A Review of WWW.Working!!

Back in my early days of watching anime, I ran across the original Working! (AKA Wagaria!) and fell in love with it for its quirky cast of characters and interesting twist to running gag comedy. That was like 4 years ago! Then back in the summer I received news that Working!! was coming back as a Spinoff series and I rolled in my bed out of joy and started giggling like a 12 year-old girl. But now that I have seen this show, what are my thoughts on it? Everybody, I am your host, GiraffePants, and this is a review of WWW.Working!!

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS (This time I'm sure of it)

SYNOPSIS

Our story starts off with a serious high school student named Daisuke who lives a rather mundane existence but one day his father's company goes bankrupt. The bankruptcy forces Daisuke to go get a job so he can pay for his expenses. Daisuke decides to work at nearby family restaurant hoping to keep living his normal existence. What Daisuke doesn't know is that his workplace and coworkers are anything but normal.

STORY

The story for WWW.Working has the same structure as the original Working. The story is made up of the interactions among the quirky cast on a day to day basis. Nothing drastic occurs; instead, a lot of little developments occur which move us along. This show isn't focused so much on the story as it the characters. Working wants to maximize each character's quirk to it's fullest potential and make you laugh cause in the end, this show's all about comedy. The comedy is the biggest component of the show. It's what makes you want to continue watching and if that comedy factor wasn't there, well then we'd be left with nothing! But what makes the comedy good. The biggest reason for the comedy factor is the characters' quirky personalities. Each member of the family restaurant has some kind of quirk that makes them weird. These weird quirks are what set up jokes, punchlines, and pretty much everything else! The comedy itself is very interesting. I find the comedy to be really funny because jokes always have a twist to them. This show tends to use long running gags but each time it introduces that gag again, the show gives it a little twist to make it feel new and refreshing. A nice example is whenever Daisuke eats one of his coworker's chocolates, he goes into a coma-like state and is visited by St. Valentine. From there St. Valentine and Daisuke provide the comedy. Then the show later twists this gag by having other members of the restaurant visit St. Valentine and having Valentine get more and more frustrated every time they come into his realm. The comedy is pretty dry so if you're fans of deadpan humor, then you'll enjoy this show immensely.

Something else I love is the relationship pairs the show makes. Early in the show you see these comedy pairs form and whenever there is significant development, it involves both members. Kinda like mini arcs that all take place at once. Daisuke & Hana are one such example. Most of the screen time they get are together and any developments include their relationship. Rarely are they away from each other and that goes for the other pairs in the show. Not only are they comedic pairs but romantic ones as well. I generally liked the romance in the show and in the entire series in general because it isn't obvious. It's not like when the show starts one character is like "Oh I already love you" and the other agrees; It's more complex than that. Characters truly have to explore each other in order to understand one another and develop their relationship! This ain't no harem BS; it's legitimate relationship building with some nice comedy thrown in.

CHARACTERS

You already know that I love these characters for their quirks! What kind of quirks are we talking about. Well you have Sayuri who can see ghosts but doesn't know she can see ghosts, Hana who may well be the most densest girl to have ever existed, Yuuta who is the son of a chronic gambler and now has to pay off his father's debt from a large corporation, Shiho who is the daughter of that large corporation and loves to torment Yuuta both out of love and hate. There are plenty others but I don't want to make a list here and I think you get the idea. The original Working had this exact formula and it ended up working for the series. That show had characters with completely different quirks that all made them somewhat socially inept and it made me love them all for it. I myself am pretty socially awkward so seeing characters with what I have but taken to the extreme really helps me relate with the cast and is hilarious! Character development is a bit stagnant. The relationship that character pairs have change as the show progress but the characters themselves don't change much. That's not a bad thing though because really, this show doesn't need character development. It's just a show to make us laugh and have a good time. There is no need for deep storytelling; the quirks are funny so why wouldn't you keep running with the quirks, right? There are definitely some characters that don't get a lot of screen time. The manager, Kisaki, and Takuya don't get much of the silver screen to themselves and seem to be in the show just so there's some people around. Like having a bunch of useless NPCs around. Overall though I enjoy this cast of zany characters and they truly make the show what it is.

MUSIC

The music for this show is interesting to talk about. Let's start with the OP. The opening song is "Eyecatch! Too Much!" by Haruka Tomatsu, Yoko Hikasa, and Sora Amamiya; the voice actors for Hana, Sayuri and Shiho respectively. I thought this song was nice and bubbly, much like the old series but it wasn't a smash hit. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I could say the same for the ED, "Muchuuryoku Fever" which is also performed by the cast. They're nice songs but don't really make much of an impact. Overall they did nothing fantastically with the music and sound. In the show, whatever music is played tends to land on the side of bouncy and kinda silly but there isn't that much music within the show to begin with. Many times the show purposefully leaves music out for the sake of comedy. When a punchline is to be performed or when things have to be a bit awkward, there won't be any music which I thought was great but that does add to the lack of great music. I don't know if this was creative choice or budget constraints but I can say that the show did an OK job. I don't think the music for the show was bad; it was nice but in the end it was nothing all that special.

ANIMATION

The overall animation quality of WWW.Working is OK. It isn't impactful or even memorable in the least but it isn't shit so that's good. For the past year I've been at odds with A-1 Pictures, the studio making this show. I generally love them because If anything, they do good animation work but the last year has been a roller coaster for me. Back in winter 2016, they made Erased and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash which were both very good shows. The stories for those shows were good and the animation was some of the best for the year. Then they completely fell flat during the Spring and Summer season. The shows they were working on were just bad and the animation differed from decent to bad. Back to this show; the animation is OK but the story is great so after 2 seasons of disappointment, I'm finally pleased with their work. Of course, A-1 Pictures is capable of better animation but WWW.Working doesn't need "A+" quality animation. The animation is good for a show like WWW.Working that isn't serious. There is no fluidity to the animation or a lot of detail in the scenes but the animation does execute comedy scenes well so I'll forgive you A-1 Pictures. 

FINAL VERDICT

Technical Score- 7.3 out of 10 (C)

The story for WWW.Working is good. It's what you expect from a slice of life comedy. I enjoyed the sprinkle of romance thrown in and the relationship building between pairs. The biggest positive about this show is the fun cast of quirky characters who make the show what it is! Music and animation are OK but definitely weren't top quality but they don't make the show any worse so that is good. The show could have been improved in the technical aspect but it's a good show how it is.

Personal Score- 7.8 out of 10 (C+)

The show may not have been the best executed show but I did enjoy it. It filled a little hole in my heart I've been trying to fill ever since I finished the original Working. This show made me laugh with it's cold comedy which you don't see so much and the show really captured the heart of the original! It's is a spin-off that's actually good! So if you enjoy weird characters and dry comedy than this is the show for you! Any Working!! fans out there who haven't checked out this show for whatever reasons, get on it cause you'll be pleased how similar this show is to the original.

I hope you guys enjoyed the post! I do my best to bring as much content as I can to you. If you guys enjoyed it, leave a comment down below about some recent shows you guys would like to see a review about or what you liked about this show. If you like what I do, check out my YouTube Channel, GiraffePants Anime, for more content and I'll see you all for the next post.

My Channel: GiraffePants Anime

A Review of Flip Flappers

I couldn't wait any longer! I have been urging to talk about this show so I will!!! Flip Flappers was my favorite show of the Fall 2016 season and for plenty of good reasons. This entire show is just a big slob of artistic genius! I'm not the biggest fan of magical girl shows buut this one has captivated my heart and was one of the biggest surprise of the year for me. I am GiraffePants and today I will be doing a review of Flip Flappers!

*NOTE* There will be spoilers

SYNOPSIS

Our story starts off with an average normal teenager by the name of Cocona. One day Cocona has a fateful encounter with an eccentric girl named Papika and asks her to join her and organization known as Flip Flip. Flip Flap is an organization focused on adventuring to the parallel world known as Pure Illusion and collect crystal fragments that will grant a wish if they're all collected. Cocona soon discover's that her childhood friend, Yayaka also seeks the fragments but for a rival organization bent on conquering the world. As Cocona and Papika collide with Yayaka, Cocona will learn more about Pure Illusion and the secret it holds.

STORY

This is a wonderful story about new and old friendships just with OP magical girls and a sick ass parallel world. Friendships are every important in this show, and the show chooses to focus on three relationships; The relationship between Cocona-Papika, Cocona-Yayaka, and (Major Spoiler) Soruto-Mimi. Each relationship goes on a set of twists and turns that challenge the relationship (This is prominent in the case of Cocona, Papika, and Yayaka). The show drives the fact that relationships are important for emotional support and overcoming challenges. For example, towards the end of the show, Cocona is forced to face her mother Mimi in her dark transformation but she can't do it alone! She needed the support and help from Papika in order to defeat Mimi and the best way for the pair to grow strong was by realizing how important their relationship with one another is. These relationships definitely have their downs but all the challenges the show's relationships go through are important to strengthening the bonds between characters. I absolutely love that this was the focus of the show! It adds a nice deep level for character development that pulls through nicely might I add. We see many characters go through stages of maturation and if there's something I love, it's development. 

Although, overall I enjoyed the story, I had trouble following what was going on in the beginning. This is the only negative I had with this show. In the beginning they throw the viewer into the world of pure illusion and developments happen quite fast in the first episode. Because of this, you can feel a bit confused after the first episode. Then in the third episode, Cocona and Papika are in a completely different situation than where we left off and it can come off as chaotic! The show does this because it wants the cover the concept that pure illusion is a world with differentiating environments and that the world itself doesn't follow the exact same rules as earth but when Cocona is suddenly the bad guy in a apocalyptic wasteland and we don't know why, it can make us tune out. It took me some time to process what was going on and understand the situation. That isn't the last time it does something like this so I can see where people may be turned off at some point. Besides that, this story was great all around and I enjoyed it immensely. 

CHARACTERS

As I've said, the focus of this show is on relationships and in order to illustrate that effectively, the characters have to be good and Flip Flappers does just that! The best characters of the show just happen to be Cocona, Papika, Yayaka, Soruto, and Mimi; The same set of characters whose relationships were focused on in the show. This isn't a coincidence. Each one of these characters shows a strong personality one way or another. Papika is care-free and generally happy while Cocona is cautious and shy. That isn't to say that this is how they are all the time; just like in real life people show a wide arrange of emotions aside from our most dominant common ones. For example, as the show progresses, Cocona learns to be more joyful as she continues to explore through Pure Illusion along with Papika. 

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE the characters' design. The girls are very slender and nimble and have very large colorful eyes. Their designs are crafted to represent a sense of adventure, curiosity, and innocence. And then there's Cocona's and Papika's Flip Flap transformation! Oh My god, I can't begin to explain how much I love their magical girl design. Their clothes are tasteful; I think the revealing back design and lack of clothes covering their shoulders is awesome cause it makes them look fucking majestic! I especially love their legs; one being completely covered by a white stocking with a short boot and the other just being a long fading boot. Lastly, I love that their hair grows practically twice in size, and both the hair and eyes changes color! Take note magical girl shows cause this is good design!

MUSIC

The music for Flip Flappers is definitely enjoyable. I like both the OP and ED; Actually I love the OP and ED! The OP titled "Serendipity" by ZAQ is great to listen to. While listening, it pumps me up for the episode I'm about to see (Which is good since that is the OP's job). The ED "FLIP FLAP FLIP FLAP" by TO-MAS feat.Chima is also great. It's a very quiet song, with a simple rhythm and  some fantastic singing. That song gives me a great feeling; It's kinda like a satisfying feel you get after seeing a great movie. It also feels very "Alice in wonderland-ish." The music within the show is pretty damn good. There's a wide range of genres the show uses to portray whatever feel they're trying to go for. When things are intense or action packed, they'll use Electronic music that's very fast paced and complex or when there's a need for a sense of wonder, the show will use orchestra music or other more traditional music that's more moderately paced. That's just a small taste of the music Flip Flappers that you can expect.

ANIMATION

OH! OH! Where the hell do I even begin here! Flip Flappers has the best animation out of all the shows that aired in 2016! They definitely deserve it for the masterpiece they've given us. First thing! the design of Flip Flappers is amazing! The regular world is full of beautiful European architecture and Patchy green lands. Then there's the world of Pure Illusion. Pure illusion uses many environments that range from snowy wonderlands to Tron like metropolises! It's practically orgasmic to witness just how much thought they put into the world alone.

Another great thing about this show is the color. Color plays a huge role in the animation and storytelling of Flip Flappers. Whether you're in the outside world or in Pure Illusion, the show is always colorful (except for that scary school episode). The world they go into in the second episode is especially good and my favorite! Colors are very bright and sometimes play an important role in showing character feelings. In the second episode you can see that Cocona's and Papika's Hair and eyes change color according to how they feel. Don't believe me, check that episode again and you'll see it.

The world and color of Flip Flappers is great but the movement of the animation itself is what drives this show in. The fluidity of scenes and the unorthodox angles for those scenes makes a hard impact on the viewer's eyes and delivers unique story telling you wish you could get everyday. From epic fight scenes to more subtle moments, Flip Flappers is carefully calculated and animated to give you a work of art that can only be described as "Breathtaking."

FINAL VERDICT

Tchnical Score- 9 out of 10 (A)

If you can't tell, I think that Flip Flappers is beautifully constructed and the thought that went into this work has payed off well. Jaw dropping visuals and a fantasy story that explores relationships and the obstacles that come with relationships is what really makes this show great. Combine that with a fantastic cast of characters and well-composed music and you have one of the best shows of the year!

Personal Score- 8.6 out of 10 (B)

The reason why my personal score is lower is because I did have that initial confusion at the beginning. I wasn't able to process what was going on for a bit but If I watched this again I believe that this score wold be higher. In the end, I highly Recommend that people watch this show because it is a true piece of art that will astound your eyes and heart.

As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this post! I did my best to explain things out and show why I love Flip Flappers so much. If there's anything you guys want to comment, then feel free to write down below! If you like what I do, then consider checking out my YouTube Channel, GiraffePants Anime for more content and I'll hopefully see you all for another post! PEACE!!!

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