Series Review: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (4/10)

Instant Summary: A shut-in (hikikomori) has the power to alter reality.

Sasami's screencaps are pretty boring. But at least they reflect the anime well.

Despite being a big fan of "Shinbo-style", we all know studio Shaft bombs every now and then. For this anime, unfortunately, that becomes very clear by the third episode. But even among the titles that has very little success like Natsu no Arashi, I've always enjoyed the unique presentation of Shinbo. That is until Sasami-san@Ganbaranai. This anime kinda proved that while "Shinbo-style" animation may be the life of many titles, it can also wreck a show.

That is because Sasami actually had good story. It even has a good concept that puts the traditional Japanese gods in very unusual characters, and the "absolute power over all creation" becomes a very interesting element of the show. But the "Shinbo-style" seems to be in constant conflict with the story. In the first three episodes, I had a hard time telling whether the show is trying to be serious or comedic, because it seemed so absurd that everything could just wrap up as one big joke. That, and it's really hard to take the Brother's ridiculous voice seriously. It's actually pretty enjoyable during the comedic or slice-of-life sections, but the story always feels like a big mess.

The killer would be how it gets so very irritating over time. The conflict between the serious and comedic atmosphere is one. The Brother's voice is another. And there's the poor animation combined with excessive posing, probably to saving money on animation. And there's the rapid-fire conversation delivering huge chunks of information over loud, melodramatic and annoying BGM. That is a new low for Shaft.

Sasami gives me the constant vibe that it's trying to be something unique and spectacular. But throughout the show that's all it'll be; trying to be something it's not. Either the lack of budget or laziness screwed the show over, and made it the worst Shaft title yet.

Plot/Concept: Great potential...
Story Style: The style took the story to all the wrong places.
Audio/Visual: Poor
Value: 4

First Impressions: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

Instant Summary: A shut-in (hikikomori) has the power to alter reality.

...Yes, the summary is a bit of a spoiler, but I'll keep it that way. You see, the first episode can be pretty frustrating to watch. It revealed little to no info about the setting of the show, and it plunges straight into a insane series of unexplainable action ranging from coating the entire world with chocolate to fighting giant tentacles with rocket launcher bursting out from a high-schooler's tits. While it may be the studio's intention to draw attention with the mania, but the frustration quickly turned into irritation for me.

With such a insane first episode, I found it really hard to be convinced by the extremely brief explanation in the following episodes. I was still fully expecting the half-assed explanation to be some sort of red herring, or delusions of our main character.

The sad thing is that despite the bold opening to the show that seems to blow up half the budget of the anime, the whole fiasco is still visually unappealing. We all know that Shaft makes poop every now and then, and Sasami-san seems guaranteed to be one of them. Aside for a small bits of fan-service and comedy, the "reality alternation" theme is the main bait of the title, but I'm not biting. There aren't many complaining about show like I do, but it really didn't wow many people at all. I'm really not expecting a lot from this one.

Outlook: Disappointing