First Impressions / Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「リアルワールド」 (Real World) by nano.RIPE
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼

「妖精さんの、ひみつのこうじょう」 (Yousei-san no, Himitsu no Koujou)
“The Fairies’ Secret Factory”

It was smelling a little stale after the first batch of formulaic season premières, but Jinrui wa Suitai shimashita blew through the room like a breath of fresh – albeit very strange – air.

I’ve liked the chemical composition of this series from the first time I heard about it – director/writer team of Kishi Seiji and Uezu Makoto taking on a LN series from adult game creator Tanaka Romeo, known for his dark sense of humor. Throw in character designs and animation direction by Sakai Kyuuta (Steins;Gate, Pita Ten, Mushishi, Needless, Princess Tutu) an OP from nano.RIPE and an ED from the legendary Itou Masumi and it was almost impossible for this series not to be interesting at the very least. That’s no guarantee of success – there’s an old Chinese curse which says “May you live in interesting times” – but in a season short on originality, Jinrui sticks out like a Picasso on a Kindergartner’s refrigerator.

I’m happy to report that the premiere absolutely lived up to its potential, both in terms of execution and pure weirdness. It’s trippy, that’s for sure, and I can’t honestly say I know exactly what’s going on – but I found it entertaining and frequently hilarious. In fact, this show reminds of Tsuritama a little bit for a number of reasons. Visually, it shares some of that series’ “pop-up book come to life” qualities – bright color palette, childlike, fantastical backgrounds, and surreal imagery. It also has some of Tsuritama’s relentless energy and relentless strangeness, powering insistently through 23 minutes with an unstoppable momentum and not too many explanations. I think the emotional tone of Jinrui is certainly going to be darker, and the social commentary flies almost as freely as the wacky sound effects, but the two shows definitely share a sensibility that I like.

To at least make a stab at describing the plot, we seem to have some sort of dystopian future – but it’s not like any dystopia you’ve seen lately. Mankind has been on the decline for a long time, Centuries probably – seemingly a victim of a consumer-obsessed culture that’s dying a slow death – and has regressed to a state of pre-industrial village life (think 17th-Century or so). The dominant species on Earth is now the Fairies – several inches tall and possessed of futuristic (maybe even alien?) technology – not just ahead of these post-civilized humans, but Centuries ahead of 21st-Century human technology.

Into this scenario steps the heroine (Nakahara Mai), who appears to have no name but “Watashi” (Me) – though the Fairies call her “Ms. Sweets”. She’s a teenager who has the job of mediator for the United Nations Conciliation Commission, and that job is to act as a negotiator between humans and fairies – and from what I’ve seen of the fairies, that seems like a tough assignment. Her Grandfather (the great Ishizuka Unshou) seems to be the Adminstrator/Mayor of the village, and Watashi has an assistant called (appropriately) “Assistant” – a young boy who appears to be unable to speak. It seems that the episodic plots are going to spin off this premise, the first of them being a mysterious cache of consumer goods showing up with a “FairyCo” label, leading the trio to head off in search of the factory where they were made, and see if the Fairies are trying to cause trouble with the local humans.

Believe it or not, that doesn’t come close to doing justice to just how weird all this is – I suspect this will be the only series this season in which you hear the phrase “If you pity my existence, please eat me” from an animatronic loaf of carrot-juice bread. It’s all about style here, starting with the fairies themselves. They’re adorable little buggers, seemingly addicted to sweets, but with a lurking sense of menace to them despite their size – and the exact nature of their relationship with the human population is unclear. I love the steady stream of sound effects, like the gunshot when Assistant starts recording with his camera and the “plop” sounds of marmalade being, well… plopped into jars in the Wonka-like FairyCo factory. We also got a sort of running commentary of the rather kawaii Watashi’s inner thoughts, which are generally not as kawaii as she is (she speculates that cute girls turn into old ladies when their “delicacy points” run out). And there’s lots of random weirdness like the chickens Watashi was supposed to slaughter as part of her job escaping, prompting her to declare “These chickens have earned the right to live”. The topper for me, though, is the aforementioned robotic bread cutting itself open as blood sprays everywhere while it begs to be eaten. Yum!

There’s definitely something mischievous going on with FairyCo’s factory and it’s one human employee – an animate headless chicken turns up outside the village after the chicken incident, and one of the products discovered is a tube of “FairyCo Hair Restorer” – guaranteed to regrow hair cut off after losing a bet!” (which has just happened to Watashi). The Fairies drop lots of hints in their cute fashion, speaking of “Death by starvation becoming a new fad” and a “sad end for material culture”. If we’re to look for the overall theme here, I think Romeo-sensei is definitely aiming squarely at the ills of materialistic consumer culture, and what it’s doing to the human race. What comes out of FairyCo isn’t very good – “a substance pressed into the shape of a sardine” – and that’s not even getting into the realm of the “synthetic food” like the carrot-juice bread. Fittingly, I suspect consumer culture will reject Jinrui as it’s just too idiosyncratic and doesn’t really push the right buttons – but if you want something really original and distinct, this might be the standout of the season. There’s always something to look at and listen to, and the series rarely sets a foot where you’d expect it to. It’s early days yet, but I think Jinrui has a chance to be something special.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「ユメのなかノわたしのユメ」 (Yume no Naka no Watsahi no Yume) by 伊藤真澄 (Itou Masumi)
Watch the ED!: Streaming ▼

82 Comments

  1. I am so lost in this series…but it’s a great kind of lost where I don’t want to find my way out. The whole thing is so off-timed I feel unbalanced when listening to all the jokes, but I don’t care. I’m in a world where everything looks cheery, but

    Here’s to getting lost for the next 12 episodes Enzo. You chose a great show to cover! :3

    Zanibas
    Reply

    1. Heh, I’ve had my eye on this one for months, even though I know very few people are going to follow it. I’ve had good luck with my sleeper picks, generally – Chihayafuru, KamiDolls (though not all agree with me on that one) and the stars just seem to be aligned for this one to be really good.

      Guardian Enzo
      Reply

      1. By the way Enzo, what do you mean by “sleeper”. Care to explain?
        I somehow feel that it isn’t in a negative way. I was just curios when you said it in the Season PV as well.
        Just asking. 🙂

        @razzler
        Look at it in our own perspectives. The bread is some what like our products now. Even though we put special ingredients like “Special cheese added inside” or “Diet” beer, its still somewhat the same. We just put new ingredients and label to make it safe to drink/eat? or to make it healthy?

        †Croos†
        Reply

      2. Croos, by “sleeper” I mean a show that’s under the radar (sorry to mix metaphors). SAO, for example, is a show everybody knows about and expects to be a big hit. A sleeper is a show that not many people know about and ends up being a surprise.

        Guardian Enzo
        Reply

    2. i agree. when the fairies were talking about starvation and making it a fad…so cute yet sad at the same time! but the most awesome part was the bread! i’ll never look at a loaf of bread the same way again.

      razzler
      Reply

    2. That moment was one of the biggest wtf moments I’ve ever experienced. Especially added to the fact that the bread’s way of talking–adding “da je” at the end of sentences–was reminding me of Yuuki from Saki (I think Kugyu was the bread’s VA).

      Annyms
      Reply

  6. Best show of the season? Best show of the season. nano.RIPE makes it better too (I’m going to watch Tari Tari with sound and with this OP only just to remind me of HanaIro)

    Funny how we have Persona 4’s director, persona 4’s character designer and Unshou Ishizuka (Dojima) voicing the grandfather. I loved every minute of this: the main character was awesome and DAT BREAD SCENE. We have a winner folks.

    webkid94
    Reply

  8. I wasn’t planning on watching this but then I read the “I found it entertaining and frequently hilarious” from this post which convinced me to give it a shot. Even being spoiled from reading this post didn’t lessen any of the impact from this episode; it was so different and awesome. It was just what I needed. Thank you Enzo. Let’s hope this feeling continues in the following episodes.

    Random Lurker
    Reply

  9. This looks lke Josei to me. Is it? It could be shoujo, but then I see a adorable looking bread robot bleeding what appears to be jam all over the place before falling over dying… So I’m thinking it’s Josei. This could be interesting. I’m sold by that death scene. Very strage vibe this show gives out and I like such thing. Also I always appreciate it when they introduce very moe adorable character then kills it off gruesomely. u hu hu hu~. Those little elves look like little bacteria from Moyashimon; they have the same facial expression!

    passing
    Reply

      1. ok. Well I can never really tell which is which anymore. I’d have surely thought that this was Josei as it had a girl as the main lead and had a bunch of cute looking characters surrounding her.

        passing
        Reply

    2. “main lead and had a bunch of cute looking characters surrounding her”

      Lol, that describes Seinen perfectly. Many Josei series involves a main lead with a bunch of handsome guys.

      underMebius
      Reply

      1. wha? gasp? Since when? Ok, Josei having a bunch of handsome guys for a girl lead character makes perfect sense. There are suddenly a plenty Josei example I can think of that matches that. But since when Seinen was about cute little things (Cute girls, ok. That could be Seinen, like Chobits or something). I don’t get it. I’d have thought for sure that “both of these” are josei territory. hmmm…

        passing
        Reply

  10. Its really ironic that we people like to eat cute things but when its already dead and ugly we kind of don’t like it anymore or avoid them. Dunno I might be wrong.

    Do you guys think this series can go well with SHAFT? I’m already liking this series and I just want to hear your thoughts guys.

    †Croos†
    Reply

  12. Pretty. Odd. I’ve been looking forward to this for awhile, so I’ve got moderately high expectations. I had fun with what I’ve seen so far, so I hope it keeps up. I admit, I’m a huge nerd for weird shoes (I’m an Adventure Time dork, mind you) so I’ll definitely stay tuned.

    Click
    Reply

  15. FINALLY a show I can watch! Heck yeah! It’s about bloody time. Okay, it does seem to have rainbow hairdos syndroms, which I hate with passion, but the plot is so strange that I am willing to forgive on this one. Plus all human characters do have plausible hair color; they are not Japanese characters and only little fairies seems to have the rainbow hairdos anyhow.

    worstof2012
    Reply

  16. Tbh the majority of this episode was kinda boring but the style kept me going and the fairy part combined with the bread ( R.I.P.) really made this episode (for me). Fortunetly there was this mystery vibe at the very end and so Im looking forward to the next episode.

    Keliba
    Reply

  19. “there’s an old Chinese curse which says “May you live in interesting times””

    But that saying doesn’t apply to anime at all, the implicit curse is that ‘interesting’ means ‘active, unstable and dangerous’ when applied to real life.
    There is no downside to an anime being interesting.

    M
    Reply

  22. Bread-kun is not the only one whose head split up and spouted blood at the end of this episode.
    I was skeptical at first in picking this up but now I’m sure I’m gonna watch this till the end.

    belatkuro
    Reply

  27. A derisive look at consumer behavior within a very peculiar dystopian setting, it certainly seems interesting enough. The first episode didn’t quite make me laugh but Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita is such an oddball that I can’t help but love it.

    Seishun Otoko
    Reply

  31. When looking through the Summer 2012 preview ,Jinrui wasn’t one of the animes that caught my eye , but I had a look at this blog entry out of curiosity about half an hour ago and decided to give it a try …now ,I am officially hooked!!

    Aki-Chan
    Reply

  32. Gonna repeat what they have already said…
    “What did I just watch?!”
    Let’s hope this won’t be another Mawaru Penguindrum wherein I’m still at lost in some parts of the story.

    I thought this will be kind of light-hearted (did not read the preview). Now, I won’t ever associate bright palettes with happy go lucky stories.

    Who would it a food after the food said to you, “If you pity me, please eat me.”? It’s just wrong!

    This really stand out from the first batch of this season! Given it’s somewhat dark theme, I’d follow it since dark theme is my favorite.

    Eunichi
    Reply

  33. Naked chickens, crazylly cute little humans, suicidal carrot juice bread! Weirdness lvl infinite!!! This is the kind of anime that you love or hate, and I’m in the first group 😀

    RoOtZ
    Reply

  35. Really enjoyed the read, great work like always. I agree that this would be a ‘sleeper’ but it has a great director and source material behind it. I’m hoping that they continue with the absurdity but at the levels it is currently at. It has a good balance of delivering laughs and providing introspection into society. It’s a very unique concept with a great artstyle and I’m following it on my blog as well! I am really excited for it after the first episode considering how many series seem cut and paste. I think the biggest hype is around sword art online but I feel that it will be a disappointment in the creativity department.

    SushiGoKart
    Reply

  36. Well, my initial pick from the summer preview pick is correct. I know that believing Romeo Tanaka could write something this good is a good deal :p

    I will join for the crazy train this season!

    zeroyuki92
    Reply

  37. I totally agree this show masks something darker and more sinister behind the bright pastel exterior.

    The singing in the ED is very Kate Bush like and I’m a bit of a Kate Bush fan so the ED really appeals to me.

    Kou
    Reply

  38. The art designs are even more beautiful than I expected. ~still in awe~
    I already feel like I’m becoming attached to the mediator and her deadpan humor (delicate points and attempts to deceit ftw). Although, I think I preferred her with short hair.
    The fairies’ gaping smiles constantly gave me a feeling of uneasiness, so much so that I actually felt unfazed by the talking bread fiasco. But I wonder if I can look at a loaf of bread in the same way again without thinking of carrot juice… blech!

    Arisu
    Reply

  39. Guro-pan! What a hardcore fellow.
    This one was excellent, with the business approach of the main character (the result of conferences are decided since the beginning, no need to attend them xD).
    I was starving for some show with humor style Nichijou and this one has its own touch.
    Though I don’t feel any kind of confusion in the end, it’s just a comission from the UN investigating a really suspicious company who’s been giving suspicious food for free in a village with a food shortage. Fairies are of course implicated. What will they uncover?

    Ebisu
    Reply

  40. Of the new shows that I have seen this is the one I’ve liked the most. It’s hilarious, it looks beautiful and it has Nakahara Mai snarking it up in her sweet setting. A weird but pretty good first impression.

    Also it seems that after I got used to the first HanaIro OP, I am destined to always like nano.ripe OPs from now on.

    xephx
    Reply

  41. In total AWE…I was reminded of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika, looking at their seemingly happy environments and dialogues, but this time some of these are exponentially more twisted, mind-blowingly noxious and strawberry-flavoredly crude. The fairies remind me of Kyuubei, and that OST sometimes goes really smoothly matched with the scenes, like, at times guitar riffs, at others a jazzy piano and Pan-tan’s chopin-esque requiem played at its surreal “If you pity my existence, please eat me”, suddenly stopped to make us laugh, was just…art.

    A very bizarre one, but so awesome…! Pure poisonous love guys :3

    Hououin Kyouma
    Reply

  42. Had no plan to watch anything other than a couple of series, and this wasn’t something I was planning to watch. Had no intention to watch anime yesterday, but I just decided to click on a random title. Damn, I am a lucky kid. A breath of fresh air indeed, and one that’ll last, hopefully. I am truly extremely glad that there’s something I might actually be more than just interested in this bleak and uninteresting season.

    Junglepenguin
    Reply

  44. what the (bleep) did i just watch?!

    sure seem like regular show with fairies & regular girl then here come naked headless chicken?!

    & that bread-bot sure look ok then pull with red liquid?!

    ok who came up with show is likely on wacky pack & yet i’m so watching this now nuff said i’m in.

    kl-per
    Reply

  45. “Please help yourselves”. That part just killed me.

    When i started watching this series, it looked kinda cute and childish. But then that guy, i’m asuming he’s the mayor or something, said “turn them all into meat”. Wow. WHAT in the world am i watching? I’m not sure i’ll ever find out, but hey. The series got 11 episodes to bring me into the light, or further into the dark for that matter.

    Anyways, i simply can’t wait to watch more of this. The ED song is wonderfull too. The same singer/band that did the opening song “Kiss me Sunlights” for Zone of the Enders, if i’m not mistaken.

    Wuz
    Reply

  46. Couldn’t have put it any better Enzo. I’ve been feeling a bit burned out last season but this one really caught me off with the weirdness, bright visuals and cute but cunning protagonist. This one has hit every right button in my book. Looking forward to coverage on this one.

    PockyG
    Reply

  48. The childish, light-colored style creates a huge contrast with black humor and the theme (“the ills of materialistic consumer culture”). I like it. And the bread scene was very well done. I was laughing real hard even though it was a lame joke.

    Kaka
    Reply

    1. From what I understand of Japanese business culture, this is much more often true there than in the US. In Japan, everyone needs to be consulted on a decision – even if they can’t possibly argue against it. In the US, meetings (and I can speak first-hand here) very often turn into slugfests.

      Guardian Enzo
      Reply

      2. Yes – to a point. Approval ratings are measured by polls, and polls can be wrong – polls are not actual votes. But generally speaking, the higher a politicians approval rating in the polls, the more votes he or she is likely to get. Some pundits believe a President’s approval rating is a more reliable indicator this far from Election Day than the so-called “horse race” polls pitting one candidate against the other.

        Guardian Enzo
        Reply

  53. Oh Japan. You never seize to amaze me with your creative weirdness. Laughed my ass off during the breadrobot-scene, which is already an indication that I’m going to watch at least the second episode.

    The drawing style really does remind me of Tsuritama, which is good since it contrasts well with all the weird happenings (now let’s hope this show won’t bring in a Haru-Haru Binks to annoy me). Those fairies seem like a load of fun (starving to death could become a new fad! Uh…okay) and I like how miss mediator is nice on the outside but sarcastic and manipulative on the inside, makes her interesting.

    Only complaint I’ve had so far is that it started out kinda slow, but that’s probably just first-ep syndrome (a.k.a. taking time setting up the premise). Guess it’s waiting for the next ep now.

    Dvalinn
    Reply

  55. This anime is certainly different from what I expected. But this is great in its own way. I’ve been craving slice-of-life animes like this, animes that somehow gives a Haibane Renmei feeling.

    I just love the ED song. Masumi Itou’s ED’s songs have never failed in my ears.

    Just noticed that the composer is Otani Kou
    Slice-of-life anime + Otani Kou + Masumi Itou… No wonder it feels like Haibane Renmei xD

    Alec
    Reply

  57. That’s just amazing, i really love it when one of those wacky animes come my way, Mawaru Penguindrum, Excel Saga and Tsuritama are examples of that type of anime that always surprises and shocks the viewer in the most unexpected hilarious ways.

    And it it’s better when seemingly random, unrelated, bizarre and nonsensical events in that type on anime turn out to actually hold a serious meaning later down the road forming pieces of a big puzzle you never imagined possible, Jinuri seems to have that too .. beneath its humor and cheerful presentation there is something sinister going on, i’m sure with every episode bigger pieces of that puzzle will come together for some shocking revelation down the road, but if that road is filled with more random, unrelated, bizarre and nonsensical events i’m sure the journey itself will be worth it.

    I also love the water-color story book art style, it makes the elusive sinister things lurking in the shadows (metaphorically speaking) even more sinister in contrast with how lively, cute and colorful everything first seems (one word .. BREAD), that’s of course aside from the beautiful art style being eye candy and a joy to watch in and of itself.

    The highlights for me this episode are:-

    -Everything about the Chickens, for some reason the ones from the beginning of the episode reminded me of Angry Birds a lot with their funny -seemingly frustrated- sound effects, now someone is going to make an “Angry Chickens” game XD

    -The Fairies, something about their small eyes and their constantly wide open mouths feels so sinister, add that to the way they are oblivious to the crisis the humans are facing (not to mention their dialog about starving to death and how it is all a joking matter for them) and i won’t be surprised if a lot of sinister facts turn up regarding those seemingly cute Fairies .. the ending also has some creepy undertones .. the main character goes to her weird sleeping (or dying !!?) position on the floor from the beginning of the ED vid .. only for plants/flowers to grow suddenly around her body with those tiny fairies standing all around .. if that doesn’t have a creepy hidden message i don’t know what does.

    -The Main character has a sinister side to her as well, i know that might be an exaggeration .. but during the part where they encountered the headless skinless chicken and it managed to escape (somehow XD), they way the main character manipulated the three girls with her (showing us sinister inner dialog in the process, Death Note style), she manipulated information, lied and used intimidation to keep the story of the rampaging headless skinless chicken from spreading, she did fail in the end (again defeated by a rampaging headless skinless chicken) but it really puts a lot of doubt about her seeming cuteness and innocence .. maybe it was just for laughs .. maybe that’s part of her duties as daughter of the village chief or even as a UN mediator .. well .. i can’t tell for sure, and i also can’t wait to see if those sinister inner dialogs will show up again or not.

    -Adorable synthetic carrot juice -suicidal- loaf Bread … nuff said .. nothing can prepare you for that scene .. it has to be seen to be believed .. the “help your selves” at the end of the scene is only the icing on the cake XD

    I love dark humor specially if it has a meaning (i.e social commentary) and in turn i love Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita .. Bring it on.

    And, Carrot Juice Loaf Bread .. R.I.P .. your death will not be forgotten easily (honestly speaking) XD

    Hunter-Wolf
    Reply

  58. catchy opening check, cute and likable characters check, a good story check, randomness that did a 360 for me that made me go wtf but laugh… double check. This show is def a must watch for this season 🙂 side note: when i watch the rest of this series i need to bring some toast with me 😛

    MM
    Reply

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