Title: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, ささみさん@がんばらない
Producers: Shaft, Aniplex, TBS, Sentai Filmworks
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Supernatural
Duration: 24 min. per episode
The Japanese call them hikikomori—people who’ve become so withdrawn socially that they refuse to leave their homes for weeks and even months at a time. Fortunately though, she lives with her older brother Kamiomi, who just happens to be a teacher at the school Sasami is supposed to attend. Not to mention, her “Brother Surveillance Tool” which lets her view the outside world via her computer and will, theoretically, allow her to readjust to interfacing with people again. What it mainly does, however, is let her view her brother’s interactions with the three very odd Yagami sisters, who inexplicably seem to have had their ages reversed and have various types of “interest” in Kamiomi. And then things start to get really weird… Magical powers?
Fansubs watched: FFF
And we finally arrive at the anime by Shaft. At a simple glimpse Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, Sasami-san from now on, is quite a weird anime, but somehow in a good way. I really haven’t seen any recent anime from Shaft, so I cant really say how much weird this is on a scale from 1 to shaft. The first episode is odd indeed, and any initial impressions I had of this anime- a normal anime about a shut in girl who spies on her brother when he goes to school- have been completely thrown out the room, door and house. Sasami-san isn’t like normal anime but I guess it’s what you expect from Shaft. Other than that, it was a pleasant episode for some odd reason…
The episode starts with a doorbell ring from someone with a parcel, but the main character- Sasami- is at home pretending not to be. The mailman slips the box through the letter hole- whatever it’s called- and leaves, prompting Sasami to collect the box and open it. It is a valentines box from Amazonas- the Shaft version of Amazon- and her brother arrives home during that time. Now there is something odd about this brother, Kamiomi, his face is always covered. Kamiomi, even in the promotional videos and ads, has his face covered when he is on screen. It is rather odd to say the least and I don’t see it serving any purpose at the moment. Maybe it is some joke or gag in the Japanese community, but it is an odd feature. He also loves his sister very much. Sasami herself doesn’t hide her face, but she does hide in her house. She is constantly in the house and requires help from her brother for any humdrum task, from washing her, cleaning her teeth and even dressing her. Sasami is just one weird girl since pretty much all of her time is spent inside, fiddling with her super computer and 4 monitors spying on her brother. She also has some sickness when she goes outside. The other characters include three sisters: Kagami, Tsurugi and Tama Yagami. All these sisters are friends with Kamiomi and have their own unique personality and traits. Kagami is the black haired quite and clam one, Tama is the blonde haired with lots of energy and acts like a frog, and Tsurugi is a red head teacher that plays adult games. Apart from them, that is the main cast from the first episode and all of the three sisters, have surprising abilities that will be mentioned later.
Kamiomi feeds Sasami, collects the valentine’s gift and leaves for school. Sasami boots up her computer, loading the Oni-chan Kanshi Sysetm OS to spy on her brother through all the various cameras placed around the place. Outside, Kamiomi is approached by Tama, who gives her the box of chocolate that Sasami gives him, which prompts Sasami to go outside to stop him. But as she goes outside, she begins to see weird things and it starts to get very dizzy and heads back in. She hops back on the computer and sees an image of an eroge, which Sasami acts on and goes outside. She then travels back inside and rest. She turns on the computer again and sees her brother dancing the Hare Hare Yukai dance from Haruhi – which makes this anime severely better. Kamiomi talk to the three sisters about Valentines Day and the importance of chocolate, which makes him want to buy lots of chocolate for Sasami. Sasami responds by going on Amazonas to look for more items, but she finds a new manga issue about chocolate, and everything else she finds on the Internet is about chocolate.
She begins to freak out and something extraordinary occurs, chocolate pours out of her computer screen and takes over the world. Seriously, the whole world turns to chocolate and chocolate tentacles appear. Surprisingly, the three sisters are the only ones left- and Kamiomi who is buying chocolate- and apparently attack the chocolate tentacles with their powers. Tama has some shield, Tsurugi has some super sword and Kagami has guns and boob missiles, seriously. They defeat the chocolate boss and Kagami does some weird spell that gets rid of all the chocolate. Kamiomi returns home to see a chocolate statue of Sasami and jumps in to eat her, but the statue cracks and reveals that it is really her. She knees her brother and finds the three sisters by the side of her bed, and grabs her baseball bat and strikes at them, and the episode closes.
First thing is first, the second half of the episode is completely weird and I’m flabbergasted at what happened. Let’s crack down on things; chocolate starts pouring out of the computer and takes over the world. Then, Kagami, Tsurugi and Tama have powers to take on the chocolate world who takes forms at tentacles, then finally a fire chocolate dragon. Also, the sisters have weird powers. Tama says she will eat all the chocolate but it seems that there’s a shield to protect her. Tsurugi has some powerful sword and Kagami has the weirdest power. She is pretty much an android and has missiles and guns stored in her, heck she has wings and rocket boosters but her most weird ability is that she has missile launchers that grow out of her boobs. Yeah, boob missiles, which even Tsurugi comments on. Anyways, the whole world somehow turns into chocolate, which indicates either two things; its either Sasami’s imagination or it actually happens and she has magical powers. But the latter is true, which is backed up by the sisters appearing at the end, Sasami being in chocolate at the end and… the Haruhi dance.
For the other parts of the episode, the majority of it is humorous with many random jokes and parodies. And then, there are other weird moments such as Kamiomi doing trivial tasks for Sasami like washing her. There is a fair bit of nudity, for some reason when Sasami dresses and gets washed- for about 2 minutes. Though, most of the things are covered for good reason, it does get uncomfortable, but I do believe it is only present in this episode. Anyways, the interactions of Kamiomi are funny but the fact that his face is constantly covered is odd. It could be used to be some gag in the future when the objects covering his face are changed numerously, like it did in this episode. It also seems that Kamiomi loves his sister a lot, maybe a bit too much. The three sisters themselves have some amusing moments, especially with Tsurugi viewing her eroge and Kagami’s boob missiles. As for the overall plot of the anime, it seems to be similar to Haruhi where the sisters try to stop Sasami ending the world. Other than that, there really isn’t much to say about the story and premise since most of the episode is just weird and random, but funny too.
Many Shaft anime have been praised for its animation, and watching the videos before the anime it seems that the series has some unique art style of a washed up palette and watercolour style. Though, that only occurs in the house and outside the house the art style is more typical. It probably is to juxtapose the two worlds of Sasami, the inside coziness and the outside world. As for the washed up visuals, it does look rather interesting with all the bright colours. In the outside world, the backgrounds look stunning. The action scene towards the end of the episode is pretty fun to watch, and has good cinematic action. Even though they fight chocolate tentacles, they do make it look epic. Once again I will highlight the backgrounds and say that they are very detailed, and the contrast between that and Sasami’s house is intriguing, but future episodes may fully flesh it out. The character designs are very good and Sasami does look adorable- the nudity is not needed- and her snuggling under the bed sheets is just adorable. Once again Kamiomi has an object covering his face for the entire time, which is a weird design decision. The three sisters themselves are the usual coloured hair tropes and their hair represents their personality well. And yes, I have chosen a best girl so far- the lovely red hair Tsurugi. The animation is nice to see in the first episode.
As for the music, it is very good and surprising. The BGM seems to have some form of jazz variation that reminds of some Cowboy Bebop action, and it apparently blends well with the action scene at the second half of the episode. For the most part, those are the only tracks I remember, but they sound good and add some epicness to the action scene. There is an opening and ending present in this episode, and the ending has some familiar theme. But first the opening, which has a nice upbeat song that does sound familiar, but regardless it is catchy and nice to listen to. As for the visuals in the opening, there seems to be a theme of circles and random Japanese character written in traditional brush, which does represent something rather important; we see that Sasami and Kamiomi are in the opening but are in traditional clothes from the past, which may hint that they may be tied with someone in the past. The ending itself is more obscure and reminds me of the ending of Lucky Star that the main characters sing the ending. That and the fact that Kamiomi pressures and talks to Sasami over the ending songs so we can’t hear it well enough. But it is there and it does actually sound like the VA of Sasami singing it, and it is somewhat high pitched. Whether or not a new ending song will be sung each week may seem irrelevant since the animation was just a slowed down rehash from the episode; of Sasami dressing in outing clothes. There may be new visuals in the future, but it doesn’t seem to be one final thing. Also, I guess all these are added for a more comical effect since I can sound the laziness in Sasami’s voice when she sings, which is the VA staying in character.
Overall, the episode was pleasing and rather enjoyable. There are many things to wrap your head around in the first episode and many things may not be explained for a while. It seems to have a similar situation to Haurhi, which isn’t a bad thing. The episode was executed well and had some laughs as well. The animation is very good and so is the music. I will most likely watch this episode to its end since it is that enjoyable.
Have a bonus picture of the Hare Hare Yukai dance.
