Anime Blurb 48 Room Mate

So the other day I decided that I would find some more recent anime (as in from this year) for my friend and I to watch. From the picture and the small summary on myanimelist.net this seemed pretty promising. The palette of the clip seemed very pleasing and the episodes were only 4 minutes long. What I didn't realize...was that this is one of those otome games adapted into an anime. I don't know if I just haven't watched enough of the otome to anime adaptations to find a really good one or something, but from my experience they all suck.

So the premise of this ~48 minutes in total spread over 12 episode series is this girl couldn't get a job so her relative sent her to be the manager of her boarding house/hostel/community living space. In it are three guys: Shinya, Aoi, and Takumi. The POV is you're the manager girl (who never appears) and these three guys are just living their lives...and then fall in love with you for no reason. They try to introduce a plot by inserting a "no romantic relationships with the manager or else" rule, but that doesn't really do much. So it's basically just fuwa fuwa fluffy times. Oh and if you like shirtless guys, at the end of every episode is a picture of one or all three of the guys together with clothes on and then with lens flares or whatever other extra af edits they wanna use they reveal abs and naked upper halves. If I were a guy I can only imagine how awkward you would feel.

Overall, this was very painful to watch. There was no plot, the only content it had was the overused cliche like the supportive girlfriend, the sadistic guy that calls you a dog, the cutesy guy that tells you he'll become a man for you, the wall slam, the one compliment "I'm nice? No one's ever said that to me before" that gets them to fall for you, the list goes on and on and becomes more cringey by the minute. There's just shirtless guys and the flattest, most stereotypical characters you could ever find anywhere. Unless you're bored and you've got roughly 42 minutes to spare (save yourself 6 minutes by not watching the lens flare revealing their abs) I don't think you should watch this if you value your time. There are better things to watch, heck even playing through an otome game would be way better than watching this. Well, maybe if you were a 12 year old tween with no real understanding of relationships and you haven't been exposed to any romantic things so you think that this could really happen and you like this sort of cliche then you'd enjoy this. But to each their own I suppose.

Oh and the pacing of the nonexistent plot is very erratic

All my screenshots were Aoi because his style is my style so I resonate with him on a stylistic level

Ok I was kinda disturbed at this point because I thought Shinya was hooking up with some single mother and gonna marry into their family but it turns out it was some app and it's kinda funny how distraught he is over his game

*presents you with more cliches*

Anime Blurb 43 Honobono Log

Oh boy, oh boy. While perusing Youtube for admittedly too long, I stumbled upon a video about anime that are lesser known. And man am I glad I did. This anime was so surprisingly refreshing and light that I couldn't help but genuinely smile.

{There's no way to have spoilers if there's no real plot}

So when you take this anime at face value it doesn't look like much. It's 10 episodes exactly 2 minutes apiece. And while that doesn't seem like a lot, the creators have a way to make it seem like exactly enough time to tell an endearing little blurb. It's very slice of life in a short time frame. It follows the lives of different couples and just a little scene about their relationship or there's also this family with the cutest little girl. It's really quite simple, but there's just something so endearing about its simple drawing style. There isn't very much background drawing at all so you're totally focused on the character interactions and their little gestures. It's so simple that a child could enjoy this, but it's also complex enough that someone older could get a little something out of it. For example they could realize there are different ways to approach your significant other when they're upset, that it's best to just enjoy the little things in life, or to just want to spend time with each other just sharing an umbrella in the rain.

Honestly, in this case the simplicity works so well. My favorite was the little girl and her gum drops. My heart melted at her childish antics and her voice actor was so cute!! A close second would be the girl that had just broken up and her friend coming over to comfort her. At face value again they seem so simple and basic, but there are so many layers to all of these. The execution of being able to transport someone in 2 minutes is magical. It's almost like taking a 10 minute nap and feeling like you've slept for hours. Miraculous, rare, but when it happens it's the best feeling.

If you couldn't already tell I'd highly recommend it. Altogether it's like watching one episode of anime. There's really nothing to lose here. It's a bunch of short stories and no way you could be left at a cliffhanger. It's sweet, simple, satisfying.

You get this basic screenshot both to intrigue you and also if I were to screenshot any actual scene I'd give away most of the episode which is no fun