Our story is fairly simple: a woman named Kaoru fell in love with and married an otaku named Hajime, and the series focuses on some of the quirkier moments of their life together, sort of like a better written Insufficient Direction. Within these four-minute episodes are two general types of comedy: otaku-themed humor and general married life humor, both of which are executed surprisingly well. I extracted quite a bit of enjoyment out of an extremely unsubtle Evangelion reference, but also found the home life confusions of a newlywed couple to be both charming and sometimes even a bit heartwarming. Both Kaoru and Hajime are solid characters as far as TV shorts go, and the only real annoyance I found was with one of Hajime's siblings, whose introduction was...stereotypical in anime style for this character's personality.
The animation was produced by Studio Seven (Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san), and is played off as very cutesy and basic without ever seeming like the budget was being stretched. I also noticed that there seemed to be a bit of a glow to each frame that made it feel almost welcoming like the doorway to a new home. The soundtrack was composed by G-angle and...it was there I guess. Nothing spectacular, but it filled in the silence well. There was no opening theme, but the ending theme "Iikagen ni shite, Anata," as sung by the two lead VAs, was excessively cute and catchy.
Overall, this is definitely one of the better short series I've seen this year, and I can't wait for the second season to come out next spring.
