Karinanose

I picked up this show on a whim because of Nanao. I randomly saw her in Jigoku no hanazono and was like: "she seems cool."

How can I talk about this show. Honestly not much really happens. However all sorts of misunderstandings make this show fun to watch. I mean would you have expected their to be giant A.I controlled robots solving war by the end of this show?

I would have not either.

The main positives is Nanao true to her aura is fantastic as the ever so ditzy Takano. She perfectly plays the airhead with good heart. Sometimes she comes off way too dumb but it usually smooths out with the scenario playing out. I found it great that in the end Takano had such an impact on everyone. If they didn't resolve her whereabouts at the end I would of assumed she was secretly a guardian angel sent down to help everyone when they needed it. It's true you mainly get fixated on her the entire show but I came to like most of the characters.

Hatoyama was a really nice manager. I enjoyed his fatherly attributes to the other staff and how he was controlled. Ukai's compulsiveness to document and ascertain all knowledge at first seem to be confrontational. But then it kinda just turned into a neurotic quark. Kijitani had a great arc I thought. He became someone who didn't care to someone who realizes the impact everyone has on him and his responsibilities. Suzaku had a pretty good arc too despite it being so short. I really enjoyed the development team, especially Yumi. She had the overall best kill me now faces. There was an interesting dynamic as well between each group of work buddies. How each group approached the same problem was a nice look into the mindset of different age classes at a large company.

Now if you are wondering why I didn't mention Hiwada, that's because I felt he was the weakest main character. Honestly he barely had growth. Even when presented with big moments of him growing as a person, he reverts next moment into the same type of person. I also felt his character was somewhat annoying with just how wak they made him look. Him and Karasumori had really unlikable characters. I never felt like i was rooting for Hiwada but for everyone else I was. I also think they didn't even spend enough time to explain him. The other characters became more focused to wrap up story arcs which made his weaker overall. I assume this was due to the short run time of the series. If he was a little more interesting the score would be a little higher.

I suppose this mirrors the status of a new worker vs established workers. Where seniors take center stage and the newbies get drowned out.

One aspect I like about this story was how their were little moments of hope between all the companies. I enjoyed the fact that so many of the business people had epiphanies about how they viewed their employees and goals. I thought that was cute. It was cliche but cute. It kinda made each episode feel like a hallmark christmas movie. I think that's the best way to describe it.

A few small things to round this out. Opening theme is very interesting as it's in French. I liked the unique style intro. It felt kind of like a high fashion photos hoot parody. The ending theme was typical of this sort of drama. I didn't find the type of melody didn't suit the idea of the show. Ending themes really set the mood of a jdrama's impact and I found this one not be the right feeling. I wanted upbeat but more mellow of a flow. It was a song that felt like their were many hardships in the show but their really isn't lol. A good example would be Hope by Tota from the new Anne Shirley anime.

The show also randomly did interesting shots every now and then which were surprising in the moment. The under walk shot of Suzaku and tomato cam come to mind.

Overall the series ends with a sweet note. I half expected it to happen so it wasn't surprising. I bet they were snickering to themselves with the end shot being like a bird flying away from them.