I was drawn in by the first episode, in which ditzy Anglophile Shinobu participates in a student exchange program and stays with shy, skittish English girl Alice Carteret (OF COURSE she has blonde hair). Despite both girls knowing only the words "hello" and "konnichiwa" in each others' respective languages, they make some sweet memories together and become fast friends. So when Alice comes to Japan to meet up with her pen pal, we think we'll see some steadily paced introduction to Japanese culture through gaijin eyes and musings about how we're not really so different in the end et cetera et cetera. Of course, perhaps we should've been tipped off about the reality by the fact that first (and best) episode was largely anime-original; the manga just had the scene of Shinobu and Alice yelling "Hello!" and "Konnichiwa!" at each other.
So naturally, what we get, as I said, is yet another K-On clone, with most scenes built around misunderstanding jokes and very light teasing with plenty of cute shaking, blueface, or blank white (or in Alice's case, blue) eye reactions. There's even an ersatz Azunyan in the form of Aya, being egged on by a Ritsu wannabe. Even their Christmas cake teacher (OF COURSE she is; you know all this by now, right?) acts like her quivering, flighty students. Meanwhile, the whole "innocents abroad" theme is only barely returned to again, even after Alice's energetic "hafu" friend Karen arrives to fill the "genki girl" quota; what we thought would be the focus of the story is pushed to wayside by embarrassed squiggle lines and "EEEEEEEHHHHH" moments.
Perhaps I'm not the proper person to write a review for this anime since, like I said, I was expecting something like Ikoku Meiro in modern times, and with the Japanese/Westerner roles reversed. And while I certainly enjoy some moe moments...c'mon guys, why give up such a compelling start for yet another schoolgirl show? Do we really need yet another A-Channel?
