WWW.Working!! – 05

This newest version of Working!! just isn’t clicking for me anymore. It’s another episode full of little skits and running gags that doesn’t move beyond the ensemble’s individual quirks, which in most cases, remain muddled, and Hayashida is the most muddled character of them all.

Tha manager seems to have a seedy background, Muranushi has a handful for a mom, while Kamakura waves a katana around…but if you’re going to have a new cast, recycling jokes form the old one isn’t a confidence-inspiring move.

Perhaps the third season of Working!!, in which most arcs were wrapped up for the ensemble, was a good place to stop. A new cast was a bold idea, but it’s a risk that hasn’t really paid off after five episodes. Nearly all goodwill I started with for this new cast has been whittled away, and so unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be reviewing any more.

WWW.Working!! – 04

This fourth episode of WWW.Working!! seems content to continue running three gags firmly into the ground: Hana is really bad at cooking, Shiho is extremely vindictive, and Rui likes Higashia but can’t tell him.

Everyone else is kinda just around, and Higashida exhibits a stubborn cynicism about just about everything that makes him a hard guy to root for. He has a couple choice rejoinders, but it’s not enough.

By the episode’s end, Hana has made more chocolate for Higashida, and it’s just as bad as her first attempt, sending Higashida into an unimaginative psychedelic trance. Shiho buys Yuuta dog food, because she’s horrible, and Rui makes chocolate for Higashida, but gives it to Miri instead (who goes on to give Higashida a surprise taste).

Back when I started this show, I took solace in the fact the characters showed promise, such that the lack of a plot that moved forward quickly might not be a problem. But to stay invested, the characters need to be more than just their quirks (or in Higashida’s case, his attitude). This week they weren’t, and the episode suffered.

WWW.Working!! – 03

This week the last two characters who appeared in the initial promo art are introduced, starting with Yanagiba Miri, who is not a staff member but a customer Daisuke initially believes is a ghost.

Turns out she’s just a truant from his very class, who got sick earlier in the year and is now worried she won’t make friends. Daisuke’s numerous protests for her to “Go to school!” are good for a chuckle in an otherwise par-for-the-course episode.

There was initially some potential in the pairings of Daisuke/Hana and Shiho/Yuuta in the forest “test of courage” segment, but aside from learning her parents are just as “weird” as his, not much happens on the former front, while Yuuta’s insistence he and Shiho start over merely as friends only makes her more hungry for pain-and-suffering damages.

Adachi and Maranushi barely register, and the discovery of a raccoon is neither here nor there, though it seems Daisuke will be fostering it at his home, meaning Hana will be by more often than before.

The second character introduced is the adorable Nagata Rui, who like Yanagiba is Daisuke’s classmate but actually attends school. He tries to get Rui to be friends with Yanagiba, but she instead gets fixated on the fact that Daisuke and Hana seem to be close.

It’s clear Rui sees Daisuke as a potential mate, and Hana probably wouldn’t mind if they dated, while he sees neither girl that way. In this regard, he’s the same somewhat oblivious romantic lead as Takanashi, but with one key, merciful difference: he’s not obsessed with small cute things.

WWW.Working!! – 02

I’m really liking this new Working!!, because it feels like it takes place in an alternate universe, where everything is the same, only different. The new show and cast is replete with echos of the old show and cast, but with enough differentiation to be worth the watch.

Still, this new Working!! might be trying to actually improve on the formula it refined with its first cast. Take Miyakoshi Hana. She’s violent and unreasonable like Inami, but not because she hates men. In fact, she gets along with Higashida just fine, and even insists he invite her to his house so he can help her study for exams. It turns out she’s a lot more normal than Inami was, and that’s actually refreshing.

Or take weirder co-workers like Muranoshi Sayuri. She’s very neutral and deadpan in her voice and expressions, but is still canny enough to use her ability to see customers no one else can see to put some rude bros in their place. She also shows she’s got a winning smile…as long as you complement her.

Like Hana and Daisuke, the other couple-in-the-making here doesn’t follow the same path as Satou and Todoroki in the other show. Instead, it’s a weird, long-standing situation where Shindou Yuuta actually got the lonely Kamamura Shiho’s rich dad to pay more attention to her, often talking about things so complicaed they fly over Shiho’s head.

Yet when it comes time to respond to her offer of marriage (thus wiping out his father’s debt to her father), he reverts to a little kid who thinks girls are gross. Shiho clearly hasn’t taken that well, and has since treated ever encounter with Yuuta as transactionary.

Just as I’d like to see Daisuke and Hana becoming better friends, which they’re well on their way to doing, I’d like to see Yuuta mend fences with Shiho. Even if neither of these things happens, the point is I’m invested with these new characters, so I’m going to keep watching.

WWW.Working!! – 01 (First Impressions)

What is it: A spinoff of the popular slice-of-restaurant-life comedy Working!!, with an all-new cast at an all-new branch of Wagnaria. High schooler Higashida Daisuke is forced to get a job at the restaurant when his dad’s business goes bankrupt. Like the previous iterations of the show, his fellow employees are weirdos in one way or another.

Why you should watch: If you enjoyed the previous Working!!s like I did, you’ll enjoy this, and possibly even appreciate the refreshed cast, since we’ve had three seasons of the original cast and there weren’t too many stories to tell. Unlike Servant x Service, the nearly-identical restaurant setting eases our transition into this new show. It’s also packed with star voice talent, from Nakamura Yuuichi to Tomatsu Haruka and Hisaka Yoko.

The comedy style is familiar, with rapid fire jokes and absurd situations and conversations. Each character acts and reacts differently to the bland protagonist, and he and Tomatsu’s Miyakoshi Hana (the unflappable high school floor chief who may not carry a katana but packs a mean punch and makes hallucinogenic chocolates) have an easy instant chemistry.

The cast includes a lazy college student who likes to quiz people on obscure history, a feckless manager who’s terrible at math, and a rich girl who arrives in a Rolls-Royce and tries to solve every problem she encounters with fat stacks of cash (usually successfully).

Why you shouldn’t watch: If you’ve had your fill of Working!!, or just aren’t on board with a new cast, many of whom share traits with the originals, you may not need this spin-off. Animation isn’t any worse than the previous shows, but it’s not any better, either. Like those shows, any serial progress will likely be slow, although this time misanthropy won’t play a huge role, thankfully.

The Verdict: We’re in familiar territory with WWW.Working!!, but there’s more comfort in that than disappointment. All of the new characters are likable right out of the gate, and there’s a lot of potential for both serial development and episodic wackiness going forward. As a low-stakes, low-effort workplace comedy, I rate this show highly watchable, with a good chance of recommendedness.