My Senpai Is Annoying

My Senpai is Annoying anime offers a delightful mix of workplace comedy and romance. The story revolves around the petite and serious Futaba Igarashi and her boisterous yet caring senpai, Harumi Takeda. The anime balances humor and heartwarming moments, showcasing their evolving relationship and the quirky dynamics with their colleagues. The art style is vibrant and cute, fitting the lighthearted tone of the show. The characters are endearing, with Futaba's struggles and Takeda's obliviousness providing plenty of laughs and touching moments. It's a feel-good watch for anyone who enjoys slice-of-life comedies without any heavy drama.

Really, what even should be the name of this subgenre? The Japanese Birthrates Declining Genre? Those who are unfamiliar with the genre may not understand what I'm talking about, but in recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in anime that is similar to this. Unlike the typical high school romantic comedy, this anime has all the elements of a high school romantic comedy, including a cast of characters whose behavior and emotional development are fundamentally similar to those in high school romcoms, but it is set in an office with seemingly adult characters. Consider propaganda used in military recruitment. They portray strong, competent troops battling with their dependable comrades in weapons in thrilling acts of valor for their nation. Then they say, "That might also apply to you!" In order to get people to willingly sign up and only discover the truth of the situation after they've committed and are less able to back out, it's important to romanticize and idealize a position that is actually far more demanding and unsexy than they're made to seem.

Found this unexpectedly after looking up a nasty meme and got into it immediately. Slice of life is close to my heart and I also really liked - instead of highscoolers - the office dorks in Higehiro, even though, that show has some bad reputation reasonably. Well, it's not the case here. The small, but strong headed Futaba and the big shaped and big hearted Takeda lead a really healthy relationship here as they are getting closer to each other. The show comes with a nice set of supporting characters with all the different and bit cliche stereotypes, but nonetheless, they are likeable, the jokes are funny, the story is not annoying or forced and altogether everything is okay, from writing to animation. I watched it with the English dub, it's pretty good. The tough-as-nail biker grandpa and the drunken Russian(?) girl with the vodka bottle and Siberia jokes were my absolute favorite side characters. And yes, it's a must to mention that Takeda is a real gentleman with excellent communication skills - he is a sales guy after all -, not some annoying schoolkid, which does lots of good to the show... senpai is not annoying a bit. Not a must watch per se, but as a romentic comedy for grown ups or younger adults it can be recommended easily. UPDATE: After my preeliminary review just lowered my points to 8 from 9 and the reason for that is... well, I should better not spoiler it. It was still fun to watch, but I feel sorry for the missed opportunity. (I really wonder if I just watched highschoolers in an office environment, because at the end, some maturity was certainly missing from the characters... And at what point it became a hard requirement for _any_ romantic animes to include: a beach episode, an aquarium episode, a bathhouse/hotel episode and - even if it's about salarymen -, a school episode? Feel like I can scream or something... where is originality? Second part was a downhill.)