It appears that Wakaokami wa Shougakusei! has escaped from anime limbo for the moment, with isolated subbing groups stepping in the fill the streaming gap. That’s certainly a good thing (and I hope it keeps up) because this is a thoroughly charming children’s series that deserves to be seen by audiences outside Japan (even though children’t TV anime are almost always met with resounding indifference by Western audiences anyway).
While there are limits to what children’t anime can get away with, and with a half-length format, Wakaokami seems to be coping about as well with them as realistically possible. Here’s where having a really experienced and gifted staff can make the difference – every episode feels complete despite its length. So far we’re still very much in the unspooling stages of the story (given the popularity of the source novels and the fact that a film is coming in the fall, I’d be surprised if we don’t get at least two cours, so there should be plenty of time) but there’s a sense of some deeper and melancholic layers to be uncovered.
The theme this week is the rivalry between Harunoya and a much larger and more modern onsen hotel (I guess all these sorts of anime have to have that), which extends to the heiress of that hotel (and Okko’s classmate). Even if Okko doesn’t see Harunoya as much of a threat (and her grandma doesn’t seem especially competitive), the heiress sees every other inn as an enemy. Pretty confident I can see where this subplot is headed, but we’ll see. This week also sees the arrival of a famous novelist and widower and his son, who’s taking to moping since his mother’s death. He’s about Okko’s age and seems to be somewhere between foil/potential love interest at this stage.
Of course one might like to ship Okko and Uri-bo (great chemistry there) but if he’s nothing more than the ghost he’s presented himself as, that’s obviously not an option. Still – Uri-bo has a backstory, I’m sure of it, and it’s going to come out sooner or later. That may be where the series goes a little darker and more tragic, but that’s a pure hunch on my part at this point.
