(L+CR) Working!! / Wagnaria!!

[Raiga]

Holy crap! Fujita Saki! =O

Also Takanashi reminds me a lot of Tsuchida from Hanamaru...

Well first ep made me laugh plenty, and Taneshima was adorable. And the animation was nice. Can you say gradient hair?

[wingman32x]

Episode 1 was good. I liked almost all of the characters. I liked Poplar the best, though, I'm a sucker for bubbly type characters like her. Kyouko was a pretty funny character. Lol, giving Souta a full 7 day shift for calling her old lol. Anyway, I think this series has potential. It has a great cast and I like the setting.

[Tsuchi]

Watched first episode yesterday, and I must say I got what I expected. The character that caused me the biggest impression was Kyouko, her "don't screw with me" type is pretty nice and pretty much is a warranty of fun. The Katana-girl reminds me to the bastard child of Tsumugi from K-ON! and Shino from Kannagi (Why does she use that for anyway? Is it even a katana...?).

Oh, and when I already gave up to the apparent genericness of the main character...

...Minicon. Nice move. Not like the guy is multidimensional, but hey, it's better than average...

Decent animation and not bad setting. Likeable cast, not counting the bad first impression that Miss Androphobia gave to me, at least. I get a "A Cartoon character overacting? Is that even possible?" feeling from them.

[ARQ]

im sure its been noted already, but watching this after durarara just makes hearing jun and that other chef talk so weird. Shizuo and Izaya, cept their friendly =_=

[Guardian Enzo]

I'm not ready to say Seitokai or even Baka-Test, but that was an enjoyable first episode. Generally outstanding voice work and I enjoyed the character designs. It's a fairly formulaic premise, but having done my stint working in food service as a 16 year-old I found that side of the humor pretty spot-on.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally Posted by Tatiana Razajev

I don't usually like 4-panel adaptations. But I DID like REC, and so... that picture has me irrationally tempted.

[Kaoru Chujo]

@ Guardian Enzo -- I'm saying SeiZon and BakaTest, but that's just promise, not actuality. I think it has a chance, anyway. At least it's a similar kind of humor to SeiZon, it seems to me.

@ Tsuchi -- After being impressed by her performance, I discovered that the seiyuu who plays Kyouko, Watanabe Kumiko, is really a very successful veteran seiyuu (44 years old), who plays Keroro in Keroro Gunsou, and Shippo in Inuyasha, and was Fran Doll in Turn A Gundam. Quality shines through.

EDIT: By the way, I don't think the two guys who were hassling Poplar actually called her a "loli." They called her a "chinchikurin," which according to my dictionary means "shorty," or maybe "runt."

[Tempester]

Hmm, this holds potential, but only if the characters develop or show other sides of their personality later on. If they stay like this for the whole show it'll get stagnant really fast. I really like the animation. The shading and color choices create a very warm and bright feel that is unique to this anime.

Oh, and Poplar/Popura is incredibly adorable and attractive. I don't blame Souta for joining the job just for her because I would do the same thing! ^^;

[AnimeFangirl]

They made an anime out of Working!!? Wow... the manga was so bad, but maybe it works as an anime. I should give it a shot.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Saber Cherry

I don't usually like 4-panel adaptations. But I DID like REC

But REC isn't a 4-koma manga...

[Joojoobees]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

But REC isn't a 4-koma manga...

I was confused by that too, but I think Saber Cherry, was saying, the image was reminiscent of REC. I don't remember REC well enough to say why. The feel of Working is very much comedy, though. If I recall, REC was straight-up (romantic) drama.

[synaesthetic]

This reminds me heavily of the domestic film Waiting...

[Tsuchi]

@ Tsuchi -- After being impressed by her performance, I discovered that the seiyuu who plays Kyouko, Watanabe Kumiko, is really a very successful veteran seiyuu (44 years old), who plays Keroro in Keroro Gunsou, and Shippo in Inuyasha, and was Fran Doll in Turn A Gundam. Quality shines through.

Oh, interesting. Her play was really good (one of the reasons I like Kyouko the best, to be honest), but I didn't expect it to be her.

Daisuke Ono has a role in the series too. In general it seems there is a good seiyuu selection for this series. Unexpectedly good, even...

This reminds me heavily of the domestic film Waiting...

Could it be intentional? As far as I'm concerned, the first volume of Working!! manga and that movie are both of 2005.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally Posted by Joojoobees

I was confused by that too, but I think Saber Cherry, was saying, the image was reminiscent of REC. I don't remember REC well enough to say why. The feel of Working is very much comedy, though. If I recall, REC was straight-up (romantic) drama.

Yes, the picture looked like it came straight from REC, though they don't seem to have any staff in common.

[Highman]

Really love the first episode and I hope will be anime of the year.

[Kaoru Chujo]

The sound director for this show is Tsuruoka Yota, who is one of the biggest names in the field. Yuuki Aoi talks about his instructions to her in Vampire Bund in an interview I translated in my blog. It seems that the sound director is often really the person who directs the seiyuus, telling them what tones of voice to use, etc. She said he told her she had to command her subjects in the show without raising her voice, showing authority without shouting.

I mention him because I think his presence explains why Watanabe Kumiko is playing Kyouko. He was the sound director on both Keroro Gunsou and Turn A Gundam, which are shows she had/has important roles in. He probably suggested her for the part, and was able to convince her to do it.

Tsuruoka has an immense list of credits, including Hellsing, Lain, Haruhi, ef, Bakemonogatari, etc., etc.

By the way, I have posted a longish piece on my blog about this show and the quite negative reaction to it in the blogosphere, and trying to talk about the humor of the absurd.

That image that looked like REC was interesting. They had several little passages in different styles, it seemed, maybe for emphasis. I haven't been able to go through all the key animators and key animation companies, so I don't know of any cross-over, but maybe it was a separate group (Go Hands, Studio Gimlet, the key animation second unit -- all of which are in the end credits) that worked on that one scene.

[Tsuchi]

By the way, I have posted a longish piece on my blog about this show and the quite negative reaction to it in the blogosphere, and trying to talk about the humor of the absurd.

Absurd humor is not the cup of tea of many people, so you can always expect reactions like those to shows like this...

I've been a fan of absurd humor for all my life, and I'm conscious this is a kind of humor that takes quite some effort to make it even work. It depends on many things to do so. You may absolutely hate one show and then fall head over heels with another one. For example, I really liked Working!! and I'm eagerly waiting for more, while Seitokai got me bored pretty fast. Can I explain it? No, it's absurd humor, either it gets to you or it doesn't. You can measure it by the amount of randomness it has or the impact the situations have on you, but still, if you don't get hooked at first, you'll hardly do afterwards.

Many (and I say many) people will react to absurd humor with a "what the fuck is this shit, it has no sense". You can explain it to them as much as you want, they won't like it. I think most of people who don't appreciate absurd humor are blocked to enjoy it because of their sense of ridiculous. They won't enjoy it because "it's stupid and embarassing".

Just my two little cents.

[MeoTwister5]

There are subs out. Shouldn't this be in the subbed section? Actually since the series doesn't officially air until April I guess it shouldn't be

In truth most of the time I'm not really a fan of absurd lampooning shows (maybe lampooning isn't the right term?). Most parodies and satires tend to fall flat to me since some shows tend to suck at them to the point that they become what they try to make fun of rather than actually making fun of them. Sometimes the 4th wall-breaking or self-awareness can even make it worse. SZN was probably the last one I liked but I ended up dropping it after season 2 and I didn't like Seitokai no Ichizon.

That said, the episode is so completely logically disconnected with blatantly inconsistent characters flaunting the very obvious stereotypes/tropes they parade that it's actually funny most of the time. It might actually be possible to turn off your brain and still watch this while appreciating the fact that doesn't it try so hard to spear every little thing you've seen in anime over the years.

Not that I consider the first episode great or amazing. To me it's fairly good, a good watch when you have time and want some good laughs.

[monir]

The important thing I got out of this episode that I can always refer back to this series if there is another serious discussion about who is (or what is ) considered loli spring up? According to this show, anyone above certain age (10?) should not be considered loli regardless of their small physical stature. They are smiply mini. If one is attracted to such individual, then one is most certainly not a lolicon/shotacon. One is a minicon.

This show better have a definite purpose in its storytelling cause I don't think the series will be able to sustain its humor by rinse-and-repeat method like shows such as Baka Test. Episode 1 had really nothing going for it other than the protagonist setting himself up for a real beat down in one of these days. I thought that manager was going to kick his ass right there, so she did very well to show restraint. I'm also guessing he will be mugged the very day he quits from that restaurant.

So as long as this show doesn't try hard to be humorous, it should pass as an average series. Nothing more. The early indication for this storyline it seems that it is better to keep the expectation low.

[Eisdrache]

I finally had some time to watch the first episode of Working!! and it.was.awesome. Well actually it would have been /much/ more awesome if there were some quality subs. This and the blue border combined with the huge WORKING!! sign through the whole show annoyed me quite a bit.

Anyway that's enough ranting, let's list some good stuff:

Taneshima is absolutely adorable. Like <33333
Does this guy know wtf he is saying? Asking a girl about her age AND calling her old, I actually had to rewind and watch it again before I could believe what just had happened. Also his love for that insect? is ...weird to say it /very/ nicely. But his line about old women was awesome.
I like the light-hearted atmosphere of Working!! a lot. It's the type of show that lifts your spirits after watching an episode. (if it happens to be your type of humour. Some of the jokes are /very/ constructed.)

Anyway I would like to have a more fluid storytelling, not some random jumping from scene to scene. In my opinion it would make the show better.