First Impressions / Series Introduction / WORKING!!

「ぽうらの意地」 (Popura no Iji)
“Popura’s Disposition”

Just like its first season, the sequel to Working pre-airs its first episode a month ahead of its scheduled fall season start. The opening and ending sequences along with their themes “COOLISH WALK” and “Itsumo no you ni LOVE & PEACE!!” were similarly withheld for the regular premiere, but this was otherwise a full 24-minute dose of all things Wagnaria once again — now with an apostrophe in the title. Watching this episode really took me back to Spring 2010, back when I was all fired up about the new RandomC and blogging everything that I was watching. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe how far the site’s come since then, but more importantly, I seem to have a new and somewhat twisted outlook on a slice-of-life show like Working after watching another year and a half of anime. While there’s a real sense of nostalgia, allowing me to quickly get into all the characters’ goofy antics, I find that my ears are playing tricks on me, having heard all the seiyuu in a bunch of different roles since Working aired.

Take Satou Jun (Ono Daisuke) and Souma Hiroomi (Kamiya Hiroshi) for example. It wasn’t really apparent at the time when Durarara was airing alongside the first season of Working, but now I can really picture Heiwajima Shizuo and Orihara Izaya bumping heads in the kitchen whenever I hear them talk. Hiroomi even serves as the “information broker” of Wagnaria, taking a lot of enjoyment messing with the other staff. (Yes, you will grow taller if you eat dried lizards Popura.) The obvious similarity to Izaya actually adds a new level of personal enjoyment when our androphobic Inami Mahiru (Fujita Saki, the voice of vocaloid Hatsune Miku) almost laid the beat down on him. Then there’s Todoroki Yachiyo (Kitamura Eri), who’s nothing like this season’s Suzutsuki Kanade in Mayo Chiki, yet the sadistic master comes to mind immediately due to her tendency of putting up an innocent facade. In conjunction with Fukuyama Jun and Asumi Kana in the lead roles — the self-proclaimed “minicon” Takanashi Souta and his petite senpai Taneshima Popura — plus Hirohashi Ryou as Yamada Aoi, an outlet for well-warranted mistreatment, I find there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had from the shows within the show if you’ve seen your fair share of anime and have an ear for the seiyuu involved.

As for Working itself, this first episode took a more relaxed approach to reintroduce all the character nuances by centering around a fairly dead day at Wagnaria. At its core, we had Popura’s complex about her height, which got her into a one-sided fight with Souta. It’s been well over a year now, but the focus on Popura still felt like a nice change-up to all the attention that Mahiru normally gets — so much that she was completely forgotten about until the very end. Hats off to Souta for speaking his mind about Mahiru while distraught over their carefree manager Shirafuji Kyouko (Watanabe Kumiko) killing a bug before his very eyes. I say if he’s going to get hit anyway, he may as well return the favor in some way. As longtime readers may recall, I wasn’t too enthralled about all the attention that Mahiru got back in season one, mainly because her androphobia never seems to improve, so an episode about Popura (and to some degree Aoi) is a welcomed start to the second season. It’s always fun to see Jun join in on the innocent teasing, like when he made a point of how the sheet for broken glasses/plates posted up high isn’t good for Popura’s neck. It was also amusing to learn that Jun helped Popura reconcile with Souta not for their sake but his own, fearing that there would be no one to save them from Mahiru if Souta were to quit.

All in all, this was a fun episode that has me looking forward to the fall season next month. (Now if only I can get through the rest of the fall preview.) There was a small cameo of Otoo-san’s missing wife too, Otoo Haruna (Iwao Junko), with milk in hand. (She has a horrible sense of direction and went missing when she went out to pick up milk.) Hopefully that was a sign of things to come, which could also be said about Matsumoto Maya.

* In case you don’t recognize them and/or can’t read their names, the cast messages at the beginning and end of this pre-airing featured from left to right, Hirohashi Ryou, Asumi Kana, and Kitamura Eri.

 

40 Comments

  2. I was really excited for this, but then I figured out they changed directors. I still loved this episode, but I don’t think that this new season could measure up to the epicness of the first incarnation.

    Click
    Reply

  3. The first season started off well, then Inami dragged it but fortunately Yamada’s appearence saved the show. Hopefully more Yamada and Popura (who made the first few episodes of season 1 fun) this season, and less of the incessant hitting of Takanashi. There’s still the mystery of who exactly Yamada is as well

    Zaku Fan
    Reply

  4. LOL I think the humor lies in us not knowing who Yamada really is though haha.

    But I agree about the Inami thing. She is a good character would like to see her more than just punching Takanashi.

    Corn
    Reply

  6. I picked the first season up soon after it had finished airing and loved it. I now can’t wait for this season. It seems like longer since I watched it, but I’m happy to see these characters.

    And you’re right, there have been so many shows since S1 that I did get that Drrr vibe as well as Asumi Kana’s roles (Nishishishishi!) Seems to me this will definitely be one of those shows that is made that much better by the cast alone.

    TehJawknee
    Reply

  7. I hope A-1 Pictures maintains the running joke of limiting the extremely “normal” Maaya’s screentime to less than 1 minute per episode until the last episode of the season. lol

    And yes, I hope the series focuses more on Popura as well as Satou and Yachiyo.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  8. It feels like this show hasn’t been gone at all — it has a sense of warm familiarity to it that makes it easy to pick up again, even after all this time away.

    Regarding Inami, I would be fine if the series continued to focus on her, but only if she actually starts to make progress on her little problem.

    ObsidianTK
    Reply

  9. Now this is comedy!! The part where Takanashi yelled “Hitogoroshi!!” followed by comparisons of Poplar to insects was epic!!….. Change of director might turn out a good thing.

    I hope we get more of the Takanashi sisters this season. Especially the novelist.

    Question: Show Spoiler ▼

    Litho
    Reply

      2. @x

        I can tell you what I used, but I only use the one where it the best seed at that time. I rarely get a best sub for the anime unless I ranked it 1st class anime. Working is good anime but not that good anime. 1st class example will be Full Metal Panic, Suzumiaya Haruhi 1st Season, Code Geass. FYI, it Chihiro.

        lkaze
        Reply

  17. To me it looks like this season has a bigger budget. The colors are more vivid and the overall feel is more movie-like.

    I don’t mind Inami, but the total lack of development and my love of Popura kinda makes me not want any Inami-central episodes…like at all.

    MMBinNC
    Reply

  23. Such a welcome return to Wagnaria! I didn’t realize it had been so long since the first season aired. I loved this episode (lmao’d during the entire “Murderer!” scene and I’m not one to laugh much at anime) and thought it was a strong start. The animation looked really great, so much so that I couldn’t help but note it during even the smallest of scenes like when someone would turn around or put something away.

    I agree with other commenters in the hope that this season concentrates on people other than Inami if she’s not going to make any progress with her androphobia. Loved all the Poplar screentime this episode!

    As for seiyuu, I have FukuJun as Yukio stuck in my head. I find myself waiting for Nobuhiko Okamoto to pop up o3o

    Faye
    Reply

  27. I miss the entire cast. I love this show. Makes me look forward to days at my own job. (I have a Popura at my job. haha)

    So does this mean we won’t see a first post for Working’!! when the new season starts? I forgot how it usually goes with pre-airs. (Though it makes sense not to..)

    Shirt
    Reply

  28. What bugs me a bit [not like super much, but I’m still wondering it XD] that how friggin’ tall are all the other guys [and girls] in the series, when they are always going about how super tiny Popura is.
    Why this considers me, is because I’m a tiny girl myself [and around Popuras age too], but I’m only 145cm “tall”. And this means even Popura is almost 10cm taller than me :,D So would I be like “super super tiny” if I was part of the series? XD

    Eewyi
    Reply

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