What’s the show? Wataten!
Oh hey, Irlwaifu! Yup, I am back!
Welcome back–it’s been a while. Does that mean that the show we’re reviewing today is a boys love review like your very first review on the site for ‘LOVE STAGE!!’? Nope quite the opposite… well not exactly.
Intriguing. So, Wataten. What’s it about? Wataten is the shortened title for An Angel Flew Down to Me. It’s a yuri/ CGDCT show about college student and shut in costume designer Miyako, and her little sister Hinata, a fifth grader who worships Miyako. The show centres around the interactions and cosplaying adventures of Miyako, Hinata and Hinata’s friends Hana and Noa, with Miyako admiring the young and serious Hana a bit too much!
Yuri… sisters… CGDCT…cosplaying… why isn’t Matt writing this? This definetly sounds like the type of show he salivates over? Matt wanted a female point of view on this show specifically. There’s only so many times he can keep talking up these shows before–
–Before everyone starts labelling him a shameless lolicon? Hey, that’s the pervert I am going to marry you are talking about! Also, this show isn’t sexual. Why must every anime with young girls be seen as sexual fodder?
You sound eerily like him right now… Matt and I have some similar views on young/young appearing characters in anime, but we do differ a bit to. Just as you should never judge a book by it’s cover, you shouldn’t judge an anime by its loli.
Okay okay, I’ve heard this before. So, you have a college student who admires a fifth grader a bit too much and this show is…? Wholesome.
Wholesome? That’s a new one. Hear me out. Is this show about a college student who gets fifth graders to dress up as maids, anime characters and a myriad of other kawaii things. Yes. But at the heart of it, this show is about personal growth, and learning to push beyond your own boundaries. This show sees Miyako push beyond her crippling social anxiety, and place herself in situations she would never have done so if she hadn’t met someone who inspired her to do so. We even see Hana grow and learn it’s okay to play and be a child, and just be cute. The relationship begins as one of contract – I’ll wear your dresses, if you make me all the sweets I desire. But it grows as they grow, and goes beyond the superficial.
But she’s grooming a child… She’s not. She just is inspired by her. There’s a great montage at the end that shows that for me goes through Miyako’s emotions and feelings towards Hana, and it begins with a scene of a young Miyako and baby Hinata and the obvious love and bond they share. This is the series for me. It’s about admiration, love, friendship, growth – and that’s so wholesome. Yes there are plenty of jokes about otakus, lolicons and social anxiety but those add to the fun of the show, but are ~not~ the heart of the show.
“Heart of the show”? Is this you looking for something to justify the wholesome maybe only you see? There’s a bunch of people out there who think this show is creepy you know. I don’t think I am alone seeing this show in a wholesome and heartfelt way. When Matt and I were in Japan there was a ‘Wataten!’ pop up at Akihibara Gamers, so of course we had to go. When we were there my eyes gravitated toward one young boy. He was about 10 years old and was looking at all the acrylic standees and deciding who of the girls to buy. He was picking up all the girls before settling on Hinata–my fave too–and he picked her off the shelf, and then grabbed his mum and they began counting his coins in his little anime coin purse before going to the counter. I smiled watching the entire interaction, and it made me love the show more. This show appeals to a wide demographic because it is a CGDCT show with beautiful characters, big personalities and lots of laughs and feels.
Sounds like a cute moment, so maybe the show isn’t as ~lolicon~ as everyone thinks it is. Alright. Final score? You know I don’t score things. Best leave that to Matt.
Ah that’s right. Well thanks for popping along. Always good to hear from you, although I do question your taste since you are marrying Matt…. HEY!
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Matt’s final recommendation and review for ‘Wataten!’ Thought I’d just quickly chime in with my thoughts on the show. I was initially skeptical about the show–not because of its subject matter of course, I’d enjoyed ‘UzaMaid!’ a lot from the previous season and these two shows share a lot of the same DNA. No, what I was worried about was Miyako–our slovenly, tracksuit wearing protagonist–who I didn’t much care for. It was about Episode 5 that I stopped caring and just started enjoying the show for the wholesome fun it was (yes, that’s right, I’m calling it wholesome too). It’s a fun, lighthearted series and it’s final episode is easily my favourite finale of any show this Winter 2019 Anime season and in fact ranks among the rare anime episodes I consider to be “perfect” which is in part why overall I give ‘Wataten’ a 91 out of 100.
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