「小学生にドッキリ!」 (Shougakusei ni Dokkiri!)
“Heart Throbbing for Elementary School Kids!”

Heart throbbing for their music. Keep it together, you degenerates.

It’s Ro-Kyu-Bu!, but with music. Are we done here? No? I have to say more? Well, okay.

Tenshi no 3P! is adapated from the manga written by Aoyama Sagu, the original creator of, yes, Ro-Kyu-Bu!. It’s got the same basic premise: high school boy helps out a bunch of little girls with some art or sport, and likely grows closer to them, and grows up as a person, in the process. This time that role is played by Nukui Kyou (Inoue Yuuki), a hikikomori music nut who gets involved because of his internet uploads, instead of being blackmailed by his loli aunt (Miho-nee, never forget). The girls are the usual grab bag of personalities—the shy one with GUTS in Gotou Jun (Oono Yuuko), the proud confident one in Momijidani Nozomi (Endou Yurika), and the sleepy mumbly one in Kaneshiro Sora (Koga Aoi)—and some of the other seiyuu from Ro-Kyu-Bu! even reappear, including Hidaka Rina in the imouto role and Itou Kanae as Toriumi Sakura, who appears to once again be the older school friend who’s interested in the main male character despite the challenge of the lolis, which is a weird thing to be typecast as, but take the work where you can get it, Kanaenon. Hell, it’s even being animated by the same studio (Project No.9), fer chrissakes. No one has shouted “Shougakusei wa saikou daze!” yet, but they might as well have. You know what you’re getting into here, y’all.

Now that most potential viewers have run away screaming, the eternal question remains: Is it any good? Because the reason I enjoyed Ro-Kyu-Bu! is that it was a good sports anime beneath all the loli fanservice and romcom shenanigans. The question to that remains unresolved because it’s the first episode and it was devoted to introductions, naturally, but it was a good introductory episode. The first part was a little dour, but the tonal change when the girls appeared was stark, which deftly conveyed how much of a breath of fresh air their quest will be in Kyo’s otherwise stale life without actually having to say as much. That showing-not-telling thing I always harp on? THAT’S how you do it.

This definitely has some musical equipment porn for those who are so inclined, though I’m not, so maybe it’s all made up, I don’t know. It also has music, for those who enjoy that, which is jpopy as all get out—just my style. It also ends on uncomfortable loli fanservice, and look, I told you that you know what you’re getting with Aoyama Sagu’s work, right? It ain’t exactly hidden.

But mostly, this is a solid intro to the series. If it was already something you were interested in, the way seems clear enough, because any problems that arise will probably crop up several episodes down the line when we find out whether this whole orphanage concert plan is going to develop in a compelling way or not. Until then, it’s down to taste. I don’t know if RandomC will be blogging this, but I’ll probably be watching it, because in for a penny, in for a pound. Bring on the loli band antics!

Random thoughts:

  • They pushed aside a statue WTF? Do they even have a guardian of any kind? Or did they kill the nuns and take over? Run Subar—I mean, Kyo, EVIL LOLIS!!
  • “If you do us this favor, I’ll let you touch me just a little bit.” No. Bad. She probably means patting her head, you degens.

My SECOND novel, Freelance Heroics, is available now! (Now in print!) (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Sign up for my email list for exclusive content. At stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: I get it now!; Guardians of the Galaxy, Glee, & Firesign; That’s not supposed to go there . . .; and The Carcer Principle.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「」 () by ()

Preview

14 Comments

  1. “If you do us this favor, I’ll let you touch me just a little bit.”

    Except that she apparently just said “I’ll let you touch just a little bit.” So it was left ambiguous, with the imagery clearly suggesting she meant her body, but with the possibility open that she just meant her guitar.

    Anyway, if this shapes up as a sort of loli K-On (or maybe loli-k-on) then that’s good enough for me.

    Angelus
    1. Na, that’s just Japanese speech patterns. Quite often the object is left out of the sentence and has to be assumed from context. The Riko / Chika confession in Love Live Sunshine is a perfect example. In that case it was hilarious to watch people saying she was meaning “I Love Piano” while she’s holding someone’s hands and looking into her eyes!

      Scruffy
      1. I do actually know a certain amount about Japanese speech patterns, but when there are subtitles you shouldn’t need to know. My point that the subtitles are essentially incorrect still stands because they destroy the double entendre created by the sentence’s inferred object, and in doing so turn something that is merely risqué into something altogether darker.

        Angelus
  2. This anime is a moe nuke bomb. Too much diabetes inducing 0cuteness and that “oni-chan” in the end scene, all I can do is just hnnnnggg. Anyway it is certain that it have its own flaws (that poorly animated band playing scene), and revealing the “plot” why they ask the guy to help them this early would be a turn off to some audience. But i hope thry dont die… My death flag sensor is tingling… I hope next episode would debunk what i feel

    Jeffers
    1. Death flags? You mean the 1. Orphanage and the fact that they are orphans, 2. A dog of flanders like church 3. Their desire to do a concert (and to have as many people to watch their performance) like it is their final wish before they die and 4, the fact that the title contain the word ANGEL. Wellif you look at it like that then it will really look like death flags. But this show is to light and fluffy for such heavy drama to happen.

      TheLastIdiot
  3. Major LOL at that last part after the ED song… — “Forgive me father for i have sinned. I lusted after elementary school girls after this episode.” — Well that is what exactly to those who watched this including me.

    TheLastIdiot
  4. There is lack of show like RKB nowadays so this new iteration is welcome, also i really like Tinkle artstyle.
    Don’t care what peopel think, if you like it stick with it weekly. 🙂

    Ascal

Leave a Reply to Arche Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *