Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo (Pet Girl of Sakurasou) Discussion Thread

[Buckeye]

A show about a hapless guy living in a dorm full of weirdos, and a manga artist who can't take care of herself.

Airs: Wednesday, October 10

Studio: J.C. Staff

ANN Entry
Official Site
Crunchyroll

Sakura Dormitory is a dorm of the high school affiliated with Suimei University of the Arts (often shortened as Suiko), which hosts the strangest, trouble-making students. After being kicked out of the normal dorm for keeping a stray cat, Sorata Kanda moves into Sakura Dormitory. As he starts to get used to the life in the dorm, Mashiro Shiina, a world famous artist who cannot even take care of her daily life, moves in. Sorata is forced to become Mashiro's handler. The story is about their daily life as well as mental growth.

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[Buckeye]

So this guy named Sorata is now living in the infamous Sakura Hall dormitory for taking in a pure-white stray cat as a pet, and his dorm supervisor and teacher is really throwing him under the bus. Then he is ordered around to take in a cute girl who just arrived from England. Turns out she is a manga artist, but she can't do anything else. Her room is a mess, she is sleeping naked underneath her desk, and she has problems getting dressed. It's onto school for her first day.

This show just comes out as being really dumb. At least it's the fun kind of dumb as it looks like it could be interesting, but I didn't see things that way in this episode. I'm close to dropping it, but I will give it another episode or two since Mashiro looks like she could really be something. Other than that, my feeling is been there, done that.

[Fencedude]

Less than amazingly thrilled with the episode.

It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't particularly good either.

[HitokiriShadow]

I was had mediocre expectations for this show but I really hoped it would be better. Being moderately decent isn't too much to hope for even with this premise. Alas, it blew things pretty badly and was even worse than I expected.

Somehow it manages to stop short of being terrible. I give that credit Okada Mari's writing and staff that are giving this show more love than it deserves. Unfortunately, the ingredients are rather terrible so there's only so much they can do.

Mashiro is even worse than I expected. Another character is almost as bad, though her sheer energy and insanity makes her a little endearing and somewhat amusing, unlike Mashiro. The only girl I actually *like* is the classmate. Main guy is bland sack of shit, and his self intro was basically "I'm really fucking boring, like 90% of the other male characters (now please project yourself onto me)". And that style of character introductions is really obnoxious in general.

Then the first thing we see of the roommate on speed is her panties and then she immediately says that its her dream to be housewife. All within the first 30 seconds of the show. For the next female character, the main topic of the conversation is her boobs. When Mashiro is introduced, we hear more words from the obnoxious perv friend giving her three sizes and describing her body than we'd heard from her up to that point. And Mashiro is a terrible character in general.

I'll keep watching and maybe it will get better, but unless Mashiro undergoes a drastic personality change in the first few episodes, anything involving the main relationship is likely to be painful, dull, or both.

[Draneor]

My fault for having high expectations, I guess, based on the script writer's history.

I honestly don't know what this show is trying to be. Ecchi fanservice harem? Touching Drama? Run-of-the-mill romantic comedy? I can think of an anime this season for each that appears to do each better. The budget is annoyingly high (compared to LB), and I feel Okada is being wasted. The backgrounds are pretty.

The sensei annoys me. The annoying 3-sizes, asshole player fucking annoys me. I find Misaki mildly annoying. I don't really care if she aspires to be a housewife or an animator (people can choose whatever life their want), but the show should pick one. An amazing animator (based on what the show said) who wants to grow up to be a housewife is just fucking stupid.

Nanami--who only appeared briefly--was my favorite character. I thought she'd be normal, but then the show annoyingly made her be an aspiring seiyuu. For some reason, every character in this show has to be involved in the anime industry.

Only good thing I can say about Sorata is he's kind to cats. He's average (and I usually like average characters), but his reaction to Mashiro at the end was pretty stupid.

I like Mashiro as a character, but I think she's in the wrong show. Maybe if the focus was on Mashiro learning to interact normally. There's a small possibility she's just not a morning person and otherwise just a bit different like an artist might be. But assuming she does have mental issues... it will be extremely difficult to write any sort of believable consensual relationship, and I assume the anime would go down that path. I'd have the same issue I have with any caretaker (like say PapaKiki).

I was extremely annoyed that she's a genius at drawing manga but terrible at writing it. Average Sorata will end up a great manga writer by the end if not three episodes in, mark my words (which would defeat the whole point of making him average--why not make him an aspiring writer to start).

As far as the fan service goes, I don't deny I enjoyed the white t-shirt. It's just the fanservice seems out of place with other parts of the show that seemed to be more seriously.

I'll give it a few more episodes. I heard there may be a trap and perhaps Okada can save it. Or perhaps not.

In conclusion, Xebec could have animated this.

[HitokiriShadow]

Originally Posted by Draneor

My fault for having high expectations, I guess, based on the script writer's history.

I give Okada Mari credit for the show not being completely execrable. But even she can only do so much if the ingredients are shit.

I find Misaki mildly annoying. I don't really care if she aspires to be a housewife or an animator (people can choose whatever life their want), but the show should pick one.

And it should not be the first or second line out of her mouth, right after she just woke up in the main guy's bed and showed off her panties to us.

Nanami--who only appeared briefly--was my favorite character. I thought she'd be normal, but then the show annoyingly made her be an aspiring seiyuu. For some reason, every character in this show has to be involved in the anime industry.

She was the only character I liked, though I somehow missed the part about her being a seiyuu. I think my brain was in self-preservation mode and was intaking limited info for a little while. But yeah, seiyuu, manga artist, and ALREADY MADE HER OWN ANIME.... like I said, this is the SAO of LN romances in terms of lulzy levels of wish fulfillment.

I like Mashiro as a character, but I think she's in the wrong show. Maybe if the focus was on Mashiro learning to interact normally. There's a small possibility she's just not a morning person and otherwise just a bit different like an artist might be. But assuming she does have mental issues... it will be extremely difficult to write any sort of believable consensual relationship, and I assume the anime would go down that path. I'd have the same issue I have with any caretaker (like say PapaKiki).

I can't stand Mashiro. Other than drawing manga, she has the mental capacity of the three-year old. Everything about her portrayal screams "severe mental issues". Whether they intend for her to be or seem mentally disabled or not, a relationship with someone like her is incredibly skeevy.

I'll give it a few more episodes. I heard there may be a trap and perhaps Okada can save it. Or perhaps not.

It's barely holding my interest, and only because the season is severely lacking in LN romances. (Thankfully, the other one is KyoAni, though that's.... different. Probably.)

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by HitokiriShadow

I give Okada Mari credit for the show not being completely execrable. But even she can only do so much if the ingredients are shit.

Got to pay the bills somehow, I guess. Some of the usual anti-Okada sources are already making stupid comments ("no cross-dressing for Okada Mari," "well-suited thematically," etc).

Originally Posted by HitokiriShadow

But yeah, seiyuu, manga artist, and ALREADY MADE HER OWN ANIME.... like I said, this is the SAO of LN romances in terms of lulzy levels of wish fulfillment.

It doesn't look to be even good wish fulfillment (from someone that often enjoys it). Also, the whole "anime industry" thing has been done so many times before. Doujin Work, for example. Or even Comic Party did it better. At least I found the characters in those interesting on their own (not to mention the jokes were actually funny).

Originally Posted by HitokiriShadow

I can't stand Mashiro. Other than drawing manga, she has the mental capacity of the three-year old. Everything about her portrayal screams "severe mental issues". Whether they intend for her to be or seem mentally disabled or not, a relationship with someone like her is incredibly skeevy.

Perhaps I'm still being too optimistic, but I'm not yet convinced she is mentally three. Not being a morning person is an incredible stretch, I know. The next episode should make who she is clear. All in all, the show did a pretty shitty job of introducing the entire cast.

[strangefour]

-Suddenly giant cat ass.
-Suddenly baby got back.
-You have a hyper fun girl in your room. Why are you unhappy dude?
-The winner of this years teacher of the year award is... That bra.
-A dorm filled with the worst students of an art school. I think I just found my favorite show of this cour.
-29 years and 15 months old. Hehehe.
-Our hero: the crazy old cat lady. heh.
-A sweet quiet little british girl.
-The sweet quiet little girl is a depressive nudist.

Finally a promising new show! Okay sure it's just a goofy little high school sorta harem show, but damn it this show has a sense of humor.

[something]

Episode 1:

- Ahaha Misaki is insane. It's more amusing when you realize Takamori Natsumi also voiced Mei in Another. And jeeze she kinda sounds lke Tomatsu Haruka in this role.
- "I'm 29 years and 15 moths."
- Maid-chan = Hocchan?
- I also like the two terrified girls watching all the insanity.
- Oooh Aoyama wants to be a seiyuu. She's such a nice girl. too bad she'll have no chance against the heroine.
- Sorata is really high strung, though I suppose not without some reason. I tend to prefer more subdued male protagonists though.

- Why would you stuff your face right then? Now you're just standing in front of her with food in your mouth looking like an idiot.
- Mashiro is pretty. And the art in this whole sequence is pretty darn good.
- Welcoming party. No doubt Sorata will soon get a chance to verify the other guy's guess about how she looks naked.
- Yep! Mmmm, Mashiro. <3 Sorata's overreaction was really annoying, but blah, romance light novels, what can you do?
- Hahah his reactions are kind of annoying, but the way Mashiro sets him off by saying things that sound innocent but are infuriating in context rather amuses me.

Fortune telling with panties...

Well, *I* liked it, at least. It's pretty cliche, but I can live with that as long as the bad parts of the cliche don't go overboard. Production values are also realllllly nice so far too. I hope JC Staff can keep that up.

[Fencedude]

Ehh...that was ok.

Shiina's really...well...uhh...yeah.

Interestingly, Misaki's actually after Jin, but he very much does not want, which is strange.

Everyone in this show really needs to calm the fuck down, however.