Denki-gai
デンキ街の本屋さん
(Anime)
workplace comedy by Asato Mizu
Era: 2010s
Rating: B
Plot: The daily lives of the strange staff of Umanohone, a large doujin shop.
Length: 12 episodes
Thoughts: Sometimes, after watching a show I wonder if there's something else from the same author and add it to the list, in this case being Aharen-san is Incomprehensible, which was the manga that Asato Mizu followed Denki-gai with, and they couldn't really be more different. While the Aharen-san is centered around two socially-impaired high schoolers who realised they were perfect for each other, Denki-gai has an ensemble cast of weirdos and perverts who staff the manga floor of a large doujin store. One thing I often complain about these shows that work mostly with an ensemble cast is that very often you can't tell who is who apart (even more when they all are in school uniforms), but in here they're very well defined: from the left to right in the top picture, the first is Fu-girl, an high schooler who is obsessed with zombies. Then, Sensei, an actual doujin artist who splits her time between her work at the store, her doujin work and later some assistant work, Umio is the most recent hire, a skilled illustrator who is the first to help Sensei when her deadlines are closing in. The guy in the middle is Kantoku, who wanted to be a director and is often filming the most embarrassing moments of the staff. The big guy is Sommelier, named that way he has gained a reputation of being able to look at someone and discover exactly what kind of pervert they are and which doujin to suggest, which becomes a big in-store event. The blonde girl in front of him is Hio, another fresh hire, who gets embarrassed with ease, a problem when a good part of your stock are ero doujins, and finally on the right it's Kameko, who gained that nickname because she's always taking photos, although is too shy to have her photo taken.
Most of the stories revolve around the daily work hours (and overtime) around the store, from preparing and putting in place new stock, the big release days, the slow days and the big events, and obviously how they relate to each other. Umio and Sensei have feelings for one another, although the first is an otaku who can bore everyone talking of Eroge, and Sensei is extremely concerned that she doesn't have girl power, as she is kind of a slob who wears tracksuits over worn out shirts. Same with Kantoku and Hio, because he's a tsundere and she doesn't know how he feels about her if he still has feelings for Tsumorin, another doujin author who were previously dating when she worked at the store, with Kameko looking from the outside at Kantoku, although since she feels she's the odd girl out, never crosses her mind to confess. Then there's finally Sommelier and Fu-girl, the first doesn't speak and the second is too shy to approach him, and on the outside there's also Erohon G-man, a woman who patrols doujin stores for material too pornographic... who is one of the first "costumers" of Sommelier back when both were still in middle school and still appears on the store to check-out a full basket for her own collection.
Visually, the work they put on backgrounds inside the store is superb, the visual overstimulation of thousands of similar-looking volumes side to side or on top of each other would be a critical element in making the store pop, and it does just that, same with the shelving on the characters homes, they really put the details on everything to the point I wonder if people are able to tell which series they have based on the spines. Character design is pretty solid, there's a lot of fanservice, but isn't that weird about it. guys' asses, women's breasts, shirtless guys, the difference between panties and a piece of cloth (dunno what it says about me that "Schrodinger's Panties" occurred to me just seconds before the joke appeared in the screen). Look, this is a show about perverts, who sell perverted manga to other perverts, the fanservice is always in the service of a joke, like trying to "think like a man" to increase Sensei's girl power starts with Fu-girl and Kameko depressed because the first tried thinking like Sommelier and guessed "big tits", Hio suggests Sensei to think like a manly man from a manga, and she ends up groping Hio's tits, then turning her attention to Kameko's "rodent like adorableness" puts her in a dog collar and leash and starts to pet her, before finally looking at a horrified Fu-girl and her tiny tiny body. If there's one negative thing I'd like to point is that it abuses the use of a good face, and at times it feels it is kinda compensating for a joke that went a bit long or didn't land that well, and it's not like it's requiring some knowledge of complex lore about the doujin world I don't have, I get where the joke is going, it just feels like it's poking me on the ribs with the elbow trying to get me to acknowledge how funny it was. Still, overall it's a fun show, and if you are looking for a workplace comedy this is certainly worth a shot, more if you want one with perverts.
Plus:
While it may overuse them, it has some incredibly bizarre faces, like man-posessed Sensei.
A cast of incredible perverts
Minus:
It got me a while to get going, wasn't one of those shows I was sold from episode 1, although it gets a lot better.
