Shomin Sample - Reviews

Characters are generic but good, I have watched the anime twice, and think its good. DO NOT WATCH THE INTRO, SKIP IT ALLWAYS. It is really disturbing!

Personally I don't really get the hate for this series or why it is ranked so low. Perhaps it has something to do with people judging it by standards it is not trying to reach, and that is just stupid, of course you are going to end up disappointed if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree

Now lets get into the story. This story starts off with our maincharacter being abducted to an all girls school for "ojou-samas". It's a sheltered school, so the girls know very little of the world outside. It was proven that the girls from this school had trouble adapting to a life with normal people, once their stay at the school had come to an end, so the school decided that they need a normal male citizen to attend the school. This way the girls would be better adjusted for when they needed to go out in the world. Enter our main character Kimito. He is the perfect "shomin (commoner) sample". He has average grades, average looks and is just average at everything, but he has one good feature, which is why the school chose him. He is gay, and loves men with big muscles instead of girls. Atleast this is what his friend tell the executives, when they were looking for a commoner.

The fun then comes from him dealing with the girls there, who range from incredible gullible to overly weird. It really was a good show for this season, and one out of the 15 i watched which i thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun and light and a great contrast to some of the more serious and darker shows. It was also quite fun to see him duke it out with these girls.

Animation and sound is nothing out of the ordinary, it's not bad, it's not good, so not much to say there.

When it comes to the characters 2 of the 5 fall a bit flat, and that is our main character and one of the girls. The reason for this is that they are both too much just like cardboard cutouts, with no special trope to them, other than the generic ones. Our main character is however not as bad as the girl, since they actually have not made him AS dense as i had initially feared, at least not when it comes to the girls affection and his own ability to not get flustered and everything *looking angrily at almost all other male protagonist*. 

To summarize:

It is a good show, for what it is trying to be. It is lighthearted fun and I swear you will absolutely adore Hakua she is amazing as a character. If you pick this up just know what you are getting into. It is light and fun, I actually laughed in this one, which happens rarely with anime nowadays, but it is not something serious with a big overarching story. It's just shameless fun, and people should review it on these grounds

Anyways I recommend it, if that means anything

For a video review, check out my Youtube channel. Link on my profile page.

This review will be a bit shorter than usual because I don’t have as much to tell about this anime than usual. Why I will tell you at the end of the review.

Postive

*Because the comedy in SS was hysterical at times. How the girls are so ignorant about the world and than stand in awe about everything new they learn about real life. Or how Kimito sometimes abuses the fact that the girls don’t know anything to make them do ridiculous things. I also have to give credit to SS for not relying entirely on ecchi comedy. I suspected that this would be a full on ecchi anime that used nothing else as comical relief. But SS used a variety of subjects to make comedy with.

*Another positive point was that there were some memorable characters in this anime with Hakua in the lead. Hakua being a pure class loli. I think a lot of people will remember her.

*And a last positive point was that the opening song of SS must be most catchy opening song of the past fall season. It’s not that it’s particularly good but it’s just stick into your head ones you hear it a few times.

And actually that are about all the specific points I have to mention of SS. I don’t really have any more real positive nor negative points. The reason therefor is that SS became exactly what I expected it to be. It didn’t have an deep storyline or sad drama or sweet romance. It became the comedy that I expected it would have been so that’s why I couldn’t find a lot of specific things I want to say about SS.

Before I jump to my conclusion I do wonder if there will be a second season of this anime since at the end of SS there are still some things that aren’t concluded yet. We still have Kimito’s friend who makes an appearance at the very end of the anime and also the thing with Kimito’s maid isn’t solved yet because there was definitely something going on there that we never got a full explanation for.

Conclusion

So as a conclusion, as I said earlier SS became exactly what I expected to be. It wasn’t the best anime I saw past fall season but it was still fun to watch. So I’m going to rate Shomin Sample at 3 stars. If you want to have a laugh give Shomin Sample a watch.

Bear in mind that this review has been written after episode 1 and contains a whole bunch of personal world views and opinions.

5 minutes in to the first and only episode I'll probably ever watch and I'm already mad shit pissed off. Personally I can't really handle animes where ignorance is the glorified standard (they make me feel like punching walls and torturing certain characters to near death).

Dude is basically abducted to a girls only private school and just accepts it al without much of a fight. Head maid is a bitch and the school is filled with idiots who are so damn sheltered they barely know of, much less use, any technology from after the industrial revolution. And the school's damn mad shit "how do you even have a brain" idea to fix all of this is by letting a single freaking guy in, oh yeah, and he must be average and gay or else we'll ship him off to an unknown corner of the world where he'll be forced to spend his life in solitary.

Characters seem a bit like shallow, off the shelf defaults with not a lot deepgoing personalities. Animation looks nice and clean, and there's nothing wrong with the audio.

Overall a dropped/10

Story: 9 points

To be blunt, Shomin Sample is your typical trope-loaded anime about your everyday teenage boy’s wet dream of attending an all-girls school full of wealthy, cute, clueless teenage girls who all happen to fawn over this perfectly average teenage commoner. Kimito, a commoner god in the eyes of these reality-disconnected teenage girls, gets enrolled against his will into the Seikain Girls Academy, a hidden school surrounded by mountains. As the only male figure on the campus, he is selected to be the one who teaches these sweet, bumbling, wealthy teenage heiresses about life outside of their rich, pampered, and innocent lives.

The above sums up about 75 percent of the plot, which is poorly executed nearly 100 percent of the time. There is no smooth flow to the events that transpire throughout the anime’s 12 episodes. Plus, an unexpected plot twist in episode 11 that led to the outlandishly absurd series' finale had me scratching my head and mumbling to myself, “What the f*** just happened,” and not in a positive way either. Both episodes practically made no sense whatsoever. They have the feeling of being forced and completely rushed, which is the main reason why I only gave an entertainment score of three out of five stars. It is bad, unfortunate, and not the way you want an anime to end.

Lastly, Shomin Sample is borderline Harem and Ecchi, which are both missing in the anime’s tag listing. Now to be fair, Kimito is not your completely typical Harem male lead. He becomes quite aware of the situation he finds himself in and recognizes the undeniable attraction from the entire school of ladies that befalls him. Unlike the rest of the student body, he is not clueless of his on-campus predicament.

Animation: 6 points

Studio SILVER LINK. is not known for the most elaborate production budgets among some of the other more prominent studios (i.e. MADHOUSE or Kyoto Animation) and it shows. They do make the best of what they are budgeted for and that does show in many of their works, including Shomin Sample for the most part.

The lower quality art detail is somewhat balanced out with an overall array of pleasing colors, which is appealing to the eyes. This bodes well for key scenes that usually require more attention in all forms of their detail, from smoother animation, to better line detail, to greater levels of color contrast, to other non-art and non-animation aspects; at least SILVER LINK does a solid job in those very few important moments.

Sound: 6 points

The OP, ED, in-episode music, and the sound effects are collectively a little above average. Sometimes I would skip the OP and/or ED, then sometimes I would not. I will add that the characters’ behaviors in the first few seconds of the OP is funny, at least to me it is.

Characters: 12 points

Do not expect there to be much of character development, especially as it pertains to their individual backgrounds, and what detail is mentioned is an absolute mess. In addition, many of the characters that might look relevant or develop into something more grand end up being forgotten, some even are pointless due to how they are handled in the writing (Eri Nanae is a great example that comes to mind). Along with a few others, she could be a solid secondary character that adds some additional intrigue to the story, including into Kimito’s history. Unfortunately, these group of characters get lost in random, unrelated episodes of the anime. It is disappointing.

The characters that do not lose their way in the story are a select few:  Kimito, Aika, Hakua, Karen, Reiko, and Miyuki. That is it.

Kimito is a thoughtful, kind, and overall nice protagonist for the selected commoner to attend Seikain Girls Academy. Although he generally helps teach the female student body about daily unprivileged life, he maintains the practical joking side of his character. He might be forcibly at the school to help the girls adjust to the real world, but he is not afraid to tease them, which leads to some rather funny moments; continuously keep in mind that all these girls are airheads and clueless when it comes to the reality of the commoner's way-of-life. After all, they have always had maids take care of everything for them, including getting them dressed as needed.

Moving along, Aika is a speak-before-thinking, blunt girl, who has a much kinder side than her mouth and attitude would suggest. She is also the most gullable among the lot, and it is quite funny at times on how much bulls**t she believes when it comes from Kimito's mouth.

Hakua is an elementary-sized 14 year old super genius who happens get frequently naked whenever she goes on one of her Einstein-level writing tangents. We do not see her fully undressed, but she clearly is, just as her height is seriously undersized. She is smaller than a dwarf or a Willy Wonka Oompa Loompa.

Karen is misunderstood and is the most “traditional” Japanese-style woman. She attempts to hide her true thoughts and feelings, but with no success since they are the most transparent among the main cast. Like Aika, she is typically a part of the funnier moments in the anime.

Reiko is the extremely polite, all-around wealthy Ojou-sama and school idol of practically all the other girls. She is what can labeled the “perfect” harem female of the series; curvy looks, good grades, well-liked, and perfectly designed character for the model testosterone juiced teenage boy. She is like all the clueless girls at Seikan, except that she has more of a level-headed mindset and is very precise in what she says and does.

Lastly, Kimito’s assigned maid, Miyuki, is a calm and enigmatic person who enjoys torturing him, but then has affections for him!? She secretly has a self-romantic moment with him while he sleeps, but then she later grabs enormous scissors for castration purposes!? What!? There are mixed signals abound coming from her. Due to the mysterious nature of Miyuki, she is the character that possess the most intrigue that ultimately never gets developed or explored in any real detail. Her lack of development is the most disappointing among all the characters.

Aside from the major failings with the characters, they are an odd and likeable bunch at the very least.

Overall: 45/100 points

Although the score might insinuate that Shomin Sample is a poor anime, it is an entertaining one more often than not and periodically funny. It is not all that memorable, but it is good enough to be watchable or even re-watchable.

I can recommend it as long as the viewer maintains the mindset of what it is and what it certainly is not. It is a colorful anime with a poorly told story that is oversaturated with anime tropes befitting the genre, which includes the mundane and sometimes bland, but likeable group of characters.

Entertainment Score: 12 points

Achievement Score: +0 to Overall

My expectations were Moderate, and it delivered Spot-on to those expectations.

Age Rating: TV-14+ (borderline harem and ecchi; some breast flailing and close-up, frontal panty shots)

Additional Information:

• Video Format:  FHD (1080p) Streaming
• Audio Format:  English dubbed
• Publisher:  FUNimation
• Equipment Used:  Acer AN515-53-55G9 Nitro 5 Laptop