Winter Anime 2018 Part 4: the kids are alright
Apart from the shows below I watched the new Card Captor Sakura, and I haven’t got anything to say about it besides “yep, that’s CCS alright”. It also didn’t have funny screenshots. Sorry.
See also:
Gakuen Babysitters
Anime watchers of the female persuasion are spoiled for choice nowadays, so the stakes for shows aimed at them have been raised: Just having hot boys is not enough any more, now they have to be good with kids too! Please look forward to “Financially Responsible Boys”, coming soon to a season near you. In the meantime, here’s a school that has a reason for having a babysitting club and furthermore has a reason for said club to have hot(?) boys in it. Gakuen Babysitters is fine though; Decently cute, a little funny, a little emotional. Kinda like Sanrio Boys, only not trying to sell you something (apart from the shoujo manga it’s based on, naturally). It’s a show that’s good enough if you’re in the target demographic, I’d say. Crossover potential, on the other hand, seems to be slim.
Kokkoku
I want to say that Kokkoku is something you don’t see very often: A moody anime about a family of utter losers that get into some serious superpower-related trouble. Except we had that show just last season, it was called Inuyshiki. The two really are quite similar, from the dark, violent tone with undercurrents of dry humor, to the great OP and ED (by Y. Umetsu, who also did the character designs), to the part where it’s based on a finished manga, to the part where it doesn’t look quite as good as it should. I liked Inuyashiki well enough, but I hope that this time it doesn’t end up being 50% closeups of people crying and a botched ending. There’s a lot of potential here, and I’m curious to see what these guys fail to achieve with their newly found time-stopping powers. This show hasn’t really tipped its hand over where it’s going and that makes it feel like a gamble, but a gamble I’m willing to take.
Mitsuboshi Colors
MItsuboshi Colors is about three elementary school girls getting up to all sorts of cutesy mischief. It also has a character design very reminiscent of Ichigo Mashimaro (look at those eyes), so that’s a big ol’ can of “cute or pedo?” right there. In practice it’s fairly similar to Yotsuba&, the gold standard for the former, so you probably don’t have to worry. Well, apart from Kotoha (the blue one who makes the morbid remarks) having a very curious tendency to step on people a lot, which might be rather exciting for some folks. Just planting that landmine in your head, you’re welcome. Blame Blend S. Anyway, what gets Mitsuboshi Colors out of the “nothing” trap that Slow Start falls into is that the antics of these brats are actually decently funny, and they’re not significantly more childish than the usual moe anime high schooler either. Production values are well above average too, so if you’re looking for some inoffensive cuteness on a Sunday, this seems like a safe bet.
