Listen to Me,
Girls, I’m Your Father!
I’ve come up with a system for reviewing, now! But for
anime, I think I should at least try to be consistent when I watch a whole
series, especially such a short one. What I mean to say, is, I should watch it
all in a good amount of time to bust out a good review with all of my opinions
fresh in my mind of all of the episodes. So here we go!
Oh, and as usual, there will be **SPOILERS**, so if you plan on watching the series, don’t read
this (unless you don’t mind spoilers).
Little girls don’t care about no spoilers.
Animation/Art:
7/10
Although the art was pretty standard, most of the scenes
have something or someone animated in it. I mean, it’s nothing special, but it
does look good for what it is. Obviously, as you’ve seen, the little girl is
adorable, indeed, but I feel like the character designer made the older girls,
like the ten-year-old and the fourteen-year-old, to be overly exploited as
fanservice girls. There are countless scenes in the anime that try to emphasize
that these girls are attractive, but it’s very off-putting when they’re so
young.
Good thing I found a nice, safe picture of the girls. Believe me, there
is some pretty inappropriate official
artwork…
I learned through TV Tropes and some research that legal
consent laws in Japan are different than they are over here in the States,
though, so it’s definitely a cultural discrepancy here that I cannot wrap my
brain around, but a ten-year-old is still a minor… Anyway, what I’m getting at
is that the art direction tends to be slightly disturbing in the sense of
treating depictions of characters who are underage to be sensual. But that’s
harem anime, for you, sometimes (or most of the time)… Either way, it’s
off-putting for me, but I’m sure some other guy would be fine with it…
Despite this, the characters are all appropriately designed
for their personalities, from the eldest girl with unrequited love problems for
her uncle (not related by blood, thankfully) to the offensively bland
uncle-main-character-guy and his dense and dull personality, to the hilariously
stoic and serious college girl the main character likes, and so on and so
forth—you get the picture. You also get a picture:
Of course, it contains fanservice. Try to find a picture of this girl
that doesn’t.
Still, despite the crazy fanservice this series has, the
character designs fit, and most of the animation wasn’t left to be stark and
devoid of motion, thankfully. You see a lot of anime series, especially
slice-of-the-life anime, that all use pretty much the same standard non-moving,
horrendously still-image of background characters or events taking place, often
used to establish location, the mood of a scene, or even both. This series is
so animated that even extras have moving faces and dialogue, so props to the
animators for being thorough.
Characters:
5/10
Instead of having a voice-acting section, having a character
section would work a lot more nicely, so I’ve taken the liberty to do so. And
there is a lot to say.
So, if you’re familiar with anime, then you probably know (virtually)
about the only two types of male protagonists: the cynical jerk who may or may
not be a pervert, and the overly innocent, dense, optimistic, and above all
things, dull guy, who may or may not
be a pervert (which may or may not be on accident on the character’s part).
The protagonist, Yuuta
Segawa, is the latter of the above-mentioned male protagonist types. He is
a well intentioned, yet definitively boring guy who makes a very risky decision
in taking his orphaned nieces in under his care, and gets into hi-jinx
involving him accidentally seeing his nieces changing. Nearly on a regular
basis. Although a good guy with impulsive decisions, I felt like he was a very
flat and uninteresting character, so much so that, right after watching the entire series, I still had
to look up his name so I could get it right in this review. That’s sad.
This is the face of someone who is forgettable. It is also the face of
pretty much every protagonist in a harem anime or harem visual novel.
I did, however, like a few things he did, and a few of the
things he stood for. For instance, his sister had taken him under her wing
after their parents died, so when she dies, along with her husband, he follows
in her footsteps and takes her girls under his wing. That’s impulsive, and even
daft, but it makes for a strong character. The problem with him, though, is
that, no matter how strong and stubborn he is made out to be, aside from
specific moments in the series, I am not convinced that he is. Yuuta displays a
very sweet and tender affection to his nieces, but it’s kind of boring how
bland and generic he seems.
The Girls, or
Yuuta’s nieces, are actually quite interesting in contrast, and probably for
good reasons, as they are almost the main focus of the series, as well, even
though Yuuta is the one most viewers would, by an assumption, connect with.
From left to right: Sora, Hina, and Miu. Please note this is an “eye-catch,” and not an image of what
the series is about.
Sora and Miu are both from two separate mothers,
and Hina’s mother is Yuuta’s sister,
justifying all of their genetic differences.
(There was no adultery involved, so don’t worry.)
Sora is the girl
with a crush on her step-uncle, Yuuta (which, for once in an anime I’ve seen,
actually makes sense and isn’t disturbing at all), and her character is
interesting for a multitude of reasons, including this fact. She is what I’d
like to refer to as a moé-playing-tsundere, a character archetype I’m coming
across more frequently in anime, nowadays. This is basically when a rather
cutesy/innocent girl plays hard-to-get on one person she likes, for those of
you unfamiliar with those terms.
She must have been watching a lot of Haruhi.
I generally like characters like this, and Sora is no
exception, but I feel like she didn’t really “play her part” as truly as she
could have (or should have). Usually, when there is a romance such as hers,
especially when her love interest has become an adoptive father figure to her,
a very important and sometimes life-changing conflict arises. No such conflict
occurs in the series, even when Yuuta makes some very shocking decisions and
declarations, right in front of her face.
For example, at the very end of the series, Yuuta asks his
college romantic interest (a girl named Raika)
to “be his wife.” Sora is given a small reaction shot after the declaration, but
that’s all we see. Something like that should have snapped something inside of
her, and the animators should have shown some sort of earth-shattering look of
horror on her face, but they didn’t. Even as Yuuta, the college girl, Miu, and
Sora watch Hina’s daycare performance, she almost playfully grabs Yuuta’s arm
to “protect” him from the college girl, but the motivation for the gesture
seems very off, and even out-of-character. Honestly, a whole episode after the
final episode, demonstrating any of this happening to Sora psychologically
would have satisfied me, but there was no such thing, as far as I know.
Hina is Yuuta’s
adorable, blood-related, three-year-old niece. She is the embodiment of the innocence and life of a dandelion seed floating
happily through the wind, and all of the characters, in-universe, also find her
to be utterly adorable. In essence, she is a modern, Japanese, three-year-old
Pollyanna.
Good. Now go eat that somewhere else while I criticize you.
One thing I hated, though, was the recurring use of the
song, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which I’ll get to later, but for
relevance’s sake, Hina sang it the most, so this is the only reason why I would
need to shut her up every once in a while.
Miu is the
middle-child of the nieces, and seems to be one type of character, but then she
seems to be another type of a character, and then she seems to be something
else, entirely. I have a feeling that she is one of the main fanservice girls
(besides Raika), she is the most
ambiguously flirtatious and teasing to pretty much everyone (so one can imagine
why she’s popular with the boys at her school), and she is too much of “the
perfect girl” that something just seems
wrong with her.
Oh, and she had just polished that shoe.
Oh, right, there is.
Miu is such a poorly presented character, in my opinion,
because she doesn’t really seem to act like a sister to the other two girls—she
seems more like a confiding best friend to Sora—she seems like a very flat
character whose only personality is a façade, and she ultimately doesn’t seem
to develop anything with her personality, as very little is revealed. She is
basically a pretty doll I could care less about.
She does have her moment in the limelight when she goes on a
“date” with one of Yuuta’s friends, and it is revealed that she doesn’t want
her classmates to worry about her because of her difficult, now parent-less
lifestyle, and that she’s worried about Yuuta, who is very busy.
And that’s about it. She is a character who could have been
more fleshed-out, and could have had more of a personality to relate to, rather
than the stereotypical “good girl with good grades who is good at sports.” I honestly
see too much of that.
Raika was
probably my favourite character in terms of unique and interesting individuals
in the series. She doesn’t have nearly as much screen time as the girls, but
every time she is on the screen, I expect hilarity to ensue.
Raika actually says “Stare” when she awkwardly and emotionlessly stares
at you.
Hilarity always ensues when Raika is on the scene. She is a
god-awful actress, shows little-to-no emotions, and likes cute girls. Not in a
dirty way, though, you sick fool, you. It’s a big sister instinct, from what
I’ve gathered while watching this series. This stoic yet determined,
supportive, and sweet young woman is my favourite choice when it comes to Yuuta’s
romantic life.
Sora, jealous of Raika’s involvement in Yuuta’s life as a
romantic interest, shows something other than character development for her
relationship with Raika—Sora admires the buxom beauty and finds her to be very
relatable, down-to-earth, and even funny, herself. Despite this, when it comes
to Yuuta being close to Raika, Sora gets so territorial and possessive over him
that it’s like she had never met Raika in the first place. So all of that
character development I sat through seemed like it was pointless and
irrelevant.
Overall, the cast was unmemorable, aside from a quirk, here
and there, but Raika’s unforgettably strange personality took the cake for me.
There’s also a guy who reminds me of Itsuki Koizumi from “The Melancholy of
Haruhi Suzumiya” (and he’s voiced by the same guy, Daisuke Ono), a
voice-actress chick who lives next door and is pretty cool, and a detestable,
disgusting, and unfunny guy who is the president of the club Yuuta and Raika
attend at their college. This guy likes little girls. In an unsettling,
pedophilic way. I feel like this guy should never have existed in the first
place because he isn’t a very good comic character, and he also could have been
replaced by a less disturbing lolicon.
You can look up that term, but don’t look at the images.
Anyway, most of the characters in this show were
forgettable, besides a choice few.
Music: 4/10
While I admit the opening and ending songs were somewhat catchy,
I skipped them after the first time I’d sat through them. I don’t think I
really cared for the background soundtrack, either, because I feel like there
was a maximum of twenty songs used throughout the entire series.
But oh, god.
Oh, god, the singing.
The singing of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in English by
four Japanese people who aren’t in any type of key or rhythm is bad. What makes
this worse is that this happens almost every few episodes. I mean, we’re talking bad, here. I don’t care how important or unimportant it is to the
storyline, because I had to watch it every single time, because I had no idea when it would stop. And then
they sang it at the very end, for Hina’s daycare center’s performance. It makes
sense, but it’s also something I’d rather not hear, just because it was so bad.
How I wonder why you do this so often.
The soundtrack music was forgettable, and the only truly
memorable music from the anime was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which I
could have done without.
Story/Execution:
6/10
While the concept is interesting, it seems more anime is
beginning to be about adoptive parents who don’t seem like they’d fit the bill,
but end up doing so, anyway. I don’t know if anyone is copying anyone in
particular, but after watching Usagi Drop,
I feel like this one was very shoddy and unoroginal.
There were so many anime clichés I’ve come to think of
distasteful now because they’re so overused, and the humour that should come
from them has basically run dry. Things like having the protagonist being prone
to becoming an “accidental pervert,” having a major female lead feel overly
self-conscious about her cup size, and having predictable hi-jinx in which Sora
(AKA moé girl) becomes clumsy and ruins everything.
A montage of happy-looking moments. I couldn’t find pictures of them
getting news of their parents’ deaths, though, so yeah.
Another thing that bothered me, too, was that, at the
beginning of the series, I thought it was going to be happy, and that the
girls’ parents were just going on a honeymoon. I jokingly said out loud to
myself at that point, “It’d be funny if the parents in this really happy-go-lucky
anime series died on the trip. But that wouldn’t happen, because that is like
mood-rape. Ha ha ha.”
I’m a good guesser.
I mean, the mood shift is understandable—it makes the
circumstances heavier with contrast, and it also evokes more emotion into the
viewer, shocking them. I was shocked, too, because I honestly didn’t think my
conjecture was the actual concept. That worked out fine for me.
The real problem that got to me was that the girls cried for
about a minute, and then the next thing you know, they’re light-heartedly joking
with their uncle on a trip to his apartment, where they will now live. Time may
have elapsed between these events, but if this was the case, the directors
didn’t give me a transition from the sad scene to the light-hearted scene.
There should have been at least something in between to sort of soften the
stark contrast between the scenes.
Mostly, this mood-whiplash approach actually works pretty
well. But for some of the early episodes, it seems like they’re trying to
completely forget what happened, or their parents aren’t actually dead, but are
still on a trip (which is actually an excuse they give Hina). The feeling for
this situation seems inconsistent, and it shouldn’t have been taken so lightly.
Another almost-pointless, irrelevant picture. Enjoy.
Thankfully, the death of their parents is grieved
appropriately, but in the last episode. This is actually done spectacularly
well, and the scene involves Sora having to tell Hina that their parents will
never come back from their “trip.” Hina is understandably upset, and even
furious, which is especially heart wrenching, given the optimistic and
happy-go-lucky personality she has possessed for the entire series. Sora
understands these emotions and holds Hina to her, like any good sister should.
Everyone is sad in this part, and it is then that Yuuta goes to secretly pay
respects to his sister’s grave, and Sora secretly follows. In the end, despite
all of the sorrow, Yuuta and Sora cherish his late sister and her husband’s
memory.
More stuff happens, but that’s basically what I felt should
have been touched on, earlier. If I missed that this anime had its characters
hold in those feelings for the whole series, then I’m really stupid, but I
don’t know if that was the case…
Well, I generally liked the story and the messages it was
trying to get across, like the importance of family sticking together, and that
strength comes from hardship. The comedy was hit-and-miss, but overall, the
series was entertaining. I guess I would recommend it to anyone interested in
fanservice, little girls, and mood whiplash-y stories. There's also some good comedy here, too, but it's not amazing.
Overall: 6/10
You’re cute, but you’re not that cute. I think a six-out-of-ten is
fine, so don’t cry.
Thank you for reading this long-winded article! Make sure
you tell everyone you know about Tatami Room, and be sure to leave comments
with your opinions, if you can!
Krennthief
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