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Synopsis
- Pia Carrot
Welcome to Pia Carrot, a diner/restaurant chain, where the food is good,
the view is great and the girls are so gosh darn cute.
In this series, we meet Koji who, due to a chance encounter with a girl,
is late for his job interview at Pia Carrot. After a lot of hassle, he gets
the job anyway and discovers, much to his surprise and consternation, that
the girl he crashed into earlier and caused him to be late is the same girl
he now will be working together with.
Review
And the second I saw the two crash together, start yelling at each other
and calling each other names, I knew that they would proclaim their love
towards each other by the time the series finished. And if that seems
spoilerish or you didn't see it coming upon your viewing of this title, I
have only one thing to say: Welcome to the wonderful world of anime.
Of course, that left me with the knowledge of there being six entire
episodes where they would argue, fight or at other times, do something
embarrassing towards each other. It's not just the fact that the pairing is
obvious enough from the start. They practically hammer it into your head
with a large clue-by-four frequently during the entire series, no matter
how many alternative love interests they throw in. Oh well, even if you
know the destination of the journey, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the
ride.
Compared to the movie (or OAV, depending on your point of view),
Sayaka's Love story, the art and animation of THIS OAV is less detailed
though just as greatly animated. The whole thing is based more on comedy,
so the pace is at times more fast and frantic than the movie. (Okay, I'm
not gonna say it.) Overall, it's pleasing enough.
The VA's are great as usual. The music is, like in the movie, not really
my cup of tea. In contrast to the movie, though, it's far more peppy,
though still not any more likable.
Since this is a multi-episode OAV and therefore has a lot more playtime
than the movie, they had the chance to put more weight into plot and
character development. And, luckily, they didn't completely waste it. True,
there are still just too many (albeit very cute) girls there to address
each and every one of them, but the few main ones are being played out a
lot more than any of the girls from the movie. Mainly Hinomori Azusa, the
rather temperamental main love interest and Enomoto Tsukasa, the girl they
threw in to try and make it into a "which girl will he choose"
deal. (Which ultimately fails because the hints of the "fated
couple" are still there.)
And while I'm glad to see that Azusa, despite her temper, is a generally
non-violent girl, Koji sort of annoyed me by adapting all the
characteristics of the "typical anime teenage male." I.E. A
drooling, slightly perverted moron. He's like Golden Boy's Oe Kintaro,
except without his charm and his get-going spirit, but most definitely with
his interest in girls and their assets. At least I can take SOME pleasure
in him improving through the show, if just a little.
All in all, this title is pretty much worth the time to watch as well,
like the movie. It plays on the humor a lot more than the movie, which is
good. It has more stereotypical and generally typecast characters, which
isn't quite as good. The fanservice is upped somewhat compared to the
movie, though not too outrageously. (The cleavage factor is a little
higher, due to the girls being a little more generously endowed than in the
movie.) Whether that is a good or bad thing I'll leave up to you.
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