” made my day ^^
Kamiomi himself is like SHAFT personified – weird in every way. Putting aside his siscon tendencies, he has this habit of hiding his face behind his suitcase or with a bucket, which makes him seem more like a pervert than he already sounds. I did not miss that Hare Hare Yukai dance at all (having spent many happy days in Haruhi land in the past) so I was happy to see various references to other shows, KoiChoco having a cameo mention when the world turned into chocolate. Which was definitely Kamiomi’s fault, by the way – with his obsessive desire to receive chocolate from Sasami, his supernatural power kicked in and made the entire world chocolate, which may seem appealing at first, but isn’t too fun in the long run. But really Kamiomi? You knew nothing at all about Valentine’s Day beforehand?
You can actually argue that the Yagami sisters are even weirder than Kamiomi is – and that’s based just on their appearances. Tsurugi, the oldest, is in fact 31 years old and loves playing imouto eroge, which would make her a legal loli! Then you get the opposite end of the spectrum, with Yagami Tama, a 9 year old girl who has the body of a grown adult, yet still has a child-like mind. In the middle there’s Kagami, a sleepy girl who is a student at Sasami’s school. And they just happen to have supernatural god powers as well, and end up reversing the damage Kamiomi caused to the world – and what a fight scene that was. The brilliant OST in the latter part of the fight had SHAFT’s name written all over it, and I was very amused to see Kagami’s oppai missiles and Tama happily eating all the chocolate that attacked them. I do wish I’d managed to get some kind of full-length of Tsurugi fighting the choco dragon, but crazy camera angles and flashy animation are all part of the package.
We are highly likely to get the full wordy explanation for this phenomenon next episode, as they leave us in suspense for a week to gawk at what just happened. Somehow, I don’t think Sasami-san’s in the mood to dress up in a maid outfit to give Kamiomi more chocolate, but what I do know is that this is an amazing show that’s definitely one to watch. As I’ve said, a romcom based on these characters as a premise would suit me just fine, but we’ve seen what kind of insane plot just turned up from a theme as common as Valentine’s Day, and to think, this is only the beginning!
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: Guaranteed
