The latest development in the long and winding story of this adaptation is that Crunchyroll decided to add Cool Doji Danshi (almost three weeks into the season, for whatever reason). That will certainly make it easier to blog, should I decide to do so. As to that, I’ve remarked on the lack of middle-ground type shows this season – the bubble is as empty as I’ve ever seen it. Honestly I think I like this series enough to where I’d probably cover it, but as a half-length show it’s not going to give me a lot of grist for the mill most weeks. It would be a nice candidate for a digest post – but I don’t see any candidates there either, for much the same reason.
There’s no denying that the formula here – so far at least – is extremely simple. A clumsy guy, each with a twist on the theme, struggling their way through life. But the writing is quite clever and packs a lot of wit, and I’ve rather liked both the guys featured so far. Having covered the college student in the premiere, Play it Cool, Guys next turns to the baby of the group (next week is the salaryman), 17 year-old Futami Shun (Uchiyama Kouki). His deal is basically complete airheadedness – one of those boys that “would forget his own head if it wasn’t attached”. His strategy is a simple mantra – “I meant to do that”. Which is, now that I think about it, basically the strategy cats use.
The rub here is that – naturally – no one is ever fooled by this. But because Shun is a nice kid and rather good at appearing cool, his quirk is seen as charming rather than annoying. It’s a form of gap moe, I suppose, and it’s kind of working in that it keeps Shun from going on tilt and makes him rather popular at school. He’s the sort of guy that’s great at basketball, but he’s wearing his jersey inside out. Stuff like passing the ball to a friend on the other team and the whole earbud fiasco were quite amusing, and the thing is, I’ve known guys (and cats) like this – they definitely exist.
As a pure slice of life (unlike 95% of the shows that get called that) Cool Doji Danshi is very effective. The tone strikes a good balance of being affectionate about its characters’ foibles without being cloying about it. As this is scheduled to run for two cours (and the manga is ongoing), it’s clearly going to have to move well beyond the formula of the first four episodes. I’m curious to see what that looks like, and also if the paths of the four protagonists will become permanently linked – which seems as if it would be tricky to justify, given their rather different niches in society.
