Gainax Kindergarten Show

I seem to have been drifting towards a more prose-heavy posting style lately, but here’s a show that reminds us that some things are just better enjoyed moment-to-moment.

The unholy Gattai of Gainax and Kindergarten kids has given birth to something that has been dubbed “an awesome show for awesome people!” as well as “the funniest of the new season”. And if you aren’t already watching this, here are two more reasons to open pandora’s box and offer your soul to Hiiragi.

Oh shoot, and I just gave away the first reason.

Candidate for most epic ED this season

Hiiragi is gonna rule the world some day. She’s gonna stop all wars with her amazing intellect and her uni-colored stare. And then she’ll put a great kigurumi of peace over the globe, and we shall all call her “Shishou”.

But in the meantime we could all ogle her as she channels her analytical skills into solving her friend’s love problems.

I wouldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t be able to resist offering aid either if my friend regularly looked like this.

On a semi-related note, megane teacher totally buying Anzu’s claims of amorous relationships with her teacher was just hilarious.

A fun thing to do while watching our heroines waddle and tumble and crawl about school (and up Tsuchida’s face) is to watch Hiiragi’s eyes. True to her character archetype, she reads, communicates strategy, pwns random pompous boys, jumps on air pumps, crawls around on a ball, observes Tsuchida’s dismal pick-up attempts, does cat dances and prowls around a forest late at night while clad in a kigurumi without ever changing her expression.

But then! We get these awesome little sparklies spinning about in her eyes when she gets to ride the super tall slide!

Hiiragi, proving once and for all that the ridiculous thought of compressing Nagato Yuki into a kindergartener actually pays off handsomely. Oh what deep people we are.

I must say I did kinda like it that Hiiragi’s eyes turned all soft and shiny here as she gazed upon the stars. Kinda makes me wish once again that you could see stars in god-forsaken Singapore (you can’t!). Random pompous boy was evidently moved after witnessing this miracle at close proximity. He now calls Hiiragi “Shishou”… as we all will some day.

And now on to reason number two.

What’s more scary than someone who naturally and infallibly pwns you completely all the time?

Someone who naturally and infallibly pwns you all the time obliviously.

Yamamoto Sensei is just like ten levels above poor Tsuchida. She’s completely unfazed by all his best efforts at swaying her, and in the most graceful and effortless of gestures, blows the guy completely off like a gust of monsoon wind on a little brittle fallen leaf..

..sending him back to be comforted by his very understanding students.

Even Anzu of diabetic adorableness and despicably cute walk-noises is no match for her.

I challenges j00! (And I haz cute noises when I walks!)

I loves you!

You know it is a work of a master when you lose – completely – while wearing a radiant, blissful smile on your face.

I cannot help the thought that Yamamoto Sensei is a super power-upped version of Mizunashi Akari (Aria). It’s the same seiyuu, and she’s also all kira-kira and smiley and suteki. All we need is for her to accidentally go “Ha-hi!”, or for some kid to go “Hazukashii Serifu Kinshii!!“, to which she can respond “Eee~eh?”. Speaking of which, I think I Chiwa Saitou (Aika, Sjghr) is supposed to be in this show somewhere. Don’t think I’ve heard her yet though.

Hats off and full reverance to the master who can manipulate our adorable Shishou into performing that awesome Panda-Neko dance. When Hiiragi is President of the world, Yamamoto Sensei will undoubtably be the Chizuru to her Aka-chan.

Gainax is really skimping on animation budget on this one, but hey, you don’t need a lofty budget to do a kindergarten show. All you need is some super-chibified characters and all kinds of weird cute noises to deploy. You could even draw really simple looking backgrounds and pass it off as an imitation of the art style in children’s picture-books. Gainax has managed to make this one pretty darn entertaining though, and I like it that we have exactly zero erotic fanservice here. It’s refreshing really, especially since elsewhere in the industry gratuitous fanservice has virtually become synonymous with love-coms. I won’t go as far as to say this is the funniest show this season (with BakaTest also contending), but I’m definitely looking forward to more. Especially more Hiiragi ;)