Story: Kagurazaka Kimito is your average everyday Japanese high school student in the big city. As luck would have it for any member of the male human species in a show like this, his world is turned upside-down when he is suddenly kidnapped, taken away by some really burly men, to a place known as Seikain, a school filled with prestigious rich girls who know nothing about the outside world. His job here? To teach these innocent and clueless girls about the outside or 'commoner' world so they won't become NEETs while also masking the fact that he's straight, putting on the facade that he loves really, really muscular men. Oh what a world...
The premise of Shomin Sample already earns itself a couple of speciality points simply because its base plot is so ridiculous and out there. However, the story that we witness here is repetitive at best. Shomin Sample's structure is largely episodic, with each episode introducing the girls in the series to various aspects of the modern Japanese culture and society. This includes things more cultural things such as Japanese memes and otaku culture, to simple tasks like ordering food at a restaurant or shopping for their own clothes. (Yeah, these girls seriously don't know anything about how outside society works.) This in turn separates the general harem story as it not only focuses on Kimito's relationship with the four girls of the series, but also on what the series's base plot is.
The main issue that comes with this is pacing. Every episode pretty much pulls one or two chapters from the Shomin Sample manga, and either really condenses certain chapters to fit what they want to fit, or, elongate what they want to show in order to fit the runtime. This in turn creates some moments that first of all, were not part of the original source material, but were just...cringe to watch sometimes.
As mentioned before, Shomin Sample has Kimito teach the girls various Japanese memes and aspects of otaku culture. (Mostly the simple stuff like anime, manga, and maid cafes.) As such, the series doesn't inherently click or seem funny with a western audience simply because people outside of Japan just don't know what some of these things are. In addition, the show uses a lot of retorts and some perverted comedy in order to convey other parts of comedy. Most importantly though, the perverted comedy. Ever seen a character go on and on and on and on about his fetish? Well, if you haven't, Kimito expresses that kind of character perfectly. As a man who loves thighs, a common gag with the series is the fact that he LOVES thighs. And I mean LOVES thighs. To the point that the show spends quite a lot of time on his monologues on the beauty of each female character's legs. (They're still too short if you ask me.)
In the end, Shomin Sample's real problem was its pacing issues. As a result of those issues, the show was added in original material that to me didn't really make sense (and was rather cringe to watch), and ended in a place that was rather odd and kind of shoehorned in. It was part of the original series, mind you, but it just didn't make sense as a proper ending, like Silver Link expected everything to fall in place at the end.
Overview:
+ Unique and great base story plot
+/- Unique brand of humor (As always, comedy is subjective.)
- Lots and lots of pacing issues
- Weird and somewhat open feeling end
Characters: Kagurazaka Kimito is the main protagonist of Shomin Sample. As a man who loves nothing else but to feel and appreciate the female thighs, Kimito serves as the "Shomin" (Commoner) of the series. Usually the instigator in most of the series's plot, Kimito as a character gives me severe...botheration. The reason for this is because he doesn't feel all that different from a normal harem protag. (Even though he SHOULD be.) He still possesses the nice quality like every harem protagonist, and he's unique in the sense that he has the thigh fetish and loves to troll Aika to the extent of accepting his divine punishment, but he feels too...plain still. (I'll get to why I think that later.)
And for the harem girls, we have Reiko, Aika, Hakua, and Karen.
Reiko, is the elegant Oujo-sama who is kind and popular amongst everyone, while also harboring a crush on Kimito so large that she has decided who her lifetime partner will be.
Aika, is the opposite, being a more tomboyish girl who seems nothing like a rich girl and tries to be popular, but fails because she thinks people don't like her. Known as 'tsunpure' for being a bit of a tsun and failing for every trick in the book.
Hakua is the loli character of the group, being younger (and tinier) than everyone and also possessing an IQ so large that huge corporations need a 14 year old girl in order to manage their finances. Likes to sit on Kimito's lap.
Karen is the bushido girl of the group, being the one girl in the entire school who wields a katana at her side. Has a pension for cute things to the point of possibly being called a pedophile on account of her drool and heavy breathing. (Likes to call things 'pointless.')
As a cast of females, Shomin Sample is quite an interesting group. However, as the series goes along, they don't really change, and there's really nothing significant about them in that sense. They are unique enough to separate themselves from other harem females of years past, so that is something worth noting.
Other characters are rather minuscule in terms of importance, mainly because they either show up a small amount or add in very little to the story. The only other character worth mentioning is the head maid, Miyuki, who pretty much in the anime is meant to threaten castration onto Kimito in order to prompt him to like musclemen. (Of which they use somewhat excessively.)
Overview:
+ Unique characters
- No character development
- Side characters aren't really all that important
Art: Art...oh my god, Silver Link, why... The art for Shomin Sample is something of a monstrosity in my opinion. Compared to a lot of shows these days, Shomin Sample has a lot of inconsistencies and design changes that really make the show look less than average.
For on thing, the show has a color palette that's just bright without really much depth or color detail to it since everything is rather one note. Aside from that, the characters really bother me. Not only is Kimito lacking his sharper look and has been turned into more of a moe character, but there are a fair amount of noticeable inconsistencies with the show has. Things like one eye drawn differently from the other and little things like that really made the show a little bit harder to watch as a whole.
Overview:
- Below average art
- Inconsistencies. (Come on now, Silver Link.)
Sound: The OP and ED for Shomin sample, are songs that to me...really don't fit the show or what the series is about. Both of them are rather generic in terms of sound as they're just ordinary moe songs and I don't really see much memorability to them. (Plus, their visuals are just what in the world are you thinking, Silver Link?)
The one track that I do say is even remotely worth listening to in the grand scheme of this show is the one that they played in the PV of this series. They use it in the show sometimes and for me, it fits and works with the whole rich girl school since it gives a more royal feel, like those of high society. I just wish it was used more because it's the only thing I felt fit.
Overview:
+ That one track I mentioned above
- Average OST otherwise
Personal Enjoyment: Alright, I got a bone to pick with Silver Link. Shomin Sample is by far one of my favorite series to read. And so, with seeing an adaptation, I was excited. Then...I watched the first episode, and then it all went downhill from there....
Did I like this show?
It had qualities of Shomin Sample in there, so it was tolerable. But saying that I fully liked this adaptation? That's...a bit of a stretch
What didn't I like about this show? (Warning, rant incoming.)
Alright, this adaptation is an abomination towards the Shomin Sample series. Reason being is being Kimito, as a character, does not fluster with any of the situations that he's put in. He felt far too normal and standard of a harem MC, and as such, really didn't feel like the sharp witted character that he was supposed to be. Another is the fact that the entire story was just thrown together. The entire plotline was a mishmash of what happens in the series all blended together, adding in a couple scenes that were just cringe to watch. And don't get me started on the art for this one. The production quality for this show is awful. Out of the three shows that Silver Link decided to produce this season, this is the one that they left out the door to rot in terms of animation quality. If it wasn't clear, I don't like this adaptation. At...all.
Would I recommend this anime?
If you haven't read any part of the Shomin Sample series, but you still want to experience what it is about, then go ahead and watch this. But if you are like me and know about what happens in the series to some extent, then I would suggest no. It's a unique blend of comedy with a different setting and really stands out in that regard. However, on account of its pacing issues and Silver Link's creative liberty, there are some parts of it that are just really...really out there.
