Kawaisou falls squarely into the "slice of life" genre. There's no continuous plot to drag us through the series. It is episodic in nature, with each episode introducing a new stimulus for the cast to react to. Most scenarios force protagonist Usa into uncomfortable (often socially awkward or sexual) situations. This is played mainly for laughs, though sometimes we get dramatic character-building moments out of it.
Usa's discomfort serves as the main source of Kawaisou's comedy, executing manzai (the straight man/funny man act), with our protagonist playing the role of straight man and the rest of the household serving as a revolving door of ridiculous antics. This can sometimes feel redundant, however. Because each of the supporting characters is, for purposes of comedy, mostly defined by a single trait exaggerated to varying degrees, it feels like we go back to the same bag of tricks a bit too often.
Fortunately, Kawaisou's comedy pulls from a fairly large bag. In addition to our straight man/funny man pairings involving the protagonist, the supporting cast members are also able to spin new jokes off each other's embarassing situations. This gives us a good amount of variety in gags, enough to keep things fresh even if some of the beats feel familiar. The comedy hits more often than it misses, and perhaps Kawaisou's greatest virtue is that it always moves forward at a steady clip: even when gags do fall flat, they're in-and-out before they have the chance to get too annoying.
Kawaisou's comedy is enhanced by its judicious use of visuals, frequently inserting highly exaggerated and stylized artwork to great effect during gags. Apart from this, Kawaisou's visual direction maintains an idyllic vibe by constraining the bulk of the action to the Kawai Complex, allowing the show to keep a consistent color palette, which is notable for its use of contrast and bright hues. Particular attention is paid to the lighting in each scene. While the animation is passable, Kawaisou is gorgeous within each individual frame.
Most of the supporting cast members start off as two-dimensional, but even as two-dimensional characters, they benefit from being unique. The cast of Kawaisou is atypical not only in the sense that its members deviate from commonly-accepted social conventions (much to the irritation of our protagonist), but also that they're able to confront problems and support one another as a family. Each of the supporting cast members also gets some dedicated time during which the series explores their character, and we get a better idea of what makes each of them tick. These different character "arcs" are executed to varying degrees of success, but chiefly, these arcs allow the characters to feel like people rather than props that exist solely for our protagonist to react to. Despite the relative lack of progression inherent in slice-of-life shows like Kawaisou, there is real character development.
Although Kawaisou doesn't make any radical attempts to innovate within the slice of life genre, the anime is often playfully and refreshingly subversive. Kawaisou is well aware of the ways in which it could be cliche, often feinting toward that direction and misleading the audience before pulling the rug out from under them and laughing both at us and itself.
For example, Usa's "nice guy" behavior early on causes him to take a concerted interest in reaching out to his introvert bookworm senpai, Ritsu. In the interest of "rescuing" her from what he perceives to be a state of loneliness, Usa cultivates a series of habits which border on stalker-like: he enters full-on appeasement mode and begins following her around doing everything he can to "help" her break out of her shell. Rather than reward Usa for this faux-nice behavior, numerous cast members call him out on his behavior, Usa realizes that he's being a bit nutty, and we all have a good laugh at his expense.
On that note, Kawaisou's respecful depiction of Ritsu's introversion is one of the show's more impressive feats. Ritsu is far from the tree as far as the "shy anime girl" trope is concerned. She's not anti-social, and she does have it in her to enjoy the company of others, but she prefers to be alone with her books. Ritsu's introversion is not portrayed as a problem to be solved, but rather just one facet of her personality that makes her a bit unusual at first glance without constituting the entirety of her character. Introverts will likely be able to relate and appreciate this.
Also refreshing is the fact that Kawaisou doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to topics of sexuality, while at the same time refraining from over-sexualization. All of the characters in Kawaisou are sexual beings to some degree, and in the context of the home, none of them seem particularly bashful about discussing it, with perhaps the exception of our virgin protagonist. Kawaisou doesn't use sex as a tool to titilate or arouse the audience. Rather, the sexual aspects of the various cast members serve to further illuminate and color their personalities, and Kawaisou makes it apparent that sexuality is a critical component for each of these characters. Particularly notable is Mayumi, a bitter 30-year-old office lady who is constantly struggling to find a stable man who will respect her, a goal that seems at odds with her own sexual impulses. Mayumi is also haunted by the feeling that she's past the apex of her value on the dating market, and she constantly alternates between jealousy and disdain for younger couples. While Mayumi's constant sexual conflicts are mostly played as a source of comedy, if you remove this sexual aspect of her personality, you lose the character. Kawaisou handles sexuality in a manner that is respectful while still mining it as a source of laughs.
Ultimately, the relationship between "nice guy" protagonist Usa and introvert senpai bookworm Ritsu serves as the bread and butter of our story. The story of an overly-accomodating borderline obsessed stalker "nice guy" might be a massive turn-off in other contexts, but Kawaisou incorporates his behavior in a manner which is both self-aware and funny. The stoic bookworm who seldom cracks a smile might also look cliched on the surface level, but there's real joy to be found in the story that centers on the relationship between these two. That said, if you're looking for a romance story, you probably won't find it here. Rather than attempting to tell a story about love, Kawaisou tells us a story about a teenager learning to coexist with people from different walks of life.
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This review is written by members of the club Quiet Discourse. We thank the writer Kuiper, as well as the editors lpf and nil-.
