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「ワグナリアへようこそ♪小鳥遊、働く。」 (Wagunaria he Youkoso♪ Takanashi, Hataraku.)
“Welcome to Wagnaria♪. Takanashi, Work.”
Clean slice-of-life comedic fun with an all-star casts comes our way from a family restaurant of all places! Given how a lot of anime these days are high school-based, it never hurts to change up the scenery at the very least, which is what we have with WORKING. As you can probably guess already, we’re still dealing with high school students except they’re working at a family restaurant. All the amusement in this series comes from the quirky characters and their time on the job. This first episode follows Takanashi Souta (Fukuyama Jun) as he gets recruited by his sempai Taneshima Popura (Asumi Kana), who’s adorable as hell because she looks like a helpless elementary school girl.
At Wagnaria family restaurant, we’re introduced to Souta’s new manager, Shirafuji Kyouko (Watanabe Kumiko), who’s anything but manager-like. She hardly cares to work and will kick customers’ asses if they cause problems. She also happens to be pretty sensitive about her age (28), which Souta finds out the hard way. Added to the mix are kitchen staff members Souma Hiroomi (Kamiya Hiroshi) and Satou Jun (Ono Daisuke), who are the more level-headed of the bunch, followed by floor manager Todoroki Yachiyo (Kitamura Eri). In Yachiyo’s case, she’s a very kind and gentle person who’s receptive to customers, except she carries a katana around with her that makes you think twice. Finally, there’s Souta’s fellow server Inami Mahiru (Fujita Saki), whom he’ll never want to have to work with because of her fear of men.
What does that all accumulate too? Good times! As this is slice-of-life, there isn’t much in terms of plot, but it’s a nice combination of cuteness and humor. It hasn’t quite been “laugh until you cry” funny, but it’s amusing to watch nonetheless. So far, a lot of the cute humor has come from Popura and her petite size, which Souta absolutely adores as a self-proclaimed “minicon” — his own coined term for being a lover of all things small and helpless. In the more outrageous humor department is their manager Kyouko, who was funny as hell here for kicking a customer over and telling him that they don’t condone violence in the restaurant. Follow that up with her calling some hoodlums to mug them outside right after, and you have the makings of one crazy but utterly awesome manager.
As mentioned above, the cast is pretty noteworthy as well, with Fukuyama Jun starring as Souta. When he’s not going for the Lelouch effect that he’s so well-known for, he actually does lighthearted comedy and is a lot of fun to watch. Asumi Kana on the other hand brings all the cuteness in Popura and I’ve grown quite fond of how she’s able to do that in the characters she plays. Then there’s Kitamura Eri using her soft voice to play Yachiyo, which is all right, but I really love it when she brings on the idiocy like she did as Eve in NEEDLESS. Still, it’s a nice change up and I get to hear her sing in the series’ opening theme song, so I’m not complaining (…not too much anyway). Finally, you have some big name male seiyuus in Ono Daisuke and Kamiya Hiroshi, plus veteran female seiyuu Watanabe Kumiko to round out the package. All in all, I found this first episode enjoyable ever since its early broadcast premiere a month ago (March 6th), so if you’re looking for some lighthearted laughs without the fan-service, you should give this one a try if you haven’t already.
Note: The opening sequence was shown as an ending for this first episode.
OP Sequence
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OP: 「SOMEONE ELSE」 by 阿澄佳奈, 藤田咲, 喜多村英梨 (Asumi Kana, Fujita Saki, Kitamura Eri)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼
Wait, so that was the opening at the ending? Interesting.
I enjoyed the fast paced action and enjoyable cast and their seiyus.
Minicon are awesome!
glad to see RC is ticking along just fine…
Hey Divine!
Is this worth watching if I am crunched for time? I only have time for a few series right now so I was wondering if I should pick this up or Maid-sama? Which do you recommend?
If I had to choose between those two, I’d probably go with Maid-sama because it’s a romantic comedy while WORKING is pure slice-of-life. It depends on which one you prefer more (i.e. potential relationships or none).
Thanks for the advice Divine. I’m definitely going with Maid-sama because I found it hilarious. I have nothing against slice-of-life, but with limited time, I have to pick and choose.
Yeah, i agree with Divine, man.
I’d say it depends on what ever else your picking up as well, you may fall in love with the comedy from Working!! but if you want a greater fulfillment at the end of the series, Maid-sama would most likely have you more emotionally invested in it consider the shojo nature of the series.
I wouldn’t mark it off your charts forever though, if you’re ever looking to blow off steam this show is perfect for those needed laughs after a busy day. It reminds me greatly of Minami-ke, which I found to be a memorable ‘slice of life’ comedy that left me smiling.
I LOVE THIS SERIES LOL. Time to check out the OP at the ending 😀 Definitely can’t wait for episode 2, been on the edge and wanting more since it’s pre-airing date :3
this series looks like it will be entertaining;
manager and the blond chef are awesome
hey div
I liked omni’s format with a summary in the end
why?
I want to read your quick impression not spoil myself with the whole story
from the looks of it, it’s not a summary, just a few points in the story that relate to his thoughts
not really spoiling anything
Omni is Omni, Divine is Divine. QQ
Even if you haven’t spoiled yourself silly with the text, the screenshots should have already done the job already. Which leads us to the question: What are you doing here before you even watched the episode anyway?
Unlike Omni, divine doesn’t do redundant summaries of stuff which most of us would have already watched. (No disrespect to Omni, but that is indeed one of the more valid criticisms on his blogging style. ) Can’t you tell?
And finally, this being “slice of life”, there’s hardly any plot to spoil.
I actually liked Omni’s summaries as they were particularly useful to someone like me who is learning Japanese and trying to watch shows raw. Additionally, they were useful for shows with a complicated plot and unusual terminology. I sometimes read first episode posts before watching the show to figure out if I want to pick it up, but I don’t mind spoilers because the first episode of a show is mostly set-up and the spoilers are general information anyway.
Nice episode to begin with.one series i will sure follow.
Much like Kinny Riddle and longtimefirsttime have shown above, there are always two sides to the coin when it comes to summaries.
Some people like to use them as a translation service of sorts or to know exactly what happened without watching the episode. Others of course only care for impressions to see if they can relate or to potentially pick up on something they didn’t originally.
That said, I find summaries very monotonous to write and pretty dull to read, so when I do summarize now, I make it a part of my impressions. I try to put a personal spin on it without being biased in any way, so that it’s still a legitimate summary but is hopefully a bit more enjoyable to read.
I realize some people still prefer clear-cut summary/impressions sections, but I hope you can understand where I’m coming from with this style. Even without reading a summary, the screenshots and impressions are bound to spoil you in some way already.
Quite honestly, I only care to write impressions, but I know many readers want to know what happened before I start talking about it.
While I can absolutely understand where you’re coming from wanting to make your summary interesting to read (and having pointed it out, I went and read a few to confirm, and you have managed to make them interesting and less monotonous), that doesn’t mean it should be forced on the people (see: majority) who don’t care for it. Please consider a clear division of the summary and impression sections for future posts.
I don’t have any plans on going back to distinct summary/impressions sections after blogging like that for the longest time, but will look into changing things up (likely getting rid of summaries altogether after a series has been introduced).
For now, simply read my thoughts after the double-line break (if there is one) to skip anything that’s summary-related.
The double line breaks are more than we can ask for. That’s a clear division in my opinion.
I just found the manga for this a few days ago and then I find out that there’s an anime now too. I hope this stays pretty interesting.
I love the SAN WAN WAN! and Lelouch. The ED song has pretty much became [a/’s theme song since the show’s pre-release.
I wonder if the short female’s name is Poplar or Popura…
its izaya and shizuou in the kitchen(hiroshi and daisuke).
I LOVE THIS ANIME already!
By the way, this is the same as the pre-airing episode except with the opening at the end.
Who cares! It was still joy to watch, and can’t wait to see more of Inami! The opening was just as crazy and fun to watch.
very original in comedy as for me
Oh wow Popura (or Poplar, as the plant she’s named after http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poplar ) is so unbelievably kawaii, it’s no wonder Takanashi (often misread as Katanashi by Popura) goes gaga over her, and gets mistaken for a lolicon for that. 🙂
Fukuyama may be awesome in his Lelouche mode, but it’s more fun to hear him in his non-Lelouche comedic mode.
Gotta LOL at Kyouko’s extreme methods for protecting her store’s reputation. Just what kind of connections does she have anyway?
It’s probably Popura’s uncanny resemblance to Kyonko that got me drawn to this series. XD (Though Kyonko is usually depicted as more flat chested)
Fukuyama in his non-Lelouch mode reminds me of that protagonist in Akikan!
That’s because the Akikan protagonist was voiced by Fukuyama Jun too. 🙂
The OP’s style reminds me not unpleasantly of Azumanga.
This shows promise.
This series looks great… I can’t wait to get home and start catching up.
Watched and liked it. Fun and simple show with fun and cute looking characters is definitely a change of pace. Poplar is adorable…I guess I’m a minicon as well. Kyoko reminds me a lot of Nobue from Ichigo Mashimaro. I miss my Nobue.
It was a good laugh, Luv the Jakuza manager… oops I mean tough manager. Will wathc a bit more before decideing
WORKING!! “It’s like ‘Waiting’ with Ryan Reynolds, only funnier!”
My first post on this new blog! Great to be here everyone!
Love the first ep, certainly better than maid-sama imo.
Love it! I’m glad, that you’re still blogging even though Omni left!
It was a really enjoyable episode, I liked the characters and the comedy, plus the animation was pretty good too.
Divine, have you decided that which shows will you regularly blog yet?
I haven’t actually, as there are so many to choose from.
I’m glad I decided to take a look at this anime, because I actually like it very much 😀 Popura is soooo kawaiiii~ 😀
I just finished watching this show. Amazing, amazing show by all standards! I’m so going to follow this for the rest of the season. Loving the whole restaurant feel. At the least, it’s something different from the usual school setting of these types of comedy and slice-of-life stories. Can’t wait for the second episode!
I enjoyed the first episode so far. I definitely will be following the series! I really like how funny popura and her elementary-school-girl-look is. The manager calling the customer fat is icing on the cake. Mahiru is interesting, I want to see more! as for Souta, I feel so bad for him when he got punched by Mahiru who he had not met yet and that they have to work together when she has a fear of men.
I look forward to more in this slice of life comedy!
btw, @divine
lol, you linked randomc as your website when we are already here. force of habbit I guess since I would prolly do the same 😛
BLOG This….
nice episode to begin with.one series i will definitely follow.
I don’t know, at first I wasn’t really enjoying the premise of the show, but with the light humor and Popura turned it all around for me.
Can’t wait to see the second episode to see how the series will flow 😀
I will forever see Fukuyama Jun as Takaaki from ToHeart2.
this was cuute :3
I love this show!
hehehehhehe, inami-san, man hater, im so going watch it. the manga gets better, this anime going to be epic
I can already tell this is going to be full of the lightheartedness I like ^_^
As Shinjiro mentioned earlier, I’m getting a total Nobue vibe from the manager. I miss Nobue as well……she was and continues to be one of my favorite anime girls.
High five for that one. Nobue is my first anime love lol…
What I simply don’t understand is why Inami has a job at a family restaurant if she has a fear of men? I imagine she attends an all girls school, but why would she get/be given such an employment. And the fact she is “strong” is not believable. Sorry, I do not like exaggerated stuff like that in my slice-of-life.
The rest of this episode was excellent though and I really enjoyed it.
AM I POPLAR YET?
Minicon, my ass. I see a lolicon. And I should know.
. . .Is it wrong that the very first thought when I saw Satou Jun was “Is that Sanji?”
Seriously, all he’s missing is the fighting prowess and the curly eyebrow. He’s already got the right hair color, hair style, is a chef, and smokes.