Konbini Kareshi – 01

OP Sequence

OP: 「Stand Up Now」 by Cellchrome

 

「卯月」 (Uzuki)
“April”

I’m not going to try and sugarcoat Konbini Kareshi too much because if you’ve seen the first episode – you know what this post is going to be about. If you haven’t, well let me try and paint you a picture of what it’s like. Not only is this a completely original anime, but it starts off with this boy running towards a convenience store for a whole two minutes with no context whatsoever. Then a girl shows up – they smile and the intro rolls. It’s not the most captivating introduction ever, but it’s also not the worst so I wait around to see what’s going to happen next. The rest of the episode proceeds with your average day at school, your average kids getting crushes on girls and even though they’re students, the story is supposed to be surrounded around this convenience store where the guys meet these girls. Coincidentally, all around the magazine/book section! There’s not a lot happening yet, with some short glimpses of childhood crushes and first-time loves. Hopefully this isn’t indicative for a slow-paced series to come, but if it is – well, you have been warned.

The characters are – to be blunt – just average. They’re not very eccentric (a relief for some people), but they still fall into some typical tropes of being the best friend and falling in love with your childhood crush. I personally found them like cardboard cutouts – Kamiya Hiroshi and Suzumura Kenichi were both very flat and monotone when it came to their parts. To add to the lack of excitement, the background music was also like elevator or hallway music. It’s like the backtrack that you play on Youtube when you don’t want to be caught playing copyrighted music. It’s both calming and unfitting for some of the situations the characters find themselves in. No music would’ve been better; but then again, no music can be pretty hard when your characters have no emotions in their voices either.

That’s not to say that it’s all a disaster with Konbini Kareshi; it’s simply not the most exciting new anime out there. If anything, I think it’s predictable and very straight forward. The only ”interesting” about the anime is that it’s based around a convenience store where the characters seem to loiter around because it’s close to their school. The rest of the relationship-building and couples seem very clear cut from here on out. I might be wrong but that’s where the story can surprise me. The animation is also somewhat flat as well. There’s a lot of repetition and reuse of scenes; especially in the opening sequence scenes since they’re the. exact. same. scenes. as the ones in the episode. Even if it’s a low budget production, I was hoping that there’s be some good seiyuus and songs to keep it fresh but overall the entire premiere was simply disappointing. It’s not terrible (as if it offends all anime viewers), but it’s also nowhere near the top caliber this season. If I had to sum it all up – it would be predictable, flat and monotone.

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: I know that they’re trying to hit all the right notes of childhood/first-time loves… but this is hard to get through. #KonbiniKareshi starts with 2 mins of a man running. Did they really just animate 2 mins of a character RUNNING?! #konbini_anime

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「マイルストーン」 (Milestone) by ORANGE POST REASON

Preview