First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots / WORKING!!

OP Sequence

OP: 「Eyecatch! Too much!」 by Hana Miyakoshi (Haruka Tomatsu), Sayuri Muranushi (Yoko Hikasa), Shiho Kamakura (Sora Amamiya)

「アルバイトは人生を変えてくれる」 (Arubaito wa Jinsei o Kaete Kureru)
“Part-Time Jobs Can Change Lives”

It feels good to be back at Wagnaria. Heck, we even got a quick cameo from Souta as he crossed paths with the new lead, Higashida Daisuke (Nakamura Yuuichi). Sadly, other than the familiar setting and recognisable comedic delivery, there aren’t any other call-backs to the Working!! we’ve grown to know and love over the past five years. Truth be told, I never expected to see this franchise return in anime-form ever again, because the wrap to the third season was exactly what we needed. It was a treat for all us long-time fans, and so getting news of WWW.Working!! feels more like an extra serving rather than making up for lost potential.

We’ve got a brand new cast of employees at Wagnaria, which may take some time to get used to, but there’s enough here to be optimistic about. In case you didn’t know, WWW.Working!! actually came before the Working!! manga, as it is a web-manga by the same author, so you can’t really throw out claims that characters shown here are imitations of those from the original, because this is the original. There’s a lot of characters to get introduced to, and not enough time to properly warm to them, so I think we shouldn’t judge this first episode too harshly (as I see some have). Sure, it isn’t the most visually exciting anime out there, but it deliver what you’d expect from this series and focuses more on the gags. Not all landed, but I’m pretty sure the premiere of the very first Working!! season wasn’t the best the series had to offer. We need time to get used to these unfamiliar faces, to get to know their quirks, and laugh along with them, as we did before.

Now, onto the characters. Daisuke is every part the straight-man, whether it’s his bizarro family or his new workmates, and as such he didn’t provide much laughs for me, but I appreciate his fish-out-of-water situation and I’m sure his relationships with other characters will make him more entertaining in future. For now, he’s a the new guy, and the new guy can’t really stand out too much, especially once you look at his competition. Miyakoshi Hana (Tomatsu Haruka), may seem like an Inami clone, but there’s no shyness in her violence – and she’s also exceptionally good at putting on a mask and dealing with customers with smiles and pleasantries. My favourite moment from her has to be when she offered Daisuke those Valentine chocolates and gave an almost-convincing confession of love with it. Let the shipping begin!

The other girls are: Kamakura Shiho (Amamiya Sora), the daughter of a rich girl who throws money at her customers and employees to solve her problems, and has no problem in shaming those below her; Kondou Kisaki (Mizuki Nana), a college-age girl who smokes and has a bad attitude; and Muranushi Sayuri (Hikasa Yoko), a peculiar girl who can apparently see spirits. They’ve each got their staple gags, so only time will tell if they’re strong enough to sustain the laughs like Working!! managed. The thoroughly incompetent manager was amusing, but the only male employee who stuck in my memory was the Shindou Yuuta (Ono Kensho), an attractive man who works multiple jobs and is indebted to Shiho’s father. Their dynamic is cute, and I can already see potential romance blossoming across the cast. It took three season for any of that to get proper resolution before, so I’m not expecting miracles here, but there’s enough of that familiar Working!! charm to keep me watching. We just need to give these new faces some time to prove themselves.

We won’t be confirming blogging picks for a few weeks, but with a season as packed as this, I’m not sure WWW.Working!! is likely to get weekly coverage. The entirety of the original Working!! did get covered, but I’m betting this will be a pleasant weekly watch rather than something worth discussing in grand detail.

P.S. I already miss Yamada.

35 Comments

    2. Well it is a spin-off anime after all, and Working!! didn’t have the best visuals either, so it’s not too surprising. It doesn’t look actively bad, but uninspiring may be one way of putting it.

      Samu
      Reply

      1. I should’ve developed a bit more. My point was, since it’s being animated by the same studio and as a full-fledged series (i.e. not as a dvd special or something like that):

        Justifying inferior visuals compared to the main series because it’s a spin-off/previous work just felt like the easiest excuse to cut corners and budget costs.

        Don’t get me wrong though, I still thought it was a decent/good start comedy-wise.

        anothercat
        Reply

  7. I’ll continue watching this to see what happens and also because Tomatsu Haruka is in it and she delivers excellent voice acting as usual in how she can switch from badass to cute voices just like that. When you mentioned Samu that this was the current manga’s predecessor it made sense to me that the setting is really kind of depressing compared to Souta and company’s Wa. I gotta say that this is a really depressing branch of Wagnaria with almost everyone having some sort of problem. Only the chefs seem like okay people but I’m waiting if even they have some strange quirks like how Souma back then was later on revealed to be a blackmailer. Just my guess but maybe in getting this serialized the author was probably advised to tone down the depressing state of it, though in the end Inami using Souta as a punching bag was retained a bit. This show’s version of that might be Daisuke being a regular guinea pig for Hana’s cooking (the opening even lists Daisuke as a sacrifice). I also wonder if there will be some friction between Daisuke and Kondou since she can’t intimidate Daisuke with Academics. Gotta say too I haven’t been this annoyed with a character in Working since Mahiru’s father. Daisuke’s dad is a bit of a jerk and his mother and sister just goes along with it. And I really feel sorry for Shindou and so far I just can’t seem to like Shiho with how she treats him. Opening song too is okay and catchy but I still like the first Working songs more.

    Zhinvu
    Reply

    1. I’m actually disappointed that they cut the scene about Daisuke insisting on keeping those chocolates just so that he could pass them to his father (granted, the manga only showed his father taking the chocolates but the outcome is never shown, but still…).

      Glacierfairy
      Reply

      1. I was wondering if that was what he was up to. Although, given what we’ve seen from him, the dad might just use the chocolates to get high and laugh off the near-death experience.

        SK
        Reply

  8. In getting ready to watch this season, I started rewatching the 1st season again to introduce some other family members who would only watch if there wasn’t a week in between. I think folks are comparing this first episode too much with the first episode of the second or third season – as nostalgia is likely to make one do. Believe me (or watch again yourself), the first episode of the first season all but had Souta as a pedophile, had questionable quality in many places, and really took until around the third or fourth episode where you didn’t feel that the relationships were awkward at best. There’s no guarantee this will get better like that did, but I have at least some faith in the author given the “original” Working and the follow-up with our favorite public servants (2nd season of that when?). Time will tell if that trust is misplaced.

    NaweGR
    Reply

    1. Indeed, the first episodes of Working!! were not the best. You’re right. And considering this is the earliest material from the mangaka, it may take a similar amount of time (or more) before we get into the swing of things and gag start landing more consistently.

      Samu
      Reply

  10. Wow, dat dark humor.

    And it probably needs next week to really get anything started properly (with the introduction to the store staff taking three-quarters of the episode).

    PS. Working’s OPs and EDs were always fun to listen, the OP here is no exception (and more refreshing, since the “Working!!’ ” and “Working!!!” ‘s OP and ED were pretty similar.)

    PPS.
    https://randomc.net/image/WORKING%21%21/WWWWorking%20-%20OP%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
    The katana’s back!1!!1! (testing the “%_21” stuff again…)

    info600
    Reply

    1. I thought the chocolate scene with her and Yuuta was hilarious, she definitely seems to have a more sadistic nature than it would seem.
      Lol I’m also getting vibes that her character has a different side that should be very entertaining.

      FallenRock
      Reply

  13. Personally, as much of an all-star cast as this has, most of the acting seemed kind of…stale. I mean, I’m not the biggest fan of Yuuichi Nakamura, but I never thought he was bad in any sense of the word, so his somewhat lackluster performance in this episode felt really weird.

    And the same applies to Yoko Hikasa, Kouki Uchiyama, and Kensho Ono, who actually are some of my favorites. Considering I got into this because it included 4 of my favorites in it (the above 3 and Hiro Shimono), this was more than a little bit of letdown.

    Still, I have faith that it won’t take long for the actors to get into it. So I’m going to stick with it.

    P.S. Nakamura getting the normal high school student part, while Hikasa, Ono, Uchiyama, Amamiya and Shimono playing the adults is kind of unusual to see. I was actually wondering if the former might’ve been a little miscast. It’s probably just me, though.

    P.P.S. Nakamura and Tomatsu going from siblings in the other Working anime to probable love interests in this one is kind of amusing (and that’s ignoring the fact that they look like Kirio and Inami).

    starqo
    Reply

  14. I’m perfectly alright with starting over. The original cast was great but the series ran its course and everyone got a nice resolution. For me the months are starting to get cold and I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to warm myself up than by sitting down and hanging out with a new Wagnaria staff. Bring it on ♡

    sosbrigade1991
    Reply

  15. I’ll take the awesome theme song, the most familiar cast I’ve seen in a while, and a whole bunch of humour I know I’ll be laughing to yet again each episode.

    I really don’t get the negativity about this show. This show got potential, guys. Instead of wall violence, height discrimination and block-headed romance we have education levels, heavy debt and spiritual sightings. See? A cast with so much more pragmatic traits than before! LOL

    Kaineng
    Reply

  16. https://randomc.net/image/WORKING!!/WWWWorking%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
    I actually went back to RC’s WORKING! and my suspicions were right. It’s Katanashi! So does that mean that http://WWW.WORKING and WORKING may concurrently be in the same time line?

    https://randomc.net/image/WORKING!!/WWWWorking%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
    THOSE EYES! THE EYES OF ST. VALENTINE DESCENDING FROM THE HEAVENS!!!

    By the way, is Higashida’s mom Otoo’s long lost wife?

    Velvet Scarlantina
    Reply

    1. The ‘!!’ is from the series folder rather than any particular images, so if I were to change that it would break 3 season worth of images. I’m positive there is a way to post the images in the comments as others have done it in the past.

      Sorry!

      Samu
      Reply

  20. I have to admit that the humor is a good shade darker than the original Working but still the atmosphere seems to be intact. I truly did enjoy this episode but it is a strange feeling. It is not unlike going to an old hangout and meeting a whole new bunch of people there. The old crew that made that place special might have moved on but the new people do grow on you.

    Mechamorph
    Reply

  21. Souta wasn’t the only cameo btw. You could see Popura in the outside shot of Daisuke’s school.

    Overall, this is obviously not the same Wagnaria but it’s not a bad place to hang around.

    Seph
    Reply

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