First Impressions / Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

「実家に寄生」 (Jikka ni Kisei)
“Parasite at home”

Well that was a strange experience. It’s rare that an episode of anime leaves me wondering just what exactly I watched. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai certainly doesn’t pull punches when it comes to being completely and utterly out there, linking together so many seemingly unrelated elements that we get an almost nonsensical mesh of all manner of things. The first episode was already pretty weird, but this one seems to completely blow past it in that department.

It’s rather an ironic role reversal to see Sasami as the one under surveillance instead of her brother, especially when taking into consideration what the main premise for the series was stated to be. There’s something funny about how unreliable the two younger Yagami sisters are in comparison to Sasami’s state of the art surveillance systems. They’re nowhere near as efficient – constantly being distracted by cute animals, massage chairs, and alien abductions… wait what? Well I guess not all the weird and wacky developments in the show can fall under ‘Shintoism did it’. It frequently seems that there’s neither rhyme nor reason to many of the things that happen. Perhaps that’s one of the things that can make it entertaining to watch.

I’m never entirely sure what to make of Tsurugi. Her outbursts are cute and her love of ecchi frequently makes for great comic relief. But there does seem to be an honest desire to ensure Sasami’s safety beneath her jovial and uncaring attitude. Whether it’s because she actually cares for her descendant, or if it’s because she considers Sasami the ideal vessel for her power, I have no idea! At the same time she’s capable of being merciless, perhaps even callous, as demonstrated in her treatment of the duplicate which escaped Sasami’s body. All humans tend to seek independence and freedom – the idea of being merged with another and losing your sense of self is rather a distressing one – but Tsurugi doesn’t seem to care. Yet there still appears to be a shred of kindness there – she seems to have made a compromise, granting the duplicate some sort of independence in the form of a rabbit. At least I think that’s what happened – with this show it can be hard to tell.

Just as in the second episode, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai goes out of its way to bring up so many of the supposed inconveniences faced by otaku (and others). Some of these are slightly less common than those previously presented, but I’m sure many will still have experienced at least one of them at some point. I know I’ve been questioned about my age in the past (goddamn video game stores), but I’ve fortunately never had to feel the awkwardness of requesting a nude figure from a case or being caught reading ero magazines! I feel sorry for Sasami! Getting yelled at for trying to film a performance is probably another fairly common one too!

I have some mixed feelings about the episode as a whole, but I thoroughly enjoyed the trap set out for Sasami and the reappearance of Futsuno Mika (Hazuki Erino). That’s totally a pun on ‘Futsu no Miko’ – Regular Shrine Maiden – right? I think what I enjoy most about this show is how unexpected some things can be, even if they are somewhat random and strange. There’s something really funny about that cute seiyuu morphing into Sasami’s father only for everything to collide as Tama appears in an alien saucer and the military starts coming out of the walls. If you’d asked me what I expected from the episode before I watched it, none of these would be anywhere within my guesses. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai really is that out there.

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – I’m not even sure what I just watched. #Sasamisan

Random thoughts:

  • Chibis everywhere!
  • That posing suit of armour was kind of entertaining to watch.
  • It’s kind of funny how Kagami has functions even Tsurugi is unaware of!
  • Well it’s nice to see that someone doesn’t bother with doors this season, even if it’s not Izayoi!

 

Preview

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27 Comments

  3. I’m still trying to piece things together… Either Mr. Chekhov has been really careless dropping his numerous agents and assortment of tools and weaponry everywhere, or none of this makes any sense whatsoever. Was the ambush really an elaborate scheme by Sasami to rid her of the sarcoma? Or was that Sarcoma’s plan to free herself? Or was it Sasami’s father just screwing around with Onii-chan? I think Tama hit it right on the mark- “The world just isn’t ready for this anime.” (I paraphrased that…)

    J_the_Man
    Reply

  5. Koyama Rikiya just made Sasami’s dad sounded badass. When was the last time he ever voiced an antagonist?

    That random alien UFO appearing with Tama reminded me of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, when Brian would suddenly be abducted briefly by a UFO before he was chucked out for no other reason besides it being funny.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSY4fEEg4j0

    Oh I’m pretty sure Tsurugi allowed the Sasami arm-clone to live by turning her into a rabbit. She did say she was a merciful god.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  9. Well, this show went back to making no sense whatsoever. Just as I like it, really.

    Random UFO abductions, cute female singers turning into your evil dad, the hand that grew from your chest seeking a life of its own and gods yelling at store keepers because they can’t get their porno. This truly is some of the weirdest stuff Shaft’s made so far.

    I guess the cult doesn’t feel like quitting even after their HQ got destroyed; with Tsurugi opposing them at every turn and Sasami thrown in the middle. I’m quite growing a liking to Tsurugi too, for that matter – she’s a weirdo and kind of a jerk, but at the same time, probably the only person preventing everything from falling into complete chaos (as her sisters are anything but reliable), and she does seem to have picked Sasami as some kind of worthy vessel.

    And I think the rabbit was the duplicate as well. She did say she was going to cause a little miracle, after all.

    Dvalinn
    Reply

  20. Sasami’s duplicate being turned into a rabbit somewhat makes sense (but then again, does anything in this series makes sense?), but I was under the impression that her chance to standout was to sing the ED.

    Taiakun
    Reply

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