(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Adaptation of a gag 4-panel manga series.
Characters
Yoko, our point-of-view character, comes from a family that used to be affluent, but recently fell into hard times. She still has a lot of “rich girl” mannerisms, but not the wealth nor the confidence to back it up. She desperately wants to fit in with “commoners”, but her social anxiety got the better of her and she got off the wrong foot with her class. Which is why she’s now spending her lunch breaks in a discrete hidden spot in the school gardens. (Mostly eating bread crumbs, because those are hella cheap.)
Two students from another class, Futaba, an energetic “black hole” who seems to be eating her own weight everyday, and Teru, the class rep adept of social-fu who hides a surprisingly devious nature behind her prim and proper attitude, happen to stumble upon her, and start socializing. Yoko is both baffled and delighted at first, but then gets anxious. What if I say something wrong and they stop being my friends ?
Yamaji used to be an (adult) servant of Yoko’s family for three minutes before they bankrupted, and has taken pity on her. Which means that he’s constantly stalking her and doing stuff like giving her the nearly-expired food he’s gathered in one of his many part-time jobs. On the one hand : dude, you’re creepy. On the other hand, your heart is in the right place, and the show treating you as an annoying but inoffensive joke has some charm.
So far, the three friends are mostly talking about food. Whether it’s the show’s main theme, or merely an ice breaker, remains to be seen.
Production Values
Bright and shiny, as it should be.
What did I think of it ?
Coming in, it sounded like the big selling point was that the show featured three girls instead of the usual four. As it turns out, it’s got a surprisingly effective character study of Yoko’s social anxiety that hit very close to home, as well as many good jokes (such as Futaba one day coming with a whole loaf of bread to eat) and some intriguing character beats (I want to know more about Teru’s hidden depths).
This is very fun indeed, and I’m definitely sticking around for more.
