Alice used adorable Engrish! It’s super effective!
Summary
The story begins with Oomiya Shinobu, a 15-year-old, seemingly pure Japanese girl who actually did a homestay in Great Britain. Even after coming back to Japan, she still misses her time overseas. One day, an airmail letter arrives from Alice, the girl in Shinobu’s host family in Great Britain. The letter reads: Shinobu, I’m coming to Japan! The Japanese/British girls’ mixed comedy follows the lives of Shinobu, Alice, and other girls from both Japan and Great Britain.
Impression
AM I KAWAII? UGUU~!
Yes. Yes you are.
Oh god my heart…right in the kokoro. It’s too adorable, this must be illegal on so many levels == Basically, this is yet another show about cute girls doing cute things, but the focus is slanted towards slice of life as opposed to comedy – which is what the other three are gunning for. Shinobu’s homestay at Alice’s house was a striking reminder of Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, a wonderful, underrated show which also happens to feature another blonde girl named Alice. Everything was so sweet, from the idyllic British countryside to Shinobu’s amazement at anything Western. And the language barrier! Damn, I wouldn’t mind Alice speaking Engrish to me all day…and in comparison to the usual standard of Engrish we see in anime, it was frightfully good too. I don’t know whether I was more surprised at their good Engrish or the fact that Alice’s mother was fluent in Japanese – the last thing you’d expect a British lady living in the countryside to know. Even though the language barrier never lifted by the end of Shinobu’s visit (hello + konnichiwa = instant heart attack) she somehow managed to bond with Alice, who started off meek and shy. Actually, shy Alice is adorable too ^^
Similar to KyoAni and the K-ON! movie, it seems like Studio Gokumi have done their research – they were really accurate with their depiction of London (red buses, anyone?). They even had the font for the signs at Heathrow down correctly. As I live in the city I can’t really comment on what they’ve done with the countryside, but it looks legit to me 😀
It took me a minute or two to realize that Shinobu had grown up quite a bit during that time-skip xD Apparently she’s 15, though to be honest she doesn’t look much older than 10 – must the loli effect, I suppose. And Alice has transferred in! Similarly, she doesn’t look like she’s grown much…though her Japanese somehow did improve over the years. I’m guessing this’ll become a great slice of life from now on – to be honest, I never imagined I’d be so receptive towards something this adorable. As for blogging…it’s a pure slice of life, and I can see problems with that in the long-term. But you know, I think I owe it to myself to try, at least.
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: High
EDIT: So this turns up on Saturdays now, apparently. If that’s going to be the norm, then I’m unfortunately unable to cover it – I’ve got plans to do Kimi no Iru Machi too, so it’s pretty infeasible to blog 4 shows that all turn up on the same day. Rest assured I’ll be watching this…it’s too cute to drop xD