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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Sasaki and Peeps Season One Anime Series Review
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Jabootu
Posts: 198 |
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The review is spot on. It was bewildering but kind of fascinating how many directions the show swerved into (while not really serving any of them). The low key presentation kinda-sorta worked for me, and it was harmless enough that I continued to devote 20 minutes a week to it. But it really was a Swiss Army knife of a program:
1) Overworked salaryman gets a cute pet and learns to relax and enjoy life. 2) But the pet is a talking wizard from another world, a world, inevitably, that is roughly like medieval Europe. 3) The pet takes the hero back to his original world, from which they can travel to and fro between the two planets. 4) The hero decides to start a business exploiting consumer goods from modern day Japan. (How the economy of the magic world doesn't crash from him removing wealth from it and bringing it back to our world is never really addressed.) 5) Meanwhile the pet teaches the hero enough magic that he basically becomes a fairly powerful mage. 6) In the Magic World, the hero becomes involved in royal intrigue, along with very high level economic and political matters as well as military threats. 7) Back on Earth the hero runs afoul of a secret government organization that battles people who, unknown to the public at large, have psychic powers, which is what they believe the hero has since we don't normally have magic on this world....and so on and so on. Oh, right, and the latchkey high school girl next door who has a weird romantic (?) fixation on the hero. It just goes on and on like that. In 12 episodes! I assume the second season sees Our Hero become the captain of a spaceship while, back in the Magic World, launching a bakery, pharmacy and laundry, which are advertised via the creation of a idol group made up of girls from both worlds, humans and otherwise, who learn to comically bond together as they also begin to make themselves known in the field of competitive jousting. Last edited by Jabootu on Mon Apr 01, 2024 12:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4498 |
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I will say I was surprised with how it leads off with chucking multiple genres at you (which I thought was fun) but then slams the brakes hard on certain parts of the story that didn't seem to merit that. After more than two episodes dealing with Marc's imprisonment, I found myself thinking, "It's still on this?"
Maybe season 2 will improve there, but I was hoping that having all these different genres would mean there was some sort of interconnecting plot that somehow tied them together. The focus on seemingly minuscule things has me doubting it though. |
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RenimLS
Posts: 122 Location: North America |
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What volume in the LN did the first season get up to? I've been enjoying the LN, but couldn't get past the age rated down esper fight in episode 2 in the anime. The anime adaptation kind of bored me and the fight was just disappointing beyond the violence reduction changes, which made me not expect anything of any future fights.
It took the end of volume 3 for the different paths to finally cross, and the story in volume 4 actually tying things together to resolve an issue being faced. |
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Fluwm
 Posts: 918 |
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I mostly agree with the review, although in my case I found the opening extra-length episode pretty promising. It reminded me a lot of ReCreators, another kind of faux-isekai fantasy series from a couple years ago that likewise tried to do something fun and interesting by tossing in all of the tropes and reveling in the chaos.
Shame Sasaki and Peeps totally forgot about "reveling in the chaos." I could've tolerated that by-the-numbers fantasy setting if, you know... we didn't spend so much time there dealing with what is quite possibly some of the least interesting isekai politicking I've ever seen -- which given the sheer volume of unengaging isekai BS is quite an achievement. And then there are the girls. Yeesh. I wanted to like this one, I really did -- it started out strong, too! Aoi Yuki is a treasure! But each new episode got worse and worse. I haven't even finished the thing -- three episodes from the finale and everything's been so tedious and dull so far, why bother? (That said, I did really love the gag when Shizuka tried to do a cool entrance through that magic barrier during the psychic battle arc and just bounced off. If only that kind of humor had been utilized more than once!) .... Oh, also, I do think we need to at least give Sasaki and Peeps props for having a homosexual character without any homophobia. Another dubious achievement, but them's the brakes. |
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beaverusiv
Posts: 14 |
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Welp, I loved this one. One of my top this season. It may be because I'm older so I loved the fact that the protag wasn't just just older in looks but actually acted like an experienced person. Things that in your teens or twenties would seem like the end of the world you've now dealt with dozens of times you just handle it. It felt like a meta commentary (on purpose or not) that so much wacky stuff was happening but we were playing "slow life isekai" in the middle of it
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Greed1914
Posts: 4498 |
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That part just leaves me wondering why it was done this way? I found myself actively disappointed by the reveal that his coworker was actually a teenager using makeup to look older. Was there a reason she couldn't just be in her 20's or something? I've heard that the neighbor girl has some content that was cut, which I can believe since she keeps coming up, but doesn't seem to serve a function so far. |
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NeedMoreCats
 Subscriber Posts: 329 Location: Westchester, NY |
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While it wasn’t one of my top shows this season, I did enjoy it. And I think it’s for the reasons @beaverusiv listed. I still laugh when I think about the scene where new co-worker Hoshizaki comes over at 6AM all gung-ho with a mission assignment—one that any newly-recruited teenage boy would be super stoked about—and Sasaki is like, “I’m gonna need to speak to your supervisor.” That jaded-salaryman vibe really won me over. |
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Cam0
 Posts: 4901 |
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Wait, Aoi Yuki voices Peeps? Whaaaaaaaaaaat? I thought I had become pretty good at recognizing her voice, but even while actively thinking it's Aoi Yuki I still can't recognize the voice as hers. Insane.
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1448 |
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While I didn't love the show like you did, what kept me watching it until the end of the season is exactly what you described: and adult protagonist who treats the adventure stuff like a job. I also appreciated how un-heroic Sasaki is, always trying to solve complicated problems in the most roundabout way possible, and not risking his own neck until it's absolutely necessary. I'm honestly starved for anime starring working adults, which is also the reason why I never dropped Snack Basue even though its humor didn't always work for me. Last edited by Zhou-BR on Mon Apr 01, 2024 8:32 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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lhernan02
Posts: 196 |
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By the look of it this one is going to break down along age lines (this generation's Bursting Hearts, I guess). I liked the protagonist specifically for his "lived in" groove. <<HEY, THERE IS MAGIC AND ISEKAI AND BATTLES AND AND AND!!!! ... yeah, what's the benefit plan and is there a lot of overtime?>> The girls didn't bother me as much, I have been watching anime for 30+ years, after a while you become immune to it. Would I have preferred a similarly aged woman or two, yes, but then it wouldn't be anime, just be thankful there is a realistic middle aged lead.
Moderator's Note: post edited to remove content in violation of rules 2 and 3. |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1598 |
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It had a lot of faults but I had my share of fun. A pragmatic normal salaryman being the protagonist for this ball of chaos was the best choice, and for some reason everything about Futari Shizuka amused me greatly from her fullname always being called to that lolibaba mixture of both old speech and hobbies with her "cute" reactions and always scrolling on her phone.
But better than everything was the magical girl's introduction after a pretty boring first half of the episode. The way each of her wild revelations were dispensed had perfect comedic timing. It had me floored.
I find it funny that Saitou Chiwa and her were Homura and Madoka because those two seiyuu are the ones that keep tricking me over and over. |
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TheAncientOne
 Posts: 1882 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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Add me to the list of people that were disappointed that Hoshizaki turned out to be a 16 year old school girl rather than the 20-something almost everyone thought she was.
To the series credit, Sasaki has shown zero romantic interest in any of these young girls, and I don't recall any of them being used for fan service. That said, I can understand having them all in orbit around them leaves people with the "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling. The girl next door is the most worrisome, given that she likely has some distorted perception of how to show affection due to a mother that has her wait outside why she bangs her latest hookup inside. Couple that with likely no experience with a male parental figure and this could veer into problematic territory in a heartbeat. |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1598 |
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From what little more I know about her, that seems to BE her character. An exploration on how her fucked up upbringing has messed her up, specially how her mother's views and advice have been a very poor influence on how she processes interactions. I'm unaware of the actual tone of it though. Whether it's treated with gravity or levity. |
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CrypticPurpose
 Posts: 332 |
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Same. One of the highlights of the season for me. Always glad to see some anime that targets us older folks as its demographic. |
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Cryten
 Posts: 1050 |
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Shizuka was probably my favourite of the "girls". Because she behaves as an adult and can actively engage in mental jousting with the main characters. Even if she seems to immediately devote herself to Sasaki to her own detriment.
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