Anime: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai is a hilariously greedy light novel adaptation because it has it both ways. Not only is the show understandably wacky to anime-only watchers—like myself—but it also believably weaves a lot of story and character development with only 12 episodes. The result is a show that’s absolutely delightful to watch from start to finish.

And when I say “delightful to watch”, that also includes the vibrant and fluid visuals. Tsurugi Yagami’s lab coat flutters with her every step, Kagami Yagami –feels— like she’s carrying massive weapons, and Tama Yagami’s dress moves as if she’s ready to hop in any direction. When the characters aren’t showing off the liveliness put into them during one of the show’s slick fight scenes, they’re often moving against a still backdrop—for example, an early scene where Sasami Tsukuyomi changes into her school uniform—to create a theatre-like effect with antiquated charm. Sasami-san@Ganabaranai is visually creative and moves as good as it looks.

But while the characters aren’t as creative as the visuals their dynamics make up for the lack of originality. A dynamic-heavy story must avoid repetitive relationships and it does by writing nearly every character to interact with each other. Whether it’s the subtle difference between refusal and denial Kagami shows to Tama and Sasami or Tsurugi’s serious streak against Juju Tsukuyomi, almost every scene has a new dynamic or develops an existing one. For Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, this means dried up archetypes are refreshed by a drink of personality that’s both familiar and new.

But what’s entirely new is the story itself. Never before has an anime made sense so little justified with reasons so much. Whether the world melted into chocolate or a video game took more than a player’s spare time, the story casually slips in background about the odd happening; it certainly needs to as there’s a method to this literal madness. Yet the story itself always makes sense despite how insane it gets and becomes more impressive still considering one of the threads is time travel. Developing this much understandable nonsense in 12 episodes makes Sasami-san@Ganbaranai’s story excellent if not unique.

But the anime isn’t flawless by any means. There’s a plot point about Juju that’s implied instead of explained and the last three episodes introduce a character whose development makes no sense. Nevertheless, the motivation to make this much story and character development believable to anime-only watchers in such short time topped with great visuals makes Sasami-san@Ganbaranai a labor of love that’s ironic in itself; if “ganbaranai” means “unmotivated”, I’d rather be @lazy.

Sasami is about a hikikomori who, not surprisingly, lives at home and, more surprisingly, has divine powers. This alternate/fantasy world has gods everywhere, and apparently Sasami & her brother have the ability of Amaterasu, and can therefore literally transform the world to their likings. However, being a hikikomori, Sasami would rather not have anything to do and thus works boringly with some other gods to maintain the status quo. Now, this show starts pretty dramatically with something almost as far out as having a boy get run over by a scooter and then have robots pop out of his head after being hit by a guitar (FLCL). In Sasami's version, a bunch of weird transformations occur on the earth (chocolate anyone?), and then some random characters suddenly appear and fight to restore order. This mass confusion is eventually explained but know that the series throws quite a few perplexing twists into the mix.

Sasami is definitely not a show for everyone. It is for the active viewer who have nothing better to do than watch a girl do nothing (other than occasionally make friends, travel through time, get turned into chocolate, suddenly grow fat... all the usual stuff). For those masochistic or bored viewers who want to watch this, be prepared for quite a ride with some good parts and equally many confusing or unexplained parts.

Animation:
Shaft is in charge here so stylistically it may look reminiscent of Bakemonogatari with lots of sudden flashes to and between images and other stylized scenes. It's an interesting dynamic shifting between water-color like simple scenes and lush, detailed panoramic scenes. Characters are pretty distinct from each other though it's pretty far into the series before you really get to know them. Sasami's brother is an interesting character as you never ever get to see his face, it might have to do with Sasami though it's never really explained. Most likely they're not going for the "it could be you" scenario as most people probably would not enjoy being in his position.

This show incorporates a surprising amount of action considering the lazy nature of the title. There's a robot girl who can transform body parts into projectile weapons and, apparently, a lot of mischievous gods so you'll get some decent fight scenes. Though there are a lot of action scenes, they aren't always of very good quality. The show also does have some ecchi moments that calls for god rays in the TV version, and eventually there is a futanari scene. This is on top of the perverse nature of Sasami's brother, though that part actually makes sense once the story explains the family background.

Sound:
The OP is a typical jpop work with a bit of an electronic background and a fair melody. The ED is a bit like a radio drama as the actual song isn't sung until the very end of the series. Throughout the rest of the show, expect additional dialogue during the ED often by characters related to the pertinent episode. The BGM is your typical supportive but easily-forgotten fare.

The VA cast is very good overall. Both Kana Asumi and Houchuu Ootsuka do very well in their lead roles. Especially Kana as I'm used to her voicing much more upbeat, lively roles.

Story:
The story starts off by handing you a horrifically twisted ball of yarn and then slowly unraveling it, hoping that you haven't yet run away in confusion. Assuming the viewer makes it through the first three episodes, Sasami takes on an arc-based approach where the Yagami sisters, Sasami's mother, and Edogawa take turns sharing the spotlight with Sasami. The story builds to multiple climaxes at the end of each arc and then finally concludes on a rather boring note.

Along the way there are numerous cliffhangers, plot twists, and additional confusion. The director really likes using the pattern of selling you one version of a particular sub plot and then hitting you again later with what really happened. These aren't nearly as bad as the first mess so it's sort of like Saving Private Ryan where they front load you with all the confusion/gore. I did find a few particular annoying points and contradictions with the explication but overall, assuming you can deal with the randomness of the gods and all, it's a fairly digestible, albeit implausible, story.

Character:
Sasami has a fairly varied cast of introverts and extroverts. Most of the characters have decent background and explication (eventually) though the actual development is a bit less convincing. For instance, Kana Hanazawa is great and all but Yagami's transformation from "robot" to "human" was less convincing than one would hope. Supposedly, a large portion of the show revolves around Sasami's attempt to make friends. While a bit humorous at first, the entire development just isn't as convincing as most other shows. It doesn't really help that random characters are thrown in at times and that characters often have hidden personalities/traits that are revealed seemingly at random.

Overall, while it's a fairly entertaining cast, it isn't a particularly well developed one.

Value:
This will mostly be remembered as a WTF series just based on the first few episodes. The story might have been trying to go somewhere, but it trips over itself along the way too many times to make a meaningful impact. Though a fairly interesting watch, it can get really confusing at times with a lot of randomness and the bending of reality. Ultimately, you get to watch a girl fail miserably at trying to do nothing.

THE STAFF
Once upon a time there was a studio called SHAFT, which hired a man named Simbo Akiyuki and created one very good school comedy called Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei (SZS). It sold so well, it kept making more similar comedies, and even though none of them were as good as the first, they kept making money out of the fame they got thanks to it. And this is why we get Sasami-san at Ganbaranai at present time

PROPER MINDSET
What made SZS so good was the simple fact it had a character for every possible situation. They could deal with any issue they could think of thanks to it, and half the time it would even be about social criticism. All the later comedies though had a far more narrowed space to move, and without ever trying to flesh out their characters past the first dimension, or at least having a plot to keep you interested, they ended up becoming boring much sooner. This problem is inherited to their current comedy, which is about a shut-in girl. Just how long can they stretch this joke before it becomes boring; especially when SZS already had such a character? The very first episode is pretty much telling you “Not even 10 minutes.”

CAST
There are no characters in this show, unless you can call generic caricatures defined by one stereotype and one personality quirk as such. In case you do, there are 5 of them.
- One is a shut-in girl who spends her life indoors and stalks her brother with hidden cameras. She sees him as her slave and doesn’t want anyone to be interested in him; thus she is a spoiled, arrogant, selfish brocon.
- The second is said brother, a major siscon who does nothing all day besides trying to please her sister. He loves to hide his face from the camera for no real reason. Probably a parody of the faceless hero in hentai games.
- The others are three underage sisters who are all very interested in the brother. They do a lot of things to attract his attention but he is stuck to thinking only of his sister to care.
There, that was all I can say about them. Very eccentric in whatever they do based on the one and only stereotype they are made up from and absolutely nothing more. Oh, they are also supposed to be gods but this has as much importance as everything else in the show. Absolutely none.

SCRIPT
There never was plot or development in any SHAFT comedy, and this one is following the tradition. It’s complete randomness. All you get is four underage girls messing with the life of a faceless deviant adult in a completely random succession of scenes and plots. And sure, reality keeps messing up because they are gods but this doesn’t add anything to the setting; it just excuses the randomness and shallowness. It doesn’t even attempt to criticize society or otaku culture like SZS did. In the contrary, it makes it look like it’s fun to be a hikikomori. It just oversexualized major social problems Japan faces and threw them in your face expecting you to find that funny. It isn’t.

PRODUCTION VALUES
Minimalistic, artsy, full of filters, but surely no longer that special after all the similar yet inferior to SZS comedies SHAFT made. Good voice acting, forgettable songs, the whole thing looks like a parody of hentai games.

LEGACY
A forgettable series. SHAFT must try something different if it wants to make money out of something else other than milking the Bakemonogatari franchise.