Maesetsu! Opening Act

dlxuniuniu★ 7

In 2007 a new era of CGDCT (Cute girls doing cute things) began with “Lucky☆Star”. One of the best studios of all time was involved in this work: Kyoto Animation. 13 years later, Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ try to create something similar with "Maesetsu! Opening Act", but unfortunately this work does not quite create the "WOW" effect. Why am I comparing these two? You will see more about this below. Have you ever heard of the Japanese word “Owarai”? Before I came into contact with this anime, this term didn't mean anything to me either. Owarai is a traditional Japanese comedy duo who perform in frontof a live audience. It’s quite similar to stand-up comedy but they always appear as a duo. Their goal is clear: With various gags making people laugh. But this path is also hard and requires a lot of work. Our four main character (2 duos) are trying their best to make a breakthrough in this entertainment industry. Their ambitions are high, they aim to perform at the Nanba Grand Kagetsu Hall in Osaka which is very famous for comedy acts. But every beginning is difficult, our girls have to be content with small gigs in addition to their part-time work. We experience how they slowly become better and better despite ups and downs. It's a typical slice of life anime where we experience their everyday lives. Our first comedy duo “Tokonatsu” consists of Fubuki and Mafuyu. Fubuki is known for being insightful and level-headed, she tends to be slow on some comedic uptakes like doing a proper pause. Mafuyu on the other hand is cheerful and high-spirited, she has high aspirations of being a proclaimed comedian. However, she easily gets distraught when her acts fail which happened at the beginning quite a few times. Nonetheless, they didn’t give up and you can feel how much they enjoy it. Natuya and Rin are the other duo that goes by the name “RDeco”. Natuya is soft-spoken and carefree, she presents herself as a calm and pleasant person, always looking for the positives of the most negative situations. Her partner Rin is taking the logical part. She thinks rationally and is never afraid to opine her thoughts to others. In addition to our two main duos, we can see a few other comedy duos like “JK Cool”, “Freak!” or the duo around Mafuyu's sister Manatsu “Tsundora”. The anime also explains well why all the groups chose that explicit name. My first thought after seeing "Maesetsu!” was like: This is “Lucky☆Star”, just a little bit different in term of the plot. It is not exactly the same style but if gives you that vibe. The girls are portrayed in a similar cute form. The animation is not something that would catch your eye, but it is still fun to watch. In addition to the many comedy appearances, we also hear OP and ED singing by our four main characters. It's not music that gives you a catchy tune, but you can hear the comedy part from it somehow. After the first few of episodes I was a little bit skeptical to be honest. The jokes, what is the most important thing of the anime, were not convincing and also not that funny. But you could clearly feel the increase from episode to episode. Our girls worked really hard to get better and better. It is good to see that their efforts have not been in vain. Another interesting aspect is getting to know this comedy scene. Believe in your dream and work hard on it, one day it may come true! Finally, I would like to say that “Maesetsu!” is certainly not a masterpiece and there are surely parts that could be designed better. Nevertheless, for every CGDCT fan this anime is worth a try, it contains all the typical elements from this genre. May we one day see our girls at the top of a big comedy stage!

ESER10★ 7

I'll keep this shorter than I usually would (partly because I didn't actually plan to write a review for this) and just get to the point. The premise of this show is girls doing comedy, and trying to make it to the big stage. With that being said, you may be expecting absolute comedy gold to come out of this, but unfortunately, that won't come. I assume that would disappoint many, so it's best that you know that you would be as well if that's what you were expecting. In reality, this is more of a slice of life (the cute girls doing cute thingstype I suppose) where the stand-up comedy acts as a supplement. In reality, most of the funnier moments just come from the day to day lives of the main characters (which compose two 2-person stand-up comedy pairs). They have their own specific personalities, and do have some bit of development, at least when it came to overcoming a few of the conflicts that come up in the story. But again, with the comedy aspect, it is one of those where you either like it, or you find it boring (or hate it I guess). You should be able to tell rather quickly where you fall under, though if you're unsure whether you want to watch it, I would say to not bother. I personally enjoyed this show as something I could just casually watch, but in reality, it's probably a bit niche in the type of people that may enjoy it. If nothing in what I wrote sounded interesting, then chances are you aren't part of this niche.