Sasami-san@Ganbaranai is a hilariously greedy light novel adaptation because it has it both ways. Not only is the show understandably wacky to anime-only watchers—like myself—but it also believably weaves a lot of story and character development with only 12 episodes. The result is a show that’s absolutely delightful to watch from start to finish.

And when I say “delightful to watch”, that also includes the vibrant and fluid visuals. Tsurugi Yagami’s lab coat flutters with her every step, Kagami Yagami –feels— like she’s carrying massive weapons, and Tama Yagami’s dress moves as if she’s ready to hop in any direction. When the characters aren’t showing off the liveliness put into them during one of the show’s slick fight scenes, they’re often moving against a still backdrop—for example, an early scene where Sasami Tsukuyomi changes into her school uniform—to create a theatre-like effect with antiquated charm. Sasami-san@Ganabaranai is visually creative and moves as good as it looks.

But while the characters aren’t as creative as the visuals their dynamics make up for the lack of originality. A dynamic-heavy story must avoid repetitive relationships and it does by writing nearly every character to interact with each other. Whether it’s the subtle difference between refusal and denial Kagami shows to Tama and Sasami or Tsurugi’s serious streak against Juju Tsukuyomi, almost every scene has a new dynamic or develops an existing one. For Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, this means dried up archetypes are refreshed by a drink of personality that’s both familiar and new.

But what’s entirely new is the story itself. Never before has an anime made sense so little justified with reasons so much. Whether the world melted into chocolate or a video game took more than a player’s spare time, the story casually slips in background about the odd happening; it certainly needs to as there’s a method to this literal madness. Yet the story itself always makes sense despite how insane it gets and becomes more impressive still considering one of the threads is time travel. Developing this much understandable nonsense in 12 episodes makes Sasami-san@Ganbaranai’s story excellent if not unique.

But the anime isn’t flawless by any means. There’s a plot point about Juju that’s implied instead of explained and the last three episodes introduce a character whose development makes no sense. Nevertheless, the motivation to make this much story and character development believable to anime-only watchers in such short time topped with great visuals makes Sasami-san@Ganbaranai a labor of love that’s ironic in itself; if “ganbaranai” means “unmotivated”, I’d rather be @lazy.