Working is simply a different breed of slice of life and best not to be compared with slice of life anime that takes place at a school setting. It’s like comparing Sora no Woto with K-ON! when Sora no Woto have a different setting and premise.

People tried to justify K-On!’s worth by comparing it with BECK? What the deuce?? K-On! is a poor example of slice-of-life for lazy writing, zero character development and being blatant moe blob that aims at pushing moe fans’ buttons only. BECK is in the class of its own, period.

Furthermore, K-ON!! (note it’s the second season) is just as bad, if not worst. I don’t think K-ON!! can even be compared to music-themed shows anymore; it hardly even show them making music! It even has a whole episode about the band coping with summer heat. SUMMER HEAT! From where I come from, it’s summer everyday. My point is, we’re basically watching a show about girls living their lives, and their lives aren’t even as exciting as our RL activities.

And with this, I have plenty to talk about for the review.

@AC
I could have lengthened this article by another 500 words or so if I started writing about the Chief, and the ironic love triangle she’s in the middle of. She’s another character who is, to a fair extent, defined by family. Her sword is representative of her cutlery dealing family, and the trouble it got her into as a kid is what lead to her meeting Kyouko. It’s also funny how Yamada sees her as the “mother” in her desired soap opera family. As far as Satou is concerned, I laughed when he was friendzoned in ep 10. The universe hates Satou for liking Yachiyo, and boy does it make him suffer.

@Kylaran

I really like Working!!

Do you also really love to skip out on work?

The last two seasons of Minami-ke haven’t been anywhere near as good as the first, and that doesn’t just go for animation. As far as K-On! goes, well I have my opinions, and I’m not going to pass up this opportunity to air them. It’s the anime equivalent of standing water if you ask me. People try to attribute depth to it, claiming it’s a coming-of-age story which uses music as a vehicle, yet when you look at it alongside something like BECK, which was emphatic, on-message and executed with poise, it just comes off as hollow and insipid in comparison. So people run the other way, trying to claim it’s nothing more than a cute fun comedy about antics, but when you compare it with shows like Minami-ke’s first season and Working! or the two “Sketch” anime, it comes up incredibly short here too… left looking just lazy, derivative and bereft of any genuine charm. It’s one of the most cynical and transparent examples of moe fanservice I think I’ve ever seen, so it bemuses me that people want to dress it up as something more noble or meaningful than it really is. It’s all well and good for people to like moe fanservice if they want, but to put it on some sort of pedestal…? Please, that’s an insult to similar slice-of-life moe comedies that are actually either well executed or creatively ambitious.

@Akira
Gap-moe. Now there’s an interesting idea. I disagree about Takenashi x Inami but maybe that’s because I have misplaced expectations about the romance in this series. This ain’t a romance by any stretch of the imagination, it’s a comedy, but I do like to see couples actually get together, being the sort of person who doesn’t thinks that it really count as romance until the characters do become a couple. Everything else, though, totally agree (with the exception of Working! being this season’s winner, which is a big call, though it certainly is up there). It’s incredible that a show like this has managed to serve up so much smart comedy and so many aspects worthy of discussion, seeing as how it looked rather generic at the beginning.

Yamada is an absolutely brilliant character. I love everything about her, from her self-referential third-person pronoun usage (no doubt a self-defense mechanism to reinforce the fact that she IS Yamada in everyone’s minds) to her lazy, bum-around nature (with a perpetual “intern” badge on her uniform to accentuate her non-official status at the restaurant.) Even in the weird world of Wagneria, Yamada transcends absurdity and enters the realm of surrealism with her shenanigans.

I personally enjoy watching Yachiyo slowly crush Satou’s spirit every time she mentions Kyoko in front of him. I respect the guy for keeping his mouth shut, and keeping things non-awkward in the workplace. A true bro, if you will.

Kind of disappointed that Souma’s been pushed to the wayside. Given Kamiya’s (arguably unhuman) recording schedule, I don’t blame the directors. I think Souma’s comical sinisty should be exploited for more humorous effect in the show.

I really like Takenashi x Inami, but I’m hoping for no resolution on that. Working is too lulzy to suddenly give us a clear-cut pairing between two of the main character. I hope Inami keeps beating the shit out of him until the very last minute— just the way it should be.

Finally, I’ve been in an argument with a friend of mine over Taneshima’s tits. To be honest, I find her character design fascinating— small, cute and disgustingly well-endowed. Her character design may represent a kind of “gap-moe”— something that viewers find attractive beacuse of its novelty or unexpected nature.

All in all, though, Working is this season’s winner. I had high hopes for other shows, but this one takes the cake. The humor’s smart, the characters are adorable, the animation’s silky smooth— there’s not much more I can ask for from a show like this.

I completely agree that in a sense there’s something about this show that reminds me of Minami-ke as well. From a comedic standpoint, that’s great (good thing Working!! doesn’t have the same animation fail that the last Minami-ke did).

But maybe the way the drama is sort of carried in the comedy is far more interesting to me than a lot of series. I can’t stand K-ON or Lucky Star because, quite frankly, my everyday life is filled with fun, crazy people; I always find myself laughing a lot. So when I watch these so called comedy/slice-of-life blends, I always find them to be extremely dull in a sense. No conflict.

But what I like about Working!! is the way the relationships work in the series. Takanashi x Inami is great, especially since we all first gave little credit to Takanashi being anything more than a lolicon. Satou x Yachiyo makes the somewhat overdone mysterious/nonchalant superior (Kyoko) and loyal follower (Yachiyo) relationship have an extra dimention. Overall, I think it’s simply brought together well for some reason. I’m looking forward to the last few episodes.

However, halfway through the show, I began to love the show. It’s that kind of slice-of-life that grows on me because the characters do undergo some changes in their character, particularly the Taka-Inami pairing. Especially in this relationship, I think we would agree that irony plays a big role in making this show funny: Inami is clearly a violent girl judging from her androphobic outbursts, but you can’t really call her violent in terms of her personality (this is before you found out about her background). Takanashi hates her outbursts, but he never thought of staying away from her for good even when she’s not his type. Clearly, he isn’t such a shallow person and he became a respectable person when he helped to confront her fears (albeit with unusual means).

Frankly, I enjoy seeing the awkward tension between Todoroki and Satou everytime they speak to each other the most. Todoroki is completely oblivious to Satou’s feelings for her, but Satou actually wants her to be that way. He has a crush on her but he shrugs it off for Todoroki’s benefit, since he doesn’t think it’s a big deal anyway. I kinda respect him for it, but it’s awfully funny to see how Todoroki keeps rubbing it into his face when she talks about manager.

It started getting better when the orange haired one started trying to take responsibilty, combined with the introduction of Hirohashi Ryo’s character and the Takanashi sisters (who should get a Minami-ke spin-off).