Working!! – Wrap-up

Inami from Working!! assaults any man within striking distance without hesitation. In real life, somebody as dangerous as Inami would likely be in an institution, to say nothing of working a normal waitress job. Yet there she is, somehow working a normal waitress job and actually being gradually trained in restraint by her male co-worker, with varying success. It’s not every season you see a slice-of-life romantic comedy featuring a heroine who has been unconsciously molded by her father into a powerful fighting machine against men.

That training stands in the way of her happiness, as she genuinely likes Takanashi (the male co-worker) but struggles mightily not to put him in the hospital. It’s this fun and quirky dilemma that forms the core of Working’s fun and quirky slice-of-life story about unusual people with unusual traits working in a normal family restaurant. I enjoyed it from start to finish, and wouldn’t mind a second season. Rating: 3.5

Working!! – First Impressions

Rundown: A 16 year old high school student is recruited to work at a family restaurant by a female classmate one year his senior, whom he nevertheless mistakes for middle schooler. The restaurant staff  is full of odd personalities, but he decides to stick with the job that fell in his lap.

I’m always weary of slice-of-life, since the genre itself just sounds like a snoozefest. Thankfully this has enough liveliness and comedy and production values to warrant a fair viewing. Everyone has a quirk, from the protagonists’ somewhat disturbing love of “small things”, a watress so terrified of men she attacks them viciously, a laid-back manager who calls delinquents to rob customers who run out on the bill, and a cheerful hostess who always carries a wakizashi around and never opens her eyes. Again, nothing groundbreaking, but for me, it’s nice, calm, amusing slice of life with odd but ultimately likable characters.