We’re actually closer to the start of the spring season than winter, but Winter 2021’s last premiere finally hits our screens on February 25th. Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san is an NHK production, an NHK World one at that, and seems to be treated more as a mainstream series than a conventional anime. That said, the first episode on the whole felt a lot more of the moment than I expected, anime-wise.
Maiko-san Chi’s premiere was a bit of a good news/bad news scenario for me. The good, principally, is that the series isn’t the all-CGI visual atrocity I half-expected based on the previews. There’s certainly a lot of CGI here (increasingly J.C. Staff’s M.O., it seems) but it’s not universal, nor is it badly done. The backgrounds are nice enough, and while it’s clear there’s a lot of corner-cutting with the 2-D animation director Suzuki Youhei manages to stylize it enough to make it work. I also love anime set in Kyoto of course, a city I adore and have come to know pretty well.
Unfortunately, I found the story itself to be pretty much a snoozer. The maiko theme is interesting, but it plays as a pretty bog standard cute girls doing cute things show, at least so far. Hanazawa Kana as the dojikko failed-maiko-turned-cook Kiyo and M.A.O. as maiko starlet Sumire both deliver archetypical breathy cutie-pie performances too, which I’m sure is only what they were asked to do but doesn’t help matters. There’s only one mode in the premiere, it’s pretty clear what it is after five minutes, and the rest of the ep pretty much flatlines on that level.
Still, Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san is a pleasant enough diversion. The characters designs are cute (shocking that isn’t), and for me at least it’s fun to see places like the Shirakawa Canal Kaiga district depicted in quite lovely fashion. Maybe things will perk up a little when Kiyo’s love interest from her home town shows up – at this point anything to break the tonal monotony would be a step in the right direction. This looks like a pass for me but I’ll give it the three episode rule (probably) for Kyoto’s sake.
Derrick
February 26, 2021 at 10:11 amThis story has some heart, and it does show the darkness of the setting. I do dropped the manga because the plot is glacial
Guardian Enzo
February 26, 2021 at 10:35 amIt’s gonna need to show me more in the next two eps for sure. A frankly quite boring premiere.
Kim
February 26, 2021 at 10:52 pmI liked it but as soon as I read your description I knew I would
Snowball
February 27, 2021 at 8:54 amThis reminds me of Hakumei and Mikochi in terms of pacing and two girls specialising in different hobbies. It was enjoyable and had lovely artwork.
I found it quite a struggle to get through this first episode as it was boring. I think it’s one that would benefit from shorter episodes. And why CGI?
Guardian Enzo
February 27, 2021 at 9:08 amHakumei and Mikochi was considerably more cheeky and overall had better production values, for me. So far…
Ronbb
February 28, 2021 at 3:20 amKyoto, food, maiko…I’m totally game. Monotonous or not, I will stick around. With so much going on in real life — the pandemic, economy and growing trend of dictatorship, killings and genocide — this show gives me a calming space.
Will it be hard to blog, Enzo? Perhaps you can inject some of your experiences in and knowledge of Kyoto in your posts?
Guardian Enzo
February 28, 2021 at 9:12 amIt’s going to have to grab me much more just to get me to keep watching, so blogging seems a pretty remote possibility at the moment. The Kyoto aspect of it was literally the only part of the premiere I found interesting. I can’t even imagine what I’d have to say about this show if I did try to cover it but premieres are not always good indicators of what’s to come, which is why the three episode rule exists.