Working!!

Uninspiring and rather dull. Working!! (please note the two exclamation marks) is a slice of life, comedy show about people who work at a family restaurant, you know, one of those restaurants that serve mediocre food. It is only befitting that this show is as bad as the food presumably served at the mediocre restaurant. With no plot whatsoever this anime is as episodic as it can possibly be, yet it's not. It's not episodic because in an episodic anime there would be a plot outline for each episode, or for the episodes included in an arc. In Working!! there exist no plot whatsoever. I honestly believedthat the male phobia thing that one of the female protagonists suffer from was a gimmick, a passing feature used for some comic relief in an otherwise rather un-comical show. I was mistaken. It's the main focal point of many of the events that take place in many of the episodes in this anime and it's just..., uninspiring. A few points of interest were to be found though, the supporting character Yamada is the most entertaining character in the show and there is no competition. Most characters were dull and the producers really tried to make them more interesting with some eccentric appealing attributes, it didn't work though. I understand that this anime was supposed to be a bit parodical, a bit sarcastic, a bit funny, but the problem is; it's not. Somewhere along the way of production they got a serious case of carebear flu and decided to take the production seriously. Halfassed, fake and poor screenplay for the most part with no plot summarizes this stellar production from A-1 Pictures Inc. Haters gonna hate.

Working!, a popular anime adapted from a 4koma which is riding on the "moe" wave was one of the better shows of the Spring 2010 season. We start off the story with a young man named Souta Takanashi or more commonly known as Shinra or Lelouch. This young man is looking for a job to support his dysfunctional family filled with eccentric women. He is forced to help put food on the table for his underprivileged family and begins working a restaurant called the Wagnaria (Denny's) and meets a large array of hilarious characters. Takanashi needs to support his family because of the troubles at home.His mother works long hours and his father is dead yet due to his mother being an office lady she doesn't make enough to feed the family. Takanashi must take care of his 4 eccentric sisters by working at the restaurant. His oldest sister, Kazue, despite being a lawyer and in her 30's lives at home after going through a divorce and losing custody of her kids because she got home late and beat them. It's a miracle that she still can practice law and beat her kids but that's Japan's problem. Takanashi also needs to support his depressed siste, Izumi, who's liable to kill herself at any given moment and is too depressed to walk. Despite being nearly 30 she still lives at home and complains about the colorful world and keeps to her dark room. (If I could pick a girl from the show to be my wife, I'd take her..she'd fit my dark and brooding vampiric lifestyle perfectly). On top of that he has to take care of his drunken sister, Kozue, who despite somehow holding down a job spends all of her money on liquor and abortions for all the times she has unprotected sex with various men. To top it all off Takanashi's youngest sister Nazuna is manipulative and a dominatrix despite being in elementary school. As you can see Takanashi's family circumstances are very dark and upsetting which is the undertone for this series. I personally found the darkness and depth of this show to be excellent since I am a dark person myself and I like to sit in a dark corner at Starbucks and drink black coffee. While at work Takanashi's life is just as hard. He has to deal with a group of mentally unstable and eccentric people that are most likely on drugs (it's just like Denny's here in the US, the one by me was shut down because they were cooking meth in the basement). Takanashi is repeatedly beaten and abused by Mahiru Inami, a self proclaimed "androphobe" but in reality is just tweaking from her lack of meth at work. He also has to deal with the two strongest men in Ikebukuro, Satou and Souma who happen to the cooks. They do nothing but troll him and make fun of him and offer little consideration for Takanashi's home issues. He also has to work with a mentally challenged yet well endowed short girl named Poplar who can't do anything right yet somehow still has a job and a Zange clone who's also mentally challenged named Yamada. To top it off there's the two lesbian crew leaders named Kyouko and Yachiyo who service each other throughout the day. As you can see Takanashi's working life is not much better than his home life and the eccentric and most likely drugged up people he works with don't help his situation. The character depth and story of this show is very good and it gives off a very dark and deep theme. I like that in a show and I like to watch Takanashi suffer in his daily struggles that are shown in the show and to watch my 2d wife (waifu) Izumi. I give the story and characters an 8/10 because they were dark and depressing. However, there was too much fun in the series and it could have been better if there was more dramatic moments and if there were some tragedies. The sound and art was good so I give them a 9/10..they could have been drawn in a much darker setting but every Denny's I've been to is very bright to show off the cockroaches anyways. Overall I rate this show an 8/10..I really enjoyed the characters and their back stories and I really liked how the show related to a dark and foreboding creature like myself. I would definitely watch this on my windows powered laptop at Starbucks and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a dark and depressing show mixed with some comedy for extra enjoyment. I feel this show is the highlight of the spring season and I like the direction Japan is going with these depressing, vampire orientated shows as of late. However, this show was not without flaws..there could have been some gore added to it like with Satou and Souma in the kitchen having accidents and Poplar accidentally impaling herself on a broken glass shard. A little blood in a dark show like this goes a long way and I feel that it needed some sanguine goodness to be a 10/10.

Looking at what I should expect for the Spring 2010 anime season through a calendar released by a source I don't know, one particular show had caught my interest. The little plot summary read, "The story is set in a family restaurant named "Wagnaria", in the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido. Sota works part-time there among the restaurant's high-spirited and strange staff." Reading that and looking at the picture of that anime had made me want to watch it. After watching that first episode, I knew that I'd enjoy Working!! Story: After reading that little plot synopsis, you would think thatthere's an interesting story behind Working!! Unfortunately, there isn't, but that's what made Working!! enjoyable since it IS a Slice of Life anime. The story kicks off with our adorable busty loli, Poplar Taneshima, greeting some customers on a normal work day. Unfortunately, the restaurant is a bit short-staffed, so it's up to Poplar to gather some new recruits since the manager, Kyouko Shirafuji, is as lazy as a sloth. After asking many people to see if they would like a part-time job, but only to get that offer rejected, she suddenly bumps into our main protagonist, Souta Takanashi. Though he thinks Poplar is a small child and is lost, Poplar retorts saying she's 17 years old and is looking for part-timers for her job. Knowing that he'll work with Poplar since he believes she's cute, Takanashi gladly accepts. From there on, Takanashi's life has became a bit more crazier now that he's working at Wagnaria. Art: The art is nothing too extraordinary. Colorful and sharp, the art is nice to look at. Looking back, it feels like art you would expect from a Comedy and Slice of Life anime. Sound: About everyone who's watched Working!! will always know the first few lines of the opening by heart. It is honestly one of the most catchy and probably addicting openings I've heard. The ending sounds great as well. The voice actors do a terrific job in playing their character. The male VAs, to me, felt it was like an ensemble cast. With Jun Fukuyama (DRRR!!, Geass), Daisuke Ono (DRRR!!, TMoHS), and Hiroshi Kamiya (DRRR!!, SZS) as Takanashi, Satou, and Souma respectively. Characters: The characters, to me, were the main enjoyment of the show. Like what the little plot synopsis said in the beginning of this review, "...high-spirited and strange staff.", strange is the key word. First off, Takanashi may look like a normal person, but the truth is that he loves small and cute things, ranging from little children, animals, and toys, which is pretty much why he started working due to Poplar being small and cute. When he revealed this information to Satou and Kyouko, they thought that he was a lolicon which Takanashi strictly objects. Next we have the highly eccentric and adorable Poplar. Again, you would think she's normal, but it's revealed that she has a very strong desire of becoming taller. Because of her small height, she is easily mistaken as an elementary or middle school student, thus making her very sensitive whenever her height is discussed. One of the strangest characters in Working!! is the timid Mahiru Inami. Inami is introduced as an androphobic (fear of male) girl. Whenever a male approaches her, she punches them without hesitation due to a belief that every man is ready to attack her. Though she has this condition, she is still able to work at Wagnaria, but only serving the female customers. Kyouko and Yachiyo Todoroki are what I consider the yuri couple of the show. Kyouko, as we know, is the lazy manager of Wagnaria, who does nothing but eat, usually the parfaits that Yachiyo brings her. Yachiyo herself is strange overall. She is always, and I mean ALWAYS carries with her a katana, which many are intimidated by that. She also has a deep connection with Kyouko. If Kyouko is away or is taken away from her, she gets sad and angry to a point where she would kill the person who took her away from her with her katana. Next up are the chefs of Wagnaria, Jun Satou and Hiroomi Souma. Satou is probably the more sane one out of the main cast. He's known as an intimidating, yet helpful individual. However, he is in love with Yachiyo, but does not show it. He also enjoys teasing Poplar, usually concerning her height or messing with her hair. Though he may look always cheerful, deep down, Souma is the most deceiving of the cast. He enjoys teasing some of the staff, with the exception of Inami, and somehow always gets his hand on some sort of information that is secretive to some of the staff. Ironically, both characters remind me of Shizuo and Izaya of Durarara!! Both are voiced by the same actor and both almost have identical personalities, with Satou and Shizuo being intimidating and having blonde hair, and Souma and Izaya being very deceitful and are always able to get their hand on some information. Lastly, we have Aoi Yamada. Though she's introduced late in the series, she appears regularly throughout the show. She's usually unhelpful and clumsy when it comes to work, but very curious as to what happens in and out her workstation. She also has a strong desire of having the ideal family. Enjoyment: From beginning to end, I enjoyed Working!! Whether it be Takanashi "trying" to cure Inami's androphobia, the strange diversity that occurs in the Takanashi household, or the usual, but sometimes, strange happenings inside Wagnaria, there's always something to enjoy when watching this anime. Scores- Story- 7 Art- 8 Sound- 8 Character- 10 Enjoyment- 10 Overall: I really enjoyed watching Working!! It was an unexpected hit for me for the spring season. The opening just sucks me in and prepares me for something that I'll enjoy from beginning to end. With just only 13 episodes, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't longer since I found it to have a lot of potential, but nonetheless, those 13 episodes were great to watch. If you're considering watching Working!!, be in mind that it IS slice of life, meaning that it has almost no plot, and if you're one to watch for plot or just don't like slice of life, then Working!! isn't for you. For those that enjoy slice of life, Working!! is definitely worth looking into.

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