JK Meshi!

I found this Anime fairly enjoyable and as such gave it a 7/10, with 5 being in my view average and anything higher being better, of course.

You might wonder why and it's because of the purpose of this anime. This anime is (as the show itself will even say!) A fairly cheaply made anime but one with charm. The voice acting is quite good and the DVDs you can get (at least they're purchasable in Japan!) come with a Karaoke-style script you can follow along for 2 of the episodes to help people practice or even just try voice acting. The spirit of the show, ... to me at least is all about making something from very little and indeed the dishes in the show are quite easy to make and don't require much effort. The show also mentions many times how they wish to help others with voice acting and indeed if you look at the profiles of the three voice actresses, they got their start on this show and later starred in quite a few other anime.

In an objective sense, there is not much in the way of actual animation, which is of course a bad aspect of the show. The in-joke made by the show about a show identical to it being cheaply made with only 3 voice actresses did not come across to me (as it seems to have to others) as a way to garner pity. Instead I just felt that the show was poking fun at itself and not being too serious about itself, which is a good thing for anime seen as 'bad' by many.

In the end, this anime helped launch the careers of the voice actresses involved and likely with the DVD's Karaoke-style scripts, potentially inspired others to take up voice acting and so while not ever being on the level of a show like K-On in terms of animation, contributed more to anime than an anime that is actually 'bad'

Or in the words of Anton Ego from Ratatouille "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."

Many people miss that this project was more about showcasing and holding an event related to recruiting and encouraging up-coming seiyuu. For that reason, the animation is quite downplayed. It's more like a radio or short drama CD with flash animations as an after-thought.

Some of the banter is witty. It covers a large variety of topics, so the odds are decent of it hitting on something of interest to you at least once. If you don't come in expecting hidden depths, you'll at least find some running character jokes and that the girls are distinct and play certain set roles in manzai like bits. ... The show is quite self aware, and just as the meals cooked aren't meant to be gourmet, this is not meant to be more than a fun snack of an anime.

You'll mostly enjoy it if you enjoy audio dramas. If you're not into those, you'll probably hate this, expecting more of the common visual focus of anime. Sadly, the seiyuu do not have much great chemistry bouncing off of each other, either, but their individual performances save it and make it successful at what it's trying to be, despite some below average elements.

The MAL community is generally forgiving of Slice of Life anime with banal premises - see the reception of K-on, Non Non Biyori, so I wondered why JK Meshi was scored among the worst entries to ever appear in the database. Surely it can't just be the fact that its only three minutes long per episode?

About a minute into the first episode I understood why - JK Meshi fails to execute the bare minimum of what a slice of life anime needs to be loved by at least a portion of the anime community - cute and personable characters. All of the girls have bland, ... uncreative, forgettable designs. The animation looks like it was done in flash with choppy movements and barely any variance in facial expression or gesture. You’re not gonna find any waifus here nor will you find any cute personality types that will endear a viewer to a character.

This could be somewhat forgiven if the topic explored was well executed - JK Meshi does in part aim to be an educational cooking show of simple meals that anyone can prepare, but because the art is so fugly it makes all of the food look disgusting. It’s the exact opposite of Souma in that respect, or the lesser known Osake wa Fuufu that damn near made me an alcoholic with its appeals to creating adult beverages.

So here you have what is quite possibly the worst attempt at a SOL ever, failing to be likable from a character endearment standpoint and failing to have a topic or a familiar setting that viewers can immerse themselves into (take for instance, school life environments). I suppose it being a short anime does give it some reprieve, as you don't waste much of your time in efforts of completing it, but even so it's deservingly placed among the worst anime for sucking at the foundational points of its own genre.