The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behaviour! - Episode 1

Having had a rough time of it at his junior high school, Kazunari Usa is a boy whose very much looking forward to his high school life - years that he hope will be sedate and peaceful as he moves out of his parent's home to live alone, and years that might just also net him the girl of his dreams.

Things are certainly looking good when he happens upon a girl who seems totally his type sitting absent-mindedly reading a book in the school library, and the old-school but spacious accommodation his parents have found for him also seems ideal... until he learns that he'll be sharing the room with another guy.  Who's a weirdo.  With a worrying of love of masochism and young children.  Oh, and that girl of his dreams?  She lives in the same shared house, and isn't quite as friendly as Usa might have hoped.

Once it becomes clear that there's no way of backing out of his new living arrangements - his parents are moving away and will broach no argument in that regard - Usa decides to make the best of a bad job and soon gets used to rooming with an irredeemable pervert, while possible dream girl Ritsu Kawai also has her charms even if she is expressionless and a little short-tempered.  There's yet more to come however, as a sobbing, recently dumped and horribly drunken girl Usa runs into also happens to be another resident on the complex, leading to events that give him a quite literal headache.

As a starting point for this series, I actually really enjoyed this opener to The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behaviour - it may risk turning into a harem show and all of its supporting cast (wonderful landlady aside) are walking cliches at this point, but Usa himself is a strong character who's willing to fight back rather than soak up any abuse thrown his way, which adds to the shows comedy somewhat.  The series also looks great at this early juncture, with lots of nice touches and strong visuals to keep things ticking over.  It might all collapse into a predictable mess or simply run out of road with its premise at some point, but if it can build on this initial sense of fun then I can see myself being entertained nicely by this Brain's Base effort for the spring.