OP Sequence

OP: 「七つの海よりキミの海」 (Nanatsu no Umi Yori Kimi no Umi) by 上坂すみれ (Uesaka Sumire)

「瀬戸際のむろみさん」 (Setogiwa no Muromi-san)
“Muromi-san on the Brink”

Here’s this show in a sentence: laid-back atmosphere with funny characters who tell silly jokes to pass the time. I laughed!

The Atmosphere

The first thing I noticed about this show was the atmosphere. It has this sort of silly fun vibe which, coupled with its simple backgrounds and nostalgic art, feels as relaxing as I’m told fishing is supposed to be (though I never got that from the sport myself). Which is good, because that’s really all this show has to support its comedy. It certainly doesn’t have much plot…any pretense of that was blown away when Muromi-san (Tamura Yukari) got attached to Mukoujim Takurou (Mizushima Takahiro) within minutes of him fishing her up. No matter though…at 12 minutes a pop, there’s not enough time for much plot anyway, so a nice relaxing atmosphere will do just fine.

Side note: bonus points go to the OP sequence, which was what I can only describe as “silly epic”. It’s not often that you see a bunch of mermaids flying through the air to save the world from a giant meteor, but that’s what we got! Combined with some similarly silly-epic singing from Sumipe, and the fact that they actually failed to save the planet, and I was smiling by the end of it, if a bit quizzically. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it was fun!

The Characters

As I expected, I was smitten by Muromi right off the bat. She’s flirty, silly, crazy, and definitely an idiot, which are all great attributes in a comedy heroine. As for Takkun, he’s saddled with the tsukkomi role, so it’s no surprise that he didn’t stand out as much as Muromi did. Still, he’s both kind and throws out the tsukkomis when they’re needed, so he’ll do.

The Comedy

Since this is a comedy, everything comes down to one question – is it funny? That’s subjective of course, so I can only say that I laughed quite a few times during this first episode! From the embarrassed starfish to the bra hook to Muromi’s problems with her many and varied predators (powered up seagull, AHHHH!), they made good use of their main duo’s comedic potential. Be warned though, ye of weak constitution – these jokes are a bit raunchy. A little lotion play isn’t a bad thing though, right? And that jellyfish bit…Muromi-san is an M!!

Looking Ahead

At 12 minutes a pop, the combination of a laid-back atmosphere + silly humour delivered by talented seiyuu looks like a winner. This is one of the shows that I know I’ll watch because it’s so easy to do so – when I have a few minutes to burn or just want to relax at the end of the day, I’ll pop this one in, have a few laughs, and then call it a day. Light and refreshing, that’s the ticket…and a little deredere Muromi doesn’t hurt either.

There are currently no plans to blog this on a weekly basis.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Laid-back atmosphere + silly-flirty-crazy Yukarin-voice mermaid + good jokes = a winner! Only 12 minutes an ep, though #muromisan

Random thoughts:

  • That’s not the kind of romance you want to get involved in, Takkun. Ruuuuuuun!!
  • Note: I will henceforth be referring to Takaii as Takkun. Or Taka-chan. Or lover boy <3

Full-length images: 07, 11.

 

Preview

33 Comments

    1. Yeah, this isn’t the kind of show I would probably blog because it’s a pure comedy, and it’s hard to write about pure comedies. I did enjoy watching this episode though!

      Stilts
  1. It works with the short format. Too much of this in one shot would get boring. I wonder how long they can keep this up without repeating themselves and I wonder how much I’m missing by not speaking Japanese. Anyone know if they’re using Kansai-ben?

    Bear
  2. Huh…Mizushima makes me think vaguely of Seto-no Hanayome, but it’s clearly a very different show.

    @Bear
    Takkun speaks standard Japanese. Muromi speaks a very exaggerated version of a Shikoku dialect, though I have no idea which one….

    rufe
  3. “That’s not the kind of romance you want to get involved in, Takkun. Ruuuuuuun!!”

    Child(s) support will be a bitch if they ever get divorce. The paper work for that will become a legend forever record in the history of lawyers.

    UFO
  4. After seeing Seto no Hanayome I was hooked once I saw the cute mermaid girl :p

    I was kind of disappointed when I saw that it was only 12 mins long, luckily those 12 mins were great; although if they did a 12 mins for 2 parts per episode thing that would be so much nicer.

    After meeting Muromi I have to wonder, wtf happened to her tail! 0-0

    agr0n
  5. Kind of crazy, but pretty funny as well. I get a bit of an FLCL vibe – probably because Muromi keeps calling Mukoujim “tak-kun”. Good enough to watch another week. Besides, a show like this makes for a nice, refreshing “cool down” after viewing an intensely dark Shingeki no Kyojin.

    I should have expected a joke like this, but it caught me off guard nonetheless. Almost choked on my drink when Muromi made her request. XD Stilts is 100% right – “Takkun. Ruuuuuuun!!” It’s impossible to afford college for all those kids.

    daikama
  6. At first I was expecting a Ika Musume clone, mermaid vs. squid, but not quite the same.
    I don’t know it the humour will get tiring, variations of the same gag repeated through the episode.

    mac65
  7. The first joke got me hooked. I never expected the heroine and titular character to say that worms are delicious. It was absurd. It was amusing. It was amazing.

    The last joke reeled me in. The joke itself wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of it, but it was fun to see it actually used outside of drunken discussions. It was raunchy. It was ridiculous. It was a riot.

    The first episode gets high marks. It had pep and energy which is always good for a comedy show. Its jokes, which is the lifeblood of a comedy series, I personally felt had a good hit-to-miss ratio.

    While I did enjoy this episode and would love to see more, I will say that being just 10-12 minutes long actually worked in its favor. Being a short episode, it maintains the energy from previous scenes/jokes. Additionally, if a joke fails, it doesn’t feel like a waste since they only spent 15-20 seconds for the setup. It does pretty well, if you measure it by “funny stuff per minute”.

    Being short also helps its narrative. Since it doesn’t have as much time, it pretty much skipped explicit character introductions and left the audience to infer it from their actions/reactions. Like the oft-repeated “Show, don’t tell.”

    Overall, the first episode was a pretty good, high energy comedy show. It was dense in content and I was actually surprised that it was just 12 minutes since it felt like a full 24-minute episode. I am hoping that it continues this trend and doesn’t run out of jokes forcing it to recycle stuff it used before.

    Asta
  8. well i say find quite ha ha give being 12mins eps series.

    yea green hair mermaid sure bit too dumb to live sure fish bait, jellyfish, starfish weapons, etc wonder if we ger ika musume crossover yet?

    & male guy yea normal person (give feel if channel certain “Nagasumi” name) well wait & see rest of it.

    b.i.t.w.

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