Impression:

I don’t really know what to expect from this series. Slice of life is probably a very good tag for this anime because it seems like normal high school stuff for the most part. Take away the herald and we have girls that don’t get along and the pressures of taking over the family business without the usual dramatization.

Three very different girls.

I guess that Yumi is here to stay. She may not have started off on the right foot with Saeki, but the two get along fairly well now. Unfortunately, they have thrown another personality into the mix. The student council president is not too happy with the way that the girls are acting. Everyone is acting far too carefree even though there is no teacher around. Yumi and Funabashi get into it and that starts something pretty bad. Yumi is one of those girls that gets followed around by a group of mindless bitches that take it upon themselves to fight battles that aren’t theirs. These girls often follow any girl that shows the slightest bit of popularity in anime and that is what is going on in this episode. They are starting to bully Funabashi even thought it isn’t their fight. They even go as far as involving Saeki because of the initial problems that she had with Yumi. This gets broken up by Yumi and the three girls end up heading to the shrine. Funabashi, Yumi, and Saeki are all dealing with their own problems, but they have found some common ground. Hooray for new friends I guess.

I felt this way during the entire episode.

Current Opinion of the Show:

Is this really where the series is headed? I don’t mind simple slice of life because I have watched my fair share of that, but things just don’t seem to be going anywhere. I know that there is a theme about people coming together. The shrine is supposed to serve as a way for people to connect and all of that, but I don’t know how I feel about all of these problems being solved in less than a half an hour and everyone becoming friends. I feel like I am watching a bad sitcom. For those of you that do not watch television from the United States, then I definitely suggest that you avoid most modern sitcoms. There wasn’t even comedy here. There was some uncomfortable bullying that involved a bunch of unimportant characters and Funabashi. All I know is that they better develop Yumi and Funabashi or I am going to consider most of this time to be wasted. Gintaro did say that they would be together for a while, so that will hopefully happen.

That is adorable.

The relationship between Gintaro and Saeki is very interesting to me. I think that it is probably the best part of the series at this point. Saeki’s dad doesn’t seem like a bad father, but we definitely see a nice connection between these two. Saeki is definitely looking for another parental voice with her mother gone and Gintaro isn’t a bad one to have. It is also nice to have a more casual presence than a father around. Having said all of that, Saeki’s dad is a character that I would definitely like to see more of. He is a funny guy and I think that a look into his handling of being a priest and a single father will fit in well with the slice of life drama stuff that we have going on here. Some flashbacks of Saeki’s mom would also be nice. Aside from that, I don’t know what I am looking forward to in this series. MyAnimeList tells us that there is going to be a male character introduced in the series, so that may be interesting. I just don’t know if the series itself will draw me in anymore than it already has. That was a knock and not a complement. I don’t find this series to be anything special.

That was fast.