This is a review of both seasons of GochiUsa without any spoilers (as if they actually exits)
STORY
As is with these SoL shows, the main focus of the show is on the characters and their interactions with each other, rather than on any kind of storyline. Each episode is split into three or four separate scenes, each usually playing completely separate from one another. Most scenes are comedy oriented, but most of the show's emphasis is on the characters being cute mofos. GochiUsa is set in a France-esque city full of tea and coffee shops and a load of rabbits.
The "protagonist" of the show is a young girl named Cocoa, who comes to live and work in a small coffee shop called "Rabbit House" and meets Chino, the landlord's daughter. Cocoa and Chino have almost opposite personalities, with Cocoa, being loud and energetic, acting as the fool; and Chino, a quite and shy girl, often acting as the straight-man in the comedy sketches.
The other girl who works in Rabbit House is Rize, the seemingly calm and collected twintailed girl, who has a slightly unhinged liking of military equipment and always carries around a Glock on her person. Then there is Chiya, she lives in a traditional Japanese-tea house, and acts as the mellow "Ara ara" Nee-san arche-character. Finally is Syaro (or Sharo) a blonde sensitive girl who despises Rabbits, gets drunk off coffee and is absolutely the best girl.
Another point is the etymology of the girl's names. Almost all the names in the series are some tea/coffee related pun, with personal favorites being 'Kafuu Chino' (Cappuccino), 'Tedeza Rize' (Thé des Alizés) and fucking 'Hoto Cocoa', which I'm not even going to explain.
Finally there is also Tippy, who is the soul of Chino's dead Grandfather trapped inside the body of an Angora Rabbit. I don't even know. Also go Google Angora rabbit if you want to laugh at evolution.
PRODUCTION
Animated by White Fox, the studio that can seemingly animate anything at all, the animation quality is as good as it feels necessary for such a show. The comedy scenes are in a proportionally drastically changing style, switching between the standard and deformed styles for the punchlines. One part that does stand out are the backgrounds. The notable ones are those of the traditional Germanic/French town with timber frame buildings and cobblestones streets.
There isn't too much to say about the soundtrack for the show, the two OP songs are almost identical and I'm pretty sure I developed some kind of diabetes from season 2's ED. The OST is rather short, and is full of calming piano pieces that play in the more relaxed portions of the show.
CONCLUSION
I'd say that the overall feel of GochiUsa is somewhere between that of KinMoza and NNB. It is a mix of comedy and pure SoL with most of the jokes being slapstick reactionary gags that aren't all that funny, but don't have to be because of the charm of the characters. That being said, there are some actually funny moments and the whole show is a hoard for reaction-face connoisseurs such as myself.
The whole show is comfy overload, and sometimes this can be too much. I found the first 6 odd episodes were very slow, and next to no comedy was apparent. The episodes seemed dedicated into introducing us slowly to the main cast of characters and showing their endearing sides (ie- The trope/fetish filling parts). However, the show soon comes into its own, with season 2 being a much more enjoyable watch.
Just a minor peeve here: the geniuses down at anime HQ decided it was a great idea to name the second season the exact same as the first, but with the addition of an extra "?". Great. As well as being a ground-braking and meaningful idea for the franchise, "?" is also not detectable by search engines and so a search of "GochiUsa?" will bring up the same results as "GochiUsa??". Should have been subtitled with something along the lines of: "Which Gochi would you Usa?" or "Now with more Heartburn!".
META
Length- 2 cours/ 24 eps / 10 hrs
Release- Spring 2014 + Fall 2015
Studio- White Fox
Source- 2011 Manga by "Koi"
