This is a cute, fluffy show about a young boy who moves in with his mother's brother because his mother died due to an illness. The guy he moves in with happens to be a quirky and introverted, and since the boy himself is strange with a high sense of duty, he becomes the maid of the house he moved into. The plot is that simple. That being so there was a number of directions that this show could have gone in. Considering the Shoujo genre, it kept as light as possible. Which was one of it's main flaws. I may update this review if I feel it is necessary after the show finishes. If you don't want to read all this in one sentence this show is that one optimistic and cute anime episode that I watch every week (because there's no cliff hangers that make me want to wait for it to all come out first) where there's a few quirky characters, likeable tropes, the cute MC, and all their trivial little slice of life issues.
Story 6.5/10:
Based upon the set up, there was plenty of room for just a bit of drama or inner conflict with Chihiro, the MC. Even if it stayed optimistic, his mother did die suddenly. However, the show only uses ep. 1 to express the MC's lonliness, and it just feels lacking in depth because of that. If you were old enough to realize what death was, but still young enough that you would normally depend/want to be with your parents, and if the last one you had died suddenly, how would you feel? More so if they were a nice but carefree parent that took care of you well. I know 'parent death' is over used in anime, but if it's there why not make the best use of it you can? There's plenty of opportunity for sadness about her death to pop up, even if he got over it quickley. Glossing over death of a parent is one thing in other genres where they died a while ago and the MC is older. But here Chihirio is young and it's slice of life. They thought they could just make the Mom's death light and fluffy and easily resolved instead of making use of the possible tension it could have caused in plot later. Thus the plot is hardcore slice of life, with episodes often cut in half with side plot lines of cooking or cleaning troubles, and the introduction of new characters who are also slightly quirky and have trivial issues that need to be resolved. Often it leads to the MC learning a simple thing about life or how he needs to be more honest and express his wants more. It is fairly normal, and overall I like it. I think it's cute and entertaining enough (I am a fan of this genre to begin with), but if that's all the plot is going to be it feels lacking (or like absolutely nothing is happening). Slice of life is hard to pull of to begin with because it often lacks excitement or enough originality to keep the audience entertained in a refreshing way, so getting a bit darker in mood sometimes would help this show seem a bit more serious and exciting. Other more successful shows that are slice of life genre such as Barakamon, House of Five Leaves, and Usagi Drop accomplish this because they play of the MC (or others) dark past or current conflicts to create tension and a darker mood while not becoming too unrealistic outside of the boundaries that the show has already set. They resolve issues in a happy, fluffy way normal to this genre, but the feeling gained from watching is better and more dramatic.
Another slight issue is the comedy, another important way for a slice of life show to be successful is good comedy. This show's comedy is normal, at best. Character personalities set up the comedy, like how Chihiro takes things too seriously and overthinks everything, and Madoka being afraid of dogs but allergic to cats. Overall, it is repetitive due to their personalities not changing and not a new form of comedy, reference, or joke that would be refreshing to see. It's cute and sometimes amusing, but frankly watching another girl like Miyako Ootori have good intentions but be bad at things and clumsy doesn't make me laugh.
However, despite this quality the show gives cute and somewhat quirky characters a somewhat interesting plot that includes issues with cooking and cleaning as well as Chihiros trivial little issues in life. They are not all original, but some of the little plots are not normally seen and in that way it is somewhat refreshing and cute. But plot is the weakest point in my opinion. It might have been better if the show adapted an anime for the 3 characters from the ending song, who perform music etc., if they had no intention of getting out of the light fluff at all with Chihiro.
Animation 9/10:
I'm not super picky here, but considering the contents the animation fits well. There are characters that change outfits, which is good considering Madoka proffesion as well as the genre. The colors are cheerful and the style is cute. In general it's pretty nice to look at.
Sound 8/10:
This is a personal opinion. This music fits the show, to me, there is some cute instrumental stuff and I strangely like the ending song though I thought the 3 dudes were random until the show tied them in. Fun fact is there is a really unnerving line/word that's different at the end of each ending episode song(before the next ep. preview) that is kinda creepy because it's like a whisper. Like 'see you tomorrow' or 'don't leave me'.
Characters 7/10:
Even though the score isn't amazing this is what I like the best about this show. Some characters are given a nice amount of attention and lots of little details that flesh them out. That would be Madoka, Chihiro, and kinda Miyako. Each episode you learn a little more about both MC Madoka and Chihiro, what they like and dislike, how they will act, what they do and how they do it etc.. In a slice of life sort of way. For example Chihiro starts as dutiful but is also presented as shy, stubborn, and overthinker, a clean freak, loves dogs, smart, cute and brave. Miyako gets time to be presented as that annoying girl characters that has a one sided crush, but is clumsy and useless. But they actually took the time to show that she can improve at things (unlike many other characters of this stereotype), and in that sense became less annoying. These characters don't have personalities that are that annoying and if there was any main development I'd say it was both Chihiro and Madoka becoming more like family and less reserved with eachother.
Unfortunately, characters that lack some definition would be Madoka's aide, Keiichirou and Chihiro's friend from school Yuuji. Yuuji is more mature for his age and the son of a big farming family or something like that, and Keiichirou is like the perfect butler type that can do anything well and gets angry if Madoka doesn't do what he's supposed to. He's also that calm guy that can give advice if the MCs are unsure about something. They seem like important characters...but they lack some depth or screen time to be that original. Miyako likes Keiichirou, but it just seems like she likes some strict but nice butler guy cut out. The best friend of Chihiro gets even less time. If they aren't going to delve into some good plot or comedy, then they should put effort into more entertaining and original characters.
Edit: They did add a lot more screen time for Chihiro's bff near the end, which was nice, you can tell that he is mature but mischiveous for his age.
I did like how they tied in the ending song characters into the show for an episode, and all the characters are cute, especially Chihiro, but while they have some defining traits they could use more depth, especially the 2 previously mentioned (best friend and bulter). Admittedly there is 5 ep. left for these 2 characters to possibly get more depth.
Thus, similar to plot this show lacks a bit of depth in regards to characters, making it average.
Overall 7.5/10:
It's cute, but I'm watching it for the genre and animation, and a little bit for the characters. It's cute that Madoka's clothes designer. Chihiro is a cute MC. The little things they do each episode is somewhat entertaining. Overall this show is decent for a Shoujo and slice of life genre. If you like this genre you'd probably like this show. However, there a few issues that keep it from reaching a solid rating of 8 (aka 4 stars), but at the same time it is nice enough to go over an average raring 7 stars (3.5 rating), hence a 7.5. Characters reactions are kinda entertaining, there are a few character quirks. Animation is very nice. Basically there's the likeable fundamentals to a good show, but lacking the plot and character depth, keeping it near average. But even if it does go over average, it would only be slightly. And for those who don't care much for this genre or the characters types to begin with it would most likely be average and below.
Edit: In the end there never was any drama, there was a bit of tension caused by a 'suprise' (I mean...if you couldn't figure it out to begin with) character entrance, but it remained optimistic. Overall it's a good watch if you like slice of life, or perhaps shoujo.
Screenshots
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