Giji Harem is kind of the inverse of Katsute Mahou Shoujo. That’s a short I watch and think how much better it’d be at full-length, and Giji is a full-length show I watch and think it might be better as a short. I think 12 minutes would be plenty for the sort of entertainment this series provides. And the narrative structure would be fine with that, too. It’s not so much that I get tired of it but the various shorts never hold my interest for the entire episode. I think it could be different, with a different adaptation. But this is the one we have.
That’s the reality of Giji Harem for me. I like it, and watching these two goofs is fun. The derpy character designs are meh, but given how dorky Rin and Eiji are they sort of fit. Hayami Saori as Rin is probably the biggest missed opportunity. I can’t stop thinking how much fun that character could be with someone like Aoi Yuuki or Tomatsu Haruka in charge – someone who could really go toe-to-toe with Okamoto Nobuhuko’s Eiji. They really are cute. and it’s fun to watch high schoolers act like the children they basically still are. But the show always feels like it’s not everything it could be.
Among this week’s chapters, the goya drink bit was fun. For those who don’t know, goya is bitter melon – supposedly the key to Okinawan longevity but one of the most foul-tasting fruits known to humankind. The Japanese do love putting weird flavors into bottled drinks. Shirotori with romance cliches was actually really clever. And the nurse and Eiji’s house bits were quite relationship-intense. I see cracks in Eiji’s wall of density – I think he’s trolling Rin at times. That’s fun to speculate on too.
At this point I think it’s in the hands of the voters with Giji Harem. It would work well in a digest post (for the same reason it would as a half-length) but with Senpai wa Otokonoko dropping out there’s no obvious path to make that happen. Short posts like this are fine, too, but it all comes down to what the best allocation of my writing time is. The bubble exists for shows like this, that’s for sure.
Nicc
July 27, 2024 at 7:40 amI do agree that this show would work as a short and maintain its charm. I certainly wouldn’t mind if it was made into 12 minutes spread over two cours and so I can get my weekly fix of these lovable goofs for many months. “Katsute Mahou Shoujo”, which is heavier, would benefit from being full length. But, as you said, this is what we got.
There are a whole lot of gags here from her bestie playing as Eiji during the school trip, sleep talking (I hear the secrets that you keep. When you’re talkin’ in your sleep…), shiritori, playing nurse and patient, the gag with the drink (Did the photo show durian?) and then ending with Rin visiting his home again (Complete with matching his-and-hers shirts). Oh yeah, and this time mom is around and she seems to have taken a shine to Rin. In a lot of these gags, the two of them seem close to a breakthrough. It does seem like Eiji is doing some acting of his own now when it comes to how he feels about her. It was another fun episode this week.
Guy Thompson
July 27, 2024 at 6:06 pmAfter 3 seasons of Oregairu I can’t help but think that Cool-chan (a.k.a Yukinoshita) is how Hayami Saori sounds like normally and how she voices Rin without ‘acting’ is unnatural, so could agree about lost opportunity.