Ugly Ducklings
My first real comment would be on Hanazawa Kana’s work. I’m not exactly a fan of hers, though I did enjoy her work in Kobato and Angel Beats, however I don’t think I’ve ever heard her perform anything that would really set her apart from all the other VA’s in the business. While you could instantly recognize her voice in an instant, kind of like for Nakahara Mai or Kugimiya to a slighter extent, I don’t think I’ve ever been really impressed with her work.
That would probably change with this series. It’s only one episode in but I am thoroughly impressed with her performance as a socially awkward jellyfish nerd. I’ve really only heard her perform cutesy and adorable characters, so hearing a very subdued performance from her that starts as an introverted girl, then switching to panicked anxiety then to jellyfish scholar was quite impressive. This might be her first defining performance as a VA for me.
I initially came into this series because of the director, who also directed Koi Kaze, one of my favorite series of all time. This show of course is whole different affair from the incestuous angst of Koi Kaze, but as a comedy of stereotypes it manages to deliver the rather believable personalities of society’s more unconventional members. A lot of shows cover the usual otaku for effect, but this show handles the type very well and very differently; that is to say, the comedy comes not from the show making fun of how weird or eccentric the otaku are, but rather it comes from how the otaku act and try to be themselves. A lot of shows poke fun at the stereotype a lot to make us laugh, but I enjoyed this for how it humanizes them rather than alienate them, showing through comedy that even while these fringe geeks have their own problems and issues they work through, they still try enjoy life to the fullest in their own ways.
Part of that effect is because we aren’t really shown more socially adherent people to compare them to. We can’t make easy judgments because all the characters we’ve seen, excluding the minor ones, are part of their “group”. Aside from Tsukimi’s issues with beauty and being like a princess, there’s no clash between their group and society at large, so we get to see the more eccentric members of society in their own natural habitat as opposed to being compared and criticized for not conforming to social standards. In this way, seeing the manner in which the residents live their lives feels more natural and normal, so to speak.
And because the show focuses more on the character’s daily life as opposed to being compared to everyone else, to me it really brings out a lot of Tsukimi’s mindset and her feelings of being something of an “Ugly Duckling”, hence her obsession with princesses and her difficulty relating to other people. While we really haven’t seen enough yet to try and understand why she has her self confidence issues, we could tie some of it up to the fact that… well when you look at her in the first screenshot above, you really wouldn’t think she’s a looker, would you?
In a way it is understandable that she would see herself as inferior to the prettier ones out there like Mr. Trap, but then again wouldn’t Mr. Trap represent the fact that anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can be beautiful if they tried? Tsukimi herself isn’t even ugly, hell I’d insist that with enough alterations (and an Animesuki poster rightfully pointed out those eyebrows) she could look quite pretty. Running around in what qualifies as PJs isn’t. I would say that much of it lies in Tsukimi’s only personality and psychological profile, so I would expect to see more of it in the future.
It’s so easy for stories to fall into the cliche of inner beauty and all that, while easily forgetting that physical beauty is part and parcel of really wanting to improve oneself. Inner beauty is great and all, and I consider it paramount, but in the same way that inner beauty can be cultivated, so can physical beauty. You don’t need to stop at the inside and forget the outer, because you can have both.