Domestic Girlfriend Episode 1 Review
I’m going to start by pointing out I didn’t actually want to watch this first episode, but I’ve already skipped a whole bunch of Crunchyroll premieres because they just did not appeal in the slightest so in the absence of going back and watching dumb girls get tutored, robot girls fly planes, or just cute girls in a cafe, I decided to give this one a shot. I was actually pleasantly surprised – though that is probably because my expectations were pretty much rock bottom after reading the synopsis and looking at the visual of the guy sandwiched between the two girls on the teacher’s desk.
Firstly, the OP is fantastic. I really enjoyed the OP for My Roommate is a Cat but that was more just kind of fun listening. This OP really hits home and has a lot of impact. While it may not be the most pleasant thing to listen to, I don’t think pleasant is what they were going for. Whichever way, the sound and the images are perfect and I have found my OP of the season right here even if I end up dropping Domestic Girlfriend.
Now, how was the episode?
Middling.
I’m not even joking. The main guy is kind of average nice guy with a slice of pathetic thrown in for good measure. He sleeps with a girl and then regrets it because he’s crushing on his teacher. Realistically other than the fact that apparently he was a dork in middle school before a friend gave him a make-over, we really learn nothing else about him and his personality is pretty much meh so far as he just kind of reacts to things while trying to be the nice guy.
Meanwhile the father and the step-mother to be are the typical non-entities parents tend to be in school dramas, appearing only by necessity in this first episode. And once again we have a situation of parents doing ridiculous things to their kids (I thought Citrus was bad). Blending families isn’t something you should jump into in the space of a few days, unless you are an anime in which case go for it because clearly anything goes here.
That just leaves the teacher who is hitting all the tropes of young female teacher who tries to look all together at school but is silly at home and also drinks heavily. I’m kind of reminded of the aunt in Another. Then the younger sister who seems to have a chip on her shoulder but that is literally her only personality so far.
While this one didn’t get as trashy as I was expecting, the drama is clearly what they are pushing here and without further character development it is going to fall flat. Still, it wasn’t horrendous and there is potential as we learn more about these characters for them to be interesting so I’ll see how this one goes.
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Domestic na Kanojo (Anime) Intro Theme: Kawakiwoameku
I watched this last night after putting it off all week and I have a hunch it *might* be my guilty pleasure how of the season (that and the “dumb girls get tutored” one)… 🙂
*show…. 🙁
This one certainly ended up far better than I expected. I’m still not going to watch the quintuplet one. At this point I’ve got enough options on my list.
Fair enough. I’m fully aware it is going to cover the usual harem bases of the accidental boob grabs and teasing fan service so expectations are not high, but sometimes you need some mindless fluff to balance out the heavy stuff like “Promised Neverland” and “Dororo”, both of which got off to strong starts. for me
The Promised Neverland was definitely my favourite first episode last week. We’ll see how it goes with its second episode.
As for mindless fluff, I think My Roommate is a Cat will be my pick for that this season.. It may not end up being mindless, but I’m hoping it remains relaxing.
From the premise it sounded a bit average to me, but something about it has me intrigued lol. It was interesting to read your thoughts. I’ll admit it does sound trashy as heck, so the fact that it didn’t come off that way raises my expectations, but only a tiny bit lol.
It definitely isn’t going to be for everyone but I went in expecting this one to be a solid and easy drop and ended up reasonably interested in seeing if these characters go anywhere.
I like it when that happens. It’s always nice to be surprised in a good way, or semi-good way.
I know you’re not a fan of cute girl shows but I think you should give ‘Endro!’ a go, its on Crunchyroll and I at least think there’s elements about it you might like (Fantasy setting, decent action, demon lord, etc.). I love it personally, its probably my favourite of the season but then again it appeals to me on pretty much every level.
I’ll have to try to catch the first episode then.