Story: Nisikawa Youko is a rich girl who has fallen from grace. Due to her father's company going down under, she is no longer the princess that she once was and now lives in a small apartment while her father goes out and tries to find work. At her new school for normal kids and living in poverty by eating breadcrusts, she meets two girls, Odagiri Futaba and Hayama Teru who start their high school adventures together.
Sansha Sanyou is the furthest thing from being original in terms of base storyline. The story has these three girls live out their high school lives doing some pretty standard things. Have a meal, work a part-time job, have fun, go to the beach, etc, etc. There's nothing really outlandish in terms of what these characters do and as much as the show tries to make them seem interesting, doesn't really come through in the way of intrigue. The main things that the story focuses on are based around the three girls and their individual characteristics: Adjusting to a 'commoner's' life, consuming food, and cats, lots of cats.
The majority of the comedy for the series comes in the form of character interactions and retorts, pertaining to the various characters that are involved with the current scene at hand. Most of them are forms of situational comedy that are pulled off moderately well, while the rest are more surprise-related pertaining to some of the more wackier members of the side cast that I'll get into later. There's nothing terrible about the way the show delivers comedy, but there's nothing about it that seems either special or unique.
All in all, Sansha Sanyou is what I would describe as your generic moe show. It's not the best, but it's also not the worst. It's an average piece of animation that more or less recycled the same gags without adding anything new to each new episode before wrapping everything up with a neat little bow to show that everything is just nice and dandy.
Overview:
+/- Rather generic plotline/setting
- Nothing particularly interesting stands out
Characters: As Sansha Sanyou is a moe show, the main basis for its draw are its characters. As the heart and soul of this show, the characters basically embody one trait and one trait alone and stay that way pretty much throughout the whole series.
First is Nishikawa Youko, our Oujo-sama fallen from grace. Youko could be described as our main character for this series mostly due to the fact that she gets involved with the majority of the situations that the show puts us in. As a previous rich girl, Youko's characteristics involve not fully understanding things in the 'commoner's' world as well as surviving off of a diet of bread crusts and mayo. The one thing that makes her character have more worth than anyone else in the series is because of the fact that she does grow as the series goes along. She becomes more independent and less high and mighty despite still being quite ignorant about certain situations, but hey, it's still character growth and it still means something.
Then there's Odagiri Futaba, the literal 'walking black hole' as the series calls her. Futaba is the 'genki girl' of the series and constantly has room in her stomach for more food. And more food. And more food. Etc, etc. Most of Futaba's on-goings and gags are quite simple, mostly revolving around the idea of her just stuffing her face hole and around a restaurant the she frequents which always seems to have a new food challenge everyday. (Interesting business strategy) Also, she's always seen eating these 2 x 1 x 1 foot bread rectangular prisms. They're like as big as her head. Really though, that's all Futaba as a character actually has. Her personality and everything that she stands for as a character is pretty much stagnant throughout the whole run of the series. If you take away her eating aspect, there's nothing else that she really has in terms of character traits.
And finally, we have Hayama Teru, the calm and collected girl who hides a darker, more sharp-tongued version of herself away from the public eye, or anyone she doesn't want to see it. (Hell, she named her cat "Beelzebub") Hayama is by far the most complex character in this series, which isn't actually saying much, but it's still something. Given her two faces, we're seen with Hayama being the more 'competent' or understanding character of the bunch by consistently having something to say in any given situation and being able to accurately read what is going on and try to tip any argument in her favor. Her traits involve her being obsessed with cats and consistently having arguments with Nishiyama Serina, one of the more prominent side characters of the series and the main victim to most of Teru's poisonous words.
Side characters in this series are more common than most. Most prominently are Youko's ex-butler, Yamaji (who is more of a stalker than anything else) and her ex-maid, Sonobe, the single expression maid who vibrates when she's happy. In addition, there's Nishiyama and her sidekick Kondou who always seem to be in the exact same place as our protagonists are located, Teru's sister who can't cook for the life of her, and the twins who are basically worthless cause they only dip in and out of the series as needed.
Overall, the characters are very static in terms of complexity. They're all simple characters that have nothing to them if you take away their one character trait. As such, they don't really have much to them and they feel more tropey than anything else.
Overview:
+ Youko character growth
- Everyone is basically a trope
- One-note characters
Art: Sansha Sanyou has the same kind of colorful and clean polish that Doga Kobo has been using on all of their projects in the past few years. As such, the art is bright with a polished shine to both the characters and the backgrounds in addition to character designs that bear a very clear moe-defined artstyle with Doga Kobo's signature large and slightly detailed round eyes for each one of their characters. The animation is more or less standard fare, especially for moe shows, so there's not really anything unique about its artstyle.
For comedic stylings, the show also boasts quite a number of your usual and typical anime comedy aspects. You have exaggerated faces, the purple smoke to signify that something is dangerous for human consumption, and your usual cute girl tropes to fill in the gaps. These all pertain to the show's comedic themes of rich now poor, food, and cats, so there's not really all that much to go off of.
Overview:
+ Standard fare animation
+/- Generic and standard comedic stylings
Sound: The soundtrack for Sansha Sanyou is...really not all that special. They're pretty forgettable tracks that don't really have much to offer. They're your standard 'cute girl' songs and don't have that unique thing to them that makes them memorable.
Personal Enjoyment: I went into Sansha Sanyou knowing that it was probably going to be just another generic show that doesn't have much to offer in the way of story, characters, and pretty much everything else. What I didn't expect was just how long the episodes were going to be, or rather, how they felt. Every episode felt a lot longer than they actually were and I think that's a testament as to how uninspiring or lazy this show actually felt. Nothing really stood out as amazing or unique, and I honestly felt bored watching this half the time. Most of it just felt kinda hollow and bland and just so uninspiring.
Did I like this show?
I didn't love this show, but I also didn't hate it. The show doesn't have many positive qualities about it simply because the things it has to offer have all been done before many a time. As such, the overall feel of the show is mostly just generic and tired rather than anything actually good or bad.
What didn't I like about this show?
Nothing really. I don't hate the show for being what it is, but it's just not the most enjoyable experience knowing that you're just going into another show and just watching the same things over and over again.
Would I recommend this show?
If you want a generic moe show, then Sansha Sanyou has got your back. The show doesn't have many things original about it that I can even mention due to the lack of overall creativity and what happens in the show. But hey, it's not the worst thing that you can watch.
