Anime Hajime Review: Shomin Sample

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Shomin Sample. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

Seikan Academy is a special kind of school. Made up of daughters from some of Japan's noblest families, its students learn how to be proper ladies. To protect their innocence, though, the academy's been cut off from the rest of the average world. The students aren't introduced to common life until after graduation.

And that has caused a big problem. Graduates have become so sheltered they're unable to handle their new surroundings.

To help solve this issue, the school invites, or rather forces, a commoner to its grounds. A male commoner.

The “lucky” candidate is Kimito Kagurazaka (voiced by Atsushi Tamaru). Chosen for his pure averageness, there's not much Kimito can do to get out of this situation. Due to a misunderstanding, he’s mistaken to be a homosexual. The school thought this perfect since it would preserve the girl’s chastity. To object would lead to two possible outcomes. Total exile from the public world. Or even worse, castration.

Weighing his options, Kimito accepts the position. And to his surprise, sheltered doesn’t even begin to describe the girls of Seikan Academy.

Series Positives

There are many shows which have extremes. Given the right story and the right set up, extremes can make a series great. Fluctuations in emotions can be exciting. Changes in tone can be intense. Highs and lows, back and forth, extremes can provide a roller coaster of a ride.

Kimito

Shomin Sample was also a show of extremes. Except, not the good kind.

On occasion, this series offered much. There were peaks of entertainment and enjoyment. But for the most part, this show existed in a valley of insufferable nonsense.

Aika

I mean, there were many things in this show that were stupid. Not the enduring, laughable, this-is-fun kind of stupid. But rather, the this-is-f@#$ing-dumb kind of stupid.

Have you ever seen or heard something that gave you instant exhaustion? Well, Shomin Sample gave it to me. And it was pretty immediate too.

It was so immediate in fact, I became convinced there would be nothing good for me to say about this show. I thought this series had become irredeemable. To my surprise, that didn’t turn out to be the complete truth.

Reiko

Shomin Sample never made up that lost ground. It had dug itself a hole that was far too deep to ever come back from. That being the case, I didn’t one hundred percent hate this show. More like eighty percent hate.

Hakua

That remaining twenty percent I not only enjoyed, I enjoyed a lot. Considering the vast majority of this series, it’s amazing to think it managed to do a few things right. It’s also kind of disappointing to think the things that were good were wasted in Shomin Sample.

The Harem as a Whole

I need to emphasize the “as a whole” part. When the main cast was together they were fine. When the main cast was amongst themselves, they were entertaining. Hell, they were even pretty fun.

Karen

When the main cast was independent of the show’s primary gimmick, Shomin Sample worked.

The stronger, more enduring parts of the harem managed to support the weaker ones. There was a decent group dynamic between everyone. Individually, that wasn’t always the case.

Aika (voiced by Yu Serizawa) and Reiko (voiced by Rika Tachibana) could not carry this show on their own. They couldn’t even do that when they were together. They needed the others to be worth caring about. But to give credit where its due, Aika got better as the series went on.

Shomin Sample knew what it took to make a decent harem anime. Once it had already established the harem that is. The show did struggle with creating it, though. Or at least it did with its two lead contenders.

 

The rest of the group, that’s a different story.

Three Members

Reiko was forgettable. Aika became alright. It’s a shame that these two were the main focus. It’s an even bigger shame since the rest of the group was leagues better.

Let’s get this out of the way. Our center, Kimito, was not even close to the best lead I’ve seen. His actions, or rather inactions, played a huge role into why this show annoyed me. Plus, his entire character trait was being average. Nothing special. Nothing worthwhile. Only normal. Not the kind of person who can instill confidence.

Yet, there was one thing Kimito did that made him a lot of fun. He could be supportive. He could lend a caring ear. But he was not above f@#$ing with people. And given the situation he was in, he took advantage of it.

Aika bore the brunt of Kimito’s teasing. It never crossed a line, but he did get a few good digs in. This helped build a relationship between the two that was solid enough.

Kimito and Reiko I never bought. But, the same cannot be said for the other two members of Shomin Sample’s harem.

Hakua (voiced by Yuuki Kuwahara) was by far the best character of the show. It was her relationship with Kimito that was the strongest. And not in a lover’s sense. Even if Hakua would disagree. They were more like brother and sister. I realize that sounds bad given the context.

But no, Kimito treated Hakua as his little sister and played the role of a caring big brother well. I’m not sure if Kimito was aware Hakua was around his age. I know he got told. But it was by Aika so he didn’t believe her at the time. I can’t say if he did know. Yet, given the events of episode nine, he’d be a complete oblivious moron if he didn’t. Knowing how painful a lot of this show was, this one segment was f@#$ing hilarious.

And then, at last, there was Karen (voiced by Chitose Morinaga), the second-best character of the show. Her relationship with Kimito may have been flimsy. But it was the only one that worked well and still used this show premise. But to be honest, it wasn’t her relationship with Kimito that made me like her so much. It was how she acted around Hakua.

Karen would up and ignore Kimito whenever Hakua was being too cute. Which happened a lot. That was a nice touch.

Both Hakua and Karen were great because they weren’t the other characters. Their eccentricities didn't rely on the sheltering nature of the school. They were odd for their own reasons.

Hakua was a young, anti-social super genius. Her world was math and numbers. That was all she cared about. How commoners lived was not a big deal for her. More importantly, though, Hakua was aware that people use technology. Also, she knew what the hell a cell phone was. So yeah, I liked her the moment I saw her.

Karen, like Hakua, wasn’t all the fascinated with average life. There were things she didn't know despite them being commonplace. But in the end, she was a sword enthusiast. I’ve seen this character before and I was amazed how well it worked in this environment.

Kimito, Hakua, and Karen, there’s your show. Or at least that should have been the show. Instead, Kimito had to deal with a ton of bull s@#$. And Hakua and Karen got sidelined way too often. In their place was Shomin Sample.

Series Negatives

For what it’s worth, this was one of the most enjoyable annoying shows I’ve watched. But make no mistake. It was annoying. It was frustrating. It got on my nerves. While the good parts did help, there was no saving this.

Like I said, it was a damn shame Hakua and Karen were wasted here.

So where to even start?

I suppose the ecchi moments are as good as any. This was another series that didn’t know if it wanted to be subtle or go all out. And believe it or not, Shomin Sample managed to make this struggle more awkward.

In the beginning, it wasn’t all that extreme. There were only a lot of, some them big breasted, ladies. And it went with this for a while. Then suddenly the series decided to go ham. And then it did that for a bit. Then it went back to what it was doing before. Then back again. Then it went into this strange mode where it tried to do both. Then it returned to going big again.

One of the main draws and Shomin Sample couldn’t do it.

But you know what, that was fine. Of the things a show can mess up, this isn’t often one of the ones I get that bent out of shape over.

No, there are other things that will do that.

The Premise, the Set-Up, and the First Two Episodes

There have been series that have been slogs. Most of the time it’s the result of many poor choices piled on top of each other. And most of the time, it takes until the midway point for nausea to set in. But then there are those special few that do it immediately.

Guess which one Shomin Sample was.

The idea behind this show wasn’t the problem. Sheltered rich girls who don’t know how average people live. That can work. And with all the anime I’ve watched, I bet I’ve seen it work.

 

Shomin Sample took it too far, though.

As I said, these girls didn’t know what a f@#$ing cell phone was. When have you ever heared of a rich girl not owning a cell phone? You haven’t because it doesn’t happen.

Instant ramen, buying a train pass, ordering fast food, fast food itself. These might as well have been items from another planet.

I can hear the rebuttal already.

But Odyssey, that was the whole point. These girls were so sheltered that they couldn’t function in the real world on their own.

Counterargument. Why would these girls ever be in the real world by themselves? Would they not have attendants at their every beck and call? That’s how it was at the school.

And since we’re talking about it, the school pissed me off too. Here was an institution with unlimited resources. And the best it could come up with was Kimito?

Besides, it was the school’s mistake they thought Kimito was gay. And because of their screw up, Kimito would be the one punished for admitting he wasn’t? Yeah, that’s fair. Granted, the series did indicate there may have been more going on. But that was never explored. So, the point became moot.

Also, Kimito, have a few concerns. Sure, your dick would’ve been snipped. Except, you didn’t know that right away. This guy gave zero protests. It’s why I said he was part responsible for this mess.

These were the first two episodes. They were heavy handed to an incredible degree. I wanted to beat my head against the wall. I almost turned the series off here.

Shomin Sample became tolerable the moment Hakua showed up. She and Karen managed to keep this series afloat. But they may be too far off for some people.

If you never make it to them, I understand.

Final Thoughts

I can’t. I just can’t do it. There’s a part of me that wants to give credit to the things that were good. Because they were pretty good. But God damn it, those first two episodes alone sealed this show’s fate.

A few standouts aside, Shomin Sample was rough. It overextended itself well beyond what it was capable of doing. It was a mess. It was annoying. It was stupid. This show took way too long before anything of note happened. And then when it did do right, it would go and do something wrong.

It was there. Something was there. But whatever it was, it was sadly surrounded by too much garbage. Shomin Sample is one you can skip.

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