I remember a little while ago, I had a reader mention in my comments that they were unable to find any good Cute Guys Doing Cute Things anime and this led to wondering if the formulae could even be applied to a male cast.
At the time I had already read a couple of volumes of the Play it Cool, Guys manga but the anime had not been announced. Or at least I didn’t know about it. So I didn’t mention it. However, I think this is a prime example of what Cute Guys Doing Cute Things can look like. I think it works quite well.
Because the show is so laid back, they haven’t forced the relationships between the guys much yet. I mean sure, it’s a wonderful coincidence that they all ended up connected to the same restaurant but really, they have only formed very casual relationships so far.
Instead, there are two sibling relationships at the core of the story that are both quite heartwarming. Shun and his sister are great foils. But it’s the Shiki brothers (Souma and Souta, isn’t that cute) that have the real lovey dovey relationship that makes me wish I had siblings.
It’s a bit of an anime cliché that siblings end up living together without their parents for a number of reasons. No adults allowed in Tokyo! Actually, I think Shun lives with his parents but he’s the only one. It does allow for the main characters to try on different roles and in Souma’s case, he mgt a chance to play caregiver this week. Having such a distracted caregiver might be terrifying if he was taking care of a baby but seeing as Souta is a full-grown professional adult, it’s a bit more charming.
And it really was sweet. All that happened this week is that Souma made some dinner for his brother in which he mixed up the salt and sugar. Classic. Apparently, it was awful but you know, there are plenty of Asian meat dishes with a lot of sugar in them and they are generally delicious so I’m sure he was exaggerating. Since his brother is going through a busy period at work, Souma wants to help him out so he decides he’s going to cook lunch and buys bento boxes for the both of them to use.
And that’s really it. Nothing else to speak of except the last-minute gag.
Even for a short 11-minute episode, it doesn’t seem like that much content. But it really worked for me. I was immediately smitten by the idea of taking care of an older brother who’s exhausted from work. I was unusually interested in what type of bento Souma would choose and whether Mima would end up recognizing him or not. And I was rooting for him to have more success with his next dish.
Sometimes, I think it’s really nice to just have a story about things that don’t matter all that much. My fellow Slice of Life fans know what I mean. There’s a special sort of comfort that you can find in the mundane. That’s where Play it Cool Guys really shines.
Cute episode. I wonder if the brother’s so used to the mess-ups that they don’t even register as such. Maybe he thought that curry’s supposed to taste like that? Maybe he thought he got double bentos? Heh.
It might be a bit of all of those. Both brothers seem like the type to take things really well and go for the most optimistic view.
“Cute Guys Doing Cute Things” and “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” both end up abbreviated as CGCT. So unless we want to make it a gender neutral genre, (No problems here with that!) it could get confusing. Maybe make it “Cute Boys…?”
Gender neutral is cool with me. Easier to remember