Saturday 2 February 2013

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai - Episode 4

Having wrapped up its main plot conceits pretty tidily across its first three episodes, where next for Sasami-san@Ganbaranai?

After returning home from a day school (it seems that Sasami now has that much motivation at least), our protagonist returns home to a place which looks rather different than the norm, and a place which more importantly shows no signs of her brother's presence.  What she does find however is a DVD which, when curiosity gets the better of her, proves not to be porn but an instalment of the "Sasami Watch Project", as Tsurugi oversees a project to monitor Sasami's well-being as she adjusts to life in the normal world.


Thus, as we watch this DVD along with Sasami we get to see her go on an errand at Tsurugi's behest before giving into her otaku proclivities to visit an anime store and a voice actress event being held there.  But why doesn't Sasami herself remember any of this?  What on Earth is going on at this voice actress event?  And why do space aliens somehow become embroiled in the whole thing?

A little like its first episode (although less so now that the cat is out of the proverbial bag), this week's Sasami-san@Ganbaranai tries to instigate some madcap and somewhat crazy shenanigans - although this time around it doesn't really work.  Instead, what we're left with its a rather hyperactive instalment that jumps all over the place, and adds in some of its crazier elements simply for the sake of it.  When it comes to the crunch, I suspect the big issue here is that Sasami's world, when fully unveiled, actually isn't all that interesting - her powers and family situation with regard to those powers certainly don't exactly grab the interest, and when this is the focus over and above generating comedy from the ensuing craziness there isn't really a lot for the viewer to latch on to.  It's probably too early to write off Sasami-san@Ganbaranai as one of those occasions where only the first novel was any good, but it's certainly starting to feel like it might be that way at the moment.

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