Entry #8: Working!! (Re-Watch)

(Season One)

Scrumptious.

My previous entry for this title was “Why did I enjoy this?” I’m actually surprised I had doubts about the validity of this show. It’s endearing, it’s funny, and it serves up a delicious amount of drama, even if the drama itself isn’t that tasty.

It goes from a pedophile joining a cast of weirdos to said pedophile working towards curing a ferocious young girl with androphobia to… nothing. The second plot that arises continues on for a majority of the series, bringing up a variety of sub-plots with it. For the most part, these sub-plots go nowhere, or they only contribute to the bigger picture of underdeveloped relationships between the characters. But that’s not to say that the chemistry between characters isn’t fantastic. It just goes stale past the platonic.

Jun Satou is love. Jun Satou is life. Jun Satou is the character in anime I don’t see enough of. Jun Satou is the character anime needs.

Popura is cute.

Kat-Takanashi is an interesting main character, because he’s as dense as any, but he’s not the typical archetype. He’s a pedophile.

Yachiyo is hilariously exaggerated.

Kyouko is a lot of what I strive to be: paid to be lazy.

Souma is probably my least favorite character, seeing as he’s the most unrealistic. How does he gain so much information? Because fuck you.

Inami is cute. Her androphobia doesn’t really improve throughout this season, and I feel as though that’s both respectable and a cop-out for continuing with repetitive jokes.

Yamada is a guilty pleasure. She causes a rift in the validity of the show, but her lazy persona is too familiar for me to loathe.

Art is fine. In fact, the art is really fine. It’s pretty nice. In every situation.

It’s a really entertaining series, even if the realism is lacking. The chemistry between the characters is probably the selling point of this show, because the chemistry is absolutely fantastic. The characters play off of each other very well. It’s the most realistic aspect of the show, and I applaud its determination to keep each character in line. It’s ironic that the most realistic of relationships exist between the most unrealistic of characters… along with a realistic setting with unrealistic expectations. Working!! just blends everything together in a successful attempt at diversity. Somewhat similar to America, except they don’t hate each other for being different. Ho-hum.

(Season Two)

I’m getting really lazy with these entry updates.

I’m also holding off making these updates for titles with more than one season. I just write both of the entries on one day after I’ve completed both of them. I should seriously stop that. Seriously.

There are aspects of the second season I liked more than the first. There are also aspects I didn’t care for that were added.

I didn’t care for the drama. Working!! works well when the characters work well together. When they are avoiding each other due to some misunderstanding, it throws off the balance of the show and its good standings. It makes it feel, well, repetitive.

I liked the character building in this season. The first season was more of an introductory phase, while the second season started showing the characters more outside of the workplace, which I thought was a nice touch. It also brought in new characters that were, for lack of a better word, fine. They weren’t annoying, at least.

I hated Takanashi’s family, so the second season decided to show them more. I only really enjoyed watching Takanashi’s younger siblings. All the other sisters were too one-dimensional. That’s really saying something, since most of the main cast appear one-dimensional.

I liked how it didn’t really feel like a second season from a story-based standpoint. It just felt like it continued where it left off, as if it never ended and the series itself was just 26 episodes. It certainly did wonders for immersing purposes by doing this. This is also known as “They didn’t stray.”

For any more information about this series, refer to my season one entry, as they’re far too similar to really go on about in other regards.

Personal Score: B+

Critical Score: B