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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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 Stretch
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[series:4821#628] | ||||||
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(18 episodes watched): Any anime with an otaku theme has a decent chance of persuading me to watch. I just hope some decent effort was put into it and it isn't banking on the usual 'Oops, I got to touch your boobs' stuff. This show could still go either way, and I would guess it is more likely to be cheap than deep, but it looks like fun for now. The jokes were OK, for one thing. Apparently Amano won't be the only girl who joins the manga club. Indeed, in episode two Mikari Tachibana, a childhood friend of Okamura and now a well-known model, transfers into the class. She has secretly loved him for years and hates the manga which he is more interested in than her. What was disturbing about episode two was the way it made clear that this show will be relying heavily on the usual 'Oops, I tripped and fell with my hand on your boobs' crapola. It happens twice in this episode, once with Ririsa and once with Mikari, who shamelessly tries to seduce Masamune but then declares she's not willing to go the whole way. It looks like this show will try to provide teenage boys with too-good-to-be-true situations that they can dream about being in themselves. Clearly nowhere near as good as My Dress-Up Darling, and I'm starting to think that maybe I should go watch that a second time rather than this. This show was seeming to be more about getting a boner than cosplay. Episode three was fairly fun, however; the jokes were OK, and we did learn a little about cosplay (namely, how photos are computer edited). Perhaps this was possible because there was only one boner-inducing scene in the episode. Mikari is conveniently already deep in love with Okamura and will do anything, even cosplay in sleazy costumes, to seduce him. I have a feeling the romance in this show will not be all that deep and moving. In episode four Okamura and Ririsa go to a modest sized cosplay convention but since they haven't prepared well, about the only way to draw attention to their DVD would be if Ririsa dons her Liliel costume and performs live. She gets a good deal of help from fellow female cosplayers. No cheap 'accidents' in this episode at all, or in episode five either, which raised my assessment of this series a bit. Predictably, Ririsa/Liliel finds herself wildly popular and the star of the convention. Liliel and Okamura are encouraged to shoot for the bigger and more prestigious cosplay event at Summer Comiket. Nevertheless, I liked the way things worked out; insecure Ririsa gets a boost and we learn a bit about how semi-professional cosplaying is done. There's the usual joke where Okamura misinterprets Ririsa's words for a confession but it turns out that what she really 'loves' is the way her cosplaying career has taken off with his help. I wish the two had actually admitted their true feelings to each other, but that never happens this early in an anime. This show seemed a good deal less cheap and tawdry after episodes four and five. In episode six Masamune gets a lesson in cosplay photography from Ogino, the portly guy he met at the convention. We get an idea of just how sophisticated this art has become. Also, the manga club is in danger of being downgraded from a true club to a meeting group (or something like that). The signs are that in episode seven we'll meet the final major character, the shapely female teacher who will be their advisor (might she also be a cosplay star who has gone missing according to Ogino?). Sure enough, Sensei Mayuri (IIRC) has a colored past which she needs to keep secret in order to retain her job, and a touch of blackmail persuades her to serve as the advisor to the Manga Club--it needs one to avoid being downgraded. She's also inspired by Ririsa's genuine devotion to cosplay. Another thing the club could do would be to actually produce some manga--it is the manga club, not the cosplay one, after all. Why didn't Okamura and Ririsa ask Tachibana if she knew anything about writing or drawing? This show has shaped up a good deal from the cheap tricks it was pulling in the early episodes (I suspect the anime crew insisted that these be tacked onto the original manga), and the jokes are fairly funny. The idea of creating a manga doesn't last long as Okamura and Ririsa decide that what they really want to do is enter a competition at a larger upcoming cosplay convention and hopefully take a prize--that might impress the people in charge of allocating rooms to different clubs. They find that Ririsa will be up against Satori, one of the four stars of cosplaying (Mayuri is/was another). Again, there is no mention of Tachibana at all--apparently she won't even accompany her fellow clubmembers to this event. Definitely not brilliant, but I was curious about what would happen. A mistake and a snide remark from Satori shatter Ririsa's confidence and it looks like she won't perform at all. It was painful yet predictable--she overreacts to a setback yet snaps back just as quickly once given the right talk by Okamura. Nevertheless we have gotten to know her well enough that we really want her to succeed. But she needs time, which comes from an unexpected source. I think this show has shaped up considerably from the cheapened opening episodes. In episode ten Mayuri uses her old skills as a cosplayer to buy some time for Ririsa to costume up. We get a lengthy but not pointless meditation from Satori about how cosplaying has gone from being a fun hobby to a drab business for her, and how making it a job has caused her to see fellow cosplayers as dangerous rivals rather than comrades. It makes you think a little. Another thing I wonder about is to what extent male fans of cosplaying are really excited by the characters and to what extent they just like seeing scantily clad women. Anyway, in episode 11 the principal himself has heard about Ririsa's recent performance and a reset occurs regarding the club's status. Something about the principal admires the members' drive but doesn't want them to make a mistake similar to one he once made--it was confusing. Also, Ogino calls Okamura and briefs him on the stir Ririsa has created in the cosplay world. She has (just barely) reached the status of being one of the 'Five Stars', who are the five best cosplayers. We are introduced to two new characters. I got the impression that rather than winding down this show still had a good ways to go (2nd season?), which is OK with me. And, Tachibana still exists. Episode 13 has a new OP sequence, demonstrating that this will indeed be a two season show. Ririsa happens to meet Nonoa, another of the Five Stars. Nonoa would like nothing better than for Ririsa to become her friend, but when out of costume she is painfully shy and seems outright hostile. When you stop and think about it, it's hard to believe that someone who is so socially challenged could possibly become as famous as she has, but sometimes it is best to not stop and think. In episode 14 Nonoa fights her way through her painful social handicap to tell Liliel what she really thinks (is she talking to Liliel, the character, or Ririsa, the cosplayer?). It seemed to me like a strange mix of the absurd and the touching--'absurdly touching', or 'touchingly absurd' perhaps. In episode 15 Okamura, Ririsa and Nonoa are allowed to borrow a studio for some cosplay photography. They meet the highly extroverted Aria Kiseki, a gyaru and beginning cosplayer. What I would have preferred was some hint of whether Okamura and Ririsa will ever fall in love, or at least if he is starting to see her as Ririsa rather than Liliel. That is, stay with the two basic characters rather than introducing more. Anyway, Aria has a model's body and is highly enthusiastic about cosplaying but knows nothing. Her motivations were confusing. In episode 16 Okamura, Ririsa and Nonoa give her a crash course in classic anime and Liliel in particular. In episode 17 Aria explains her unusual reason for going into cosplay: her parents divorced, and she has no idea where her father, a mangaka, is. She hopes that if she becomes fairly well known as a cosplayer he will notice and contact her. This seemed fairly interesting to me, more interesting at least than Nonoa's hard to take seriously social phobia. A fourth cosplayer is needed for the ambitious group performance they are planning, and just the right girl is available. Aria overhears her mother saying that her father is dead, but episode 18 gives us reason to believe that is not the case. The four girls debut their new performance at Comiket but find that multi-person cosplay acts aren't as easy as they had assumed. We meet Lemon and Lime, two twins who are rising star cosplayers themselves. Last updated Saturday, November 16 2024. Created Saturday, July 27 2024. | ||||||||
