- Genre : Comedy, Slice of Life
- Studio: Pierrot
How ill the last of the Winter Games shows fare in comparison? Will my esteemed competition agree with my views? What in the world am I talking about?
Confession time kids. This was my pick and not my original pick at that. I had picked Darling and the FranXX (which I still plan to watch) but after it became clear that I was going to be sent to Yuru Camp, I switched my vote to this for revenge. It certainly was sweet. Maybe a bit too sweet?
Let’s not beat around the bush, Sanrio Boys is a Cute Boys Doing Cute Things Show. The opening scene is a red herring school play scene, complete with different art style and animation as well as conspicuous 4th wall breaks. The immediate impression is one of silly if somewhat shallow good times. A warm hearted but uncomplicated ode to friendship.
As the episode progresses, we are brought back to the happy school days before the boys formed their friendship. Visually, it is definitely pretty and the most consistent entry but also the least visually challenging. It is quite pretty but not as interesting to look at as Yuru or as ambitious as Grandcrest. It beats both of them on consistency of artwork by a mile. The look of it actually reminded me of Nozaki-kun, which being on of my favorite shows immediately scored points with me.
Also a Slice of life, this one is much more aimed at comedy as the episode was peppered with easy but warm hearted humor. We know that the boys will eventually form some type of strong bonds but the first episode concentrates on establishing Hase’s character through a glimpse of his youth with his late grandmother and his very first encounter with happy go lucky playboy Mizuno and strong and silent Shunsuke .
I was gearing myself to enjoy the cute if someone mindless romp when two unexpected things happened. The extended flashback to Hase’s childhood with his grandmother was treated with an unambiguously dramatic voice without slipping into melodrama. It was a surprisingly touching moment which is difficult to pull off in a first episode. From there the episode started weaving in some mild commentary on gender norms and expectations which proved not only progressive but surprisingly insightful.
I’m not sure if the balance can be sustained. The boys are all quite lovely, the humor is present enough to give you something to latch onto even when nothing is happening, and the apparent messaging give the show a sense of direction that can be lacking in slice of life series. On the other hand, it is threading a thin line and could get pushed over into preachiness or oversweet mush at any moment. I’m cautiously optimistic with this one.
Episode 2 Sadly, the second episode fails to keep up the momentum. It’s still quite cute but it’s starting to get a little cloying. After ending on Hase’s first meeting with Mizuno and Shunsuke, we get another episode devoted to Hase’s difficulting at reconciling his own preferences with societal expectations. The parallels are pretty obvious here but I’m convinced there’s nothing but the best of intentions.
Unfortunately, the episode itself is unfocused. The humor has been pushed to the side and random sight gags have been replaced with unnecessary shirtless boy fanservice and light hoyay. Let it never be said I’m complaining about shirtless fanservice but the designs are so bishi cute already that any extra fanservice seems like overkill and that time would have been better spent elsewhere.
We still no little to nothing at all about anyone other than Hase and the episode one again revisits his relationship with his grandmother. The emotional climax of the episode revolves around a scene where Hase is desperately looking for his stuffed animal (having been thrown out by his mom by mistake) in the rain. It was hilarious. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be though. These are the types of scenes that make me love boy idol shows and low budget z movies so much.
Ultimately, Hase is able to get some sort of happy ending thanks to a deus ex machina appearance by dynamic duo Mizuno and Shunsuke. If this was a different sow I would be highly suspicious of Mizuno. He would make a fantastic cult leader. The last few minutes were just a straight up Sanrio commercial. I guess I should have expected that really and I appreciated the completely unconcealed execution.
I’m really hoping that Hase’s emotional growth will mean a return to the more lighthearted and comical style of the first episode because this was a little too sappy for my taste, or at least a lot more shirtless boy fanservice. What can I say, in the span of writing the review, it grew on me!
Predictions:
Plot: We will find out the Student Council Prez also likes Sanrio charas (he looks like Nozaki-kun)
Character: Hase will remember his grandmother.
That last prediction is a little cheap – maybe Astral Gemini, Leap or TPAB did better, but I doubt it!
You should’ve used Miira no Kaikata or Idolish7 as revenge! Besides, it was announced recently Grancrest will have 24 episodes, so what’ll happen if your other shows have the usual 12 or 13? At least Idolish7 has 17 episodes, so it could’ve gone toe-to-toe with Grancrest more…
Now that you mention it, I can kind of see the resemblance between Nozaki and Minamoto.
I thought of the rain scene as being completely serious (but not to the point of unintentional hilarity), so it just fell flat. After all, you expect one of two outcomes with these sorts of shows: 1) Hase will accept his plushie is gone and buy another at Gift Gate or 2) Hase will find his plushie but get dragged to Gift Gate anyway. (Well, he didn’t get “dragged” but close enough…)
I had suggested idolish but it got turned down. The selection process was tricky
Hi! I’m not a huge fan of Slice of Life anime and I wasn’t so interested in this one, but now I am curious… I think I would give it a try, sooner or later, and see what happens. It seems cute! 🙂
It certainly is cute and I think it’s getting a it better
I’m surprised how much I like this. After Show By Rock, and now this, I’m coming around to thinking that Sanrio does the product placement well. It feels like they pick people to make the anime who like their stuff and then let them run with whatever takes their fancy. I also appreciate the shamelessness about the product placement. It doesn’t get in the way, IMO. Nice show.
Now that I’ve read all three post, I’m predicting that Gancrest will be the most fun for the guessing game, but the worst show of the lot.
To be honest a lot (most) media is some form of advertisement already. At least they aren’t pretending here…
Yup. The first time this I fully realised the advertising nature of anime was in 2011, when the show A Channel put both the manga and the actual CD-cover of the opening song into the opening animation, which would repeat every week. (They also had one insert song – music video style – per episode.) The show was very marketing conscious and not embarrassed about it. I liked that attitude back then, and I still like it here.
With Sanrio Danshi, being able to be open about the advertising nature also allows the creators to be sincere about their story. It’s sort of a win-win situation. Content and advertising needn’t be at odds, especially not if you’re not trying for deep and complex investigations in the first place. My impression is that Sanrio is pretty good at being a symbiosis. (I’ll have to remember that Ringing Bell is Sanrio, too. A show about a cute little lamb from the makers of Hello Kitty? What could go wrong? Well, the lamb’s mum could get eaten by a wolf, and then things could get worse and worse…)
Why do I have a feeling you write children’s books for a living?
I don’t know. I don’t. I’d be afraid of irate parents.
Is there some where we can talk?
You can always use my contact page or you can find me on twitter if you like
this one hurts Irina, sooooooooo bad. xD
I also found it weird that the second episode felt the need to get the shirts off all the guys at some point. It really did feel excessive. Still, this show is cute enough and mostly harmless so I’m going to watch a bit further before I decide one way of the other.
Me too – I remember that Gabriel DropOut had some cringey fanservice in the first episodes that it abandoned altogether pretty quickly. I’m hoping this will be the case here as well
Wow, you are pretty mich on fire today? Three awesome posts in what 2-3 hours or so? That’s got to be a new record or something. See? I rest my case, you are going to win this one, no question about it 😀
I saw the first episode for Darling and the FranXX earlier this morning, and it was pretty decent. Hope you will enjoy that one too.
I’m not going to be adding this one though, not a huge fan of comedies in the first place unfortunately. And after reading your post for it, I guess I’m not going to change my mind anytime soon either 😀
Still: great post, time to take some rest now, you have earned it 😀
Yeah ikr, there are so many Irina posts in my feed!
Haha, there certainly are 😂😂
Don’t get use to it. It’s a sunday only thing
Haha, okay
Go for it when you can Rin-san!
P.S- The white hair-kun looks like Aomine-san…..
He does! But even Tsunier
Yeah yeah, maybe not for you….
Sorry 😢😢 But I will still continue to read the posts anyway, so there is that 😀