RogerBW's Blog

2014, 12 episodes: AniDB; also known as "Electric Town Bookstore".

Workplace sitcom based in a manga/DVD/game/etc. shop, poking fun at the fandom and conventions of the genre.

Unlike last spring season's Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to, these episodes run the standard 25-ish minutes, and there's a large cast from the beginning. It's also a relatively stable one; the nine main characters fall perhaps a little too neatly into possible pairs, with only one of them outside the usual structure of romantic relationships.

Even with full-length episodes, though, the characters are fairly sketched in. Fu (Rotten) Girl is obsessed with zombies, and can be persuaded to attack people if they're made to look like zombies; "Sensei" is an aspiring manga artist who is (shock horror) unfeminine (female roles are resolutely old-fashioned here); "Sommelier" can tell by looking at someone what sort of erotic manga they'll enjoy. Still, they do better than in some comedy I've met: one does end up caring at least a bit about what happens to them.

There is some little plot progression, as some of the potential romantic relationships seem to be moving in a vaguely positive direction, but nothing definitive really happens. The jokes are bit hit and miss, but they don't outstay their welcome, with each episode divided into two or three short segments.

In the end I rate this as "mildly interesting", but not worth seeking out unless you're a fairly dedicated fan of the genre.