Anime Hajime Review: Working!!

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Working!!. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

From out of the blue, Souta Takanashi (voiced by Jun Fukuyama) is approached by the super tiny, and super adorable Popura Taneshima (voiced by Kana Asumi).

Popura is a waitress at the local family restaurant Wagnaria and has been desperately looking for a new hire. Devastated to see such a cute little thing giving it all she’s got, Souta immediately agrees to Popura’s request. And just like that, Souta has entered the world of a part-time employee.

Unbeknownst to Souta, though, Wagnaria has a bit of a reputation. The people who work there may be good at their jobs, but they are all a little off.

As it turns out though, Souta himself is a little off as well and fits in quickly at his new job.

The work is tiring, but Souta doesn’t mind since the work is fun. And thanks to his new co-workers, there is never a boring shift.

Series Positives

Note: From this point on, I will be referring to Working season one, a.k.a. Working!!, as Working 1.

There are four seasons to the Working anime series, and I intend to get through them all by the end of 2018. Given that there are so many installments of this show, I couldn’t help be a little worried when I sat down to watch this first entry. My concern was the same concern I have whenever I start a new show:

What if it’s terrible?

The difference this time, Working 1 was a lot more nail-biting because if this first season ended up being awful, that would not have left me with much confidence regarding the other three. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen series dig themselves out of holes before; I just haven’t seen a lot of them.

But that was in the past -- what of the now? After watching this first season, I am left with a certain mindset. If Working 1 is an indication of things to come, I don’t think I’m going to be using the word “awful” all that much.

Working 1 was fantastic. This was a great show. I had a ton of fun with it.

This is not going to be a lengthy review. I don’t have many negatives towards this show. Conversely, most of the positives I want to bring up will require way too many details – spoiler-ish details – to explain them adequately.

One of the things I will say about Working 1 was that it understood what makes a strong slice-of-life anime. This series knew what elements it needed to have, as well as what elements it didn’t need to add.

For the former, Working 1 had a great cast of characters; an aspect I will discuss more in a moment.

For the latter, Working 1 took all the aspects other – lesser – slice-of-life anime felt obligated to add and said, “No.” For example, Working 1 had zero reliance on fanservice.

This show didn’t throw its characters into revealing or compromising positions. This series never went for the awkward upskirt shots. It didn’t try to force in lewdness as a replacement for character development. There wasn’t even a swimsuit episode. It was as if Working 1 realized that most women don’t walk around in shirts three-sizes too small in the chest and that most men don’t try to have sex with everything that moves.

What was even more amazing? Working 1 had a set up that would have allowed for the more blatant use of fanservice compared to other anime; most of this series’ characters were adults. While this is not an excuse to go crazy than other series Working 1 revealed a little more skin. This show never went for that, despite having the opportunity.

This series may not have had a swimsuit episode, but the phrase “hot spring trip” did come up. When I heard this, I wasn’t surprised. After all, most of Working 1’s cast was made up of attractive women. And since this was a slice-of-life anime, I figured it was inevitable for this show to do what other slice-of-life anime do when they have their female characters visit a hot spring.

As an aside, just because a slice-of-life episode takes place at a hot spring, that doesn’t necessarily mean there is going to be a bunch of fanservice. Granted it usually means that. But even if this doesn’t happen, a show is walking a pretty thin line.

Working 1, on the other hand, again, said, “No.” This series did bring its characters to a hot spring, and the only things they did was walk around the local town, try the food, and just hung out with each other. They never stepped foot in a bath.

I have never seen this. I have seen shows avoid the hot-spring-episode, but never have I seen a series actually go to a hot spring and not implement some kind of fanservice – awkward, mild, or whatever. Working 1 was more interested in, if you can believe it, developing its characters so that it was their personalities that made this series fun.

Working 1 is clear proof that fanservice is not what makes a slice-of-life series. The elements that do that are good writing, funny scenarios, and three-dimensional characters. Yes, having all those things does require a lot more thought than merely throwing boobs at the screen and hoping for the best.

But that is precisely my point.

And it wasn’t just the use, or rather, non-use of fanservice. Working 1 put in the extra effort to ensure it wasn’t reliant on lazy, easy-to-break filler. This series built a foundation with its own merits. I want to believe this is the reason why this show managed to spawn multiple seasons.

All that notwithstanding, I don’t believe the entirety of the Working franchise will be fanservice free – blatant or not. However, I am confident that if this series does go down this route in the next few installments, things are not going to get too outrageous. Let’s remember I said that in a few months when I review Working 2.

But what might happen is something we can worry about later. For now, I want to focus on the aspect of Working 1 that made this such an outstanding watch.

The Characters

If I had to pick one reason why the cast of Working 1 was fantastic, I would have to say it was because there were no saints in this show.

To some degree, everyone in this series was a bit of a jerk. Each of these characters possessed at least one personality trait that made them difficult to deal with. There wasn’t a single person who I could describe as the “normal” one.

This never got out of hand because this group only ever went after each other. Whenever an innocent third party was about to get involved, someone from the main cast was always there to swoop in and direct the oncoming damage somewhere else.

Along with that, whenever anyone appeared to have the advantage in a situation, that never lasted long. The Wagnaria employs all had ways of manipulating their co-workers, but at the same time, none of them were pushovers. Everyone had an antithesis who brought back balance whenever someone was on the verge of going too far.

I could give an example, but I don’t know which one to pick. Besides, these situations were never just straightforward, and it was hard to tell what was intentional and what was pure happenstance. This made Working 1 unpredictable. Therefore, why would I ruin that for you by giving away specific moments?

In addition, since every character was outstanding, and there were so many characters, I don’t want to spend the entirety of this review highlighting everyone. Don’t get me wrong, I could easily do that. But let’s assume this becomes a trend that continues on through the rest of the seasons – and I’m hoping it does – I don’t want to have to repeat myself too much in the future.

Thus, I will limit myself to talking about the employees of the Wagnaria restaurant. That said, I should probably also talk about Souta Takanashi’s sisters since they were always great to have around.

Seriously, I assumed Working 1 would slow down significantly if this series focused on anyone outside the restaurant. I could not have been more wrong, and I could not have been happier to be wrong.

I wasn’t joking when I said every character in this series was great.

For the staff of Wagnaria, I still don’t intend to go into detail about them all. I will save doing that for my three “favorite” – that’s a loaded word – characters of Working 1. For now, though, in alphabetic order as to not suggest any preferences, and in no more than fifty words, here’s why I liked each of the employees of Wagnaria.

Aoi Yamada (voiced by Ryo Hirohashi), if that is her real name, was a mystery. Aoi showed up out of nowhere. She was manipulative, I guess. Except she wasn’t good at it. Aoi was like a monkey that lived at the restaurant. That last part, by the way, was real.

Hiroomi Souma (voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya) had everyone’s secrets. No one knew how Hiroomi got his information, he just somehow had it, and he wasn’t afraid to use that information to blackmail others to get out of doing work. That said, there were some people Hiroomi couldn’t take advantage of.

Jun Satou (voiced by Daisuke Ono) was the most rational. He was always around to help and had a cool, clear head no matter what. He would quell the most childish actions of his fellow restaurant staff. That, and he had no reservations about throwing a punch, especially towards Hiroomi.

Quick aside -- it was beautiful to hear the banter between Hiroshi Kamiya and Daisuke Ono, the voices of Hiroomi and Jun, again. In case you don’t know, Mr. Kamiya and Mr. Ono also voiced Durarara’s bitter rivals, Izaya Orihara and Shizuo Heiwajima. These two actors play off each other incredibly well.

Getting back on track:

Kyouko Shirafuji (voiced by Kumiko Watanabe), the manager of Wagnaria, could not have been more apathetic. Despite her authority, Kyouko couldn’t have been bothered to do her work and preferred to snack on the restaurant’s food. However, god help any customer who came in and harassed one of her employees.

Yachiyo Todoroki (voiced by Eri Kitamura) was never without her katana. Let that sink in for a moment. Yachiyo was Kyouko’s loyal underling; so much so that Yachiyo wouldn’t hesitate to use her katana on anyone who crossed Kyouko. Nevertheless, Yachiyo was one of the most reliable employees at Wagnaria.

Wow, fifty words a pop wasn’t even close to being enough. But true to my word, I will leave it at that. For the remaining three Wagnaria employees, I will give myself a little more wiggle room with a hundred-word maximum.

Popura Taneshima was the hardest worker at the restaurant. She was also the easiest to instantly love. Popura was self-conscious about her height and went into a tantrum whenever someone brought it up. Unfortunately, this only made her short stature all the more adorable.

My favorite thing about Popura was the thing she didn’t become. I would argue Popura was Working’s main female character. She was also the person who brought Souta, the main male character, to Wagnaria. In any other slice-of-life show, who do you think would have made up the romance arc? This series, amazingly, didn’t do that.

Mahiru Inami (voiced by Saki Fujita) had Workings 1’s best character growth. Mahiru had a severe case of androphobia – fear of men – and would instinctively punch any male, usually Souta, she came into contact with. And if you got hit with one of Mahiru’s punches, good luck getting back up.

At first, it was hard to be on Mahiru’s side. Her fear of men came off as a quirk. But as this series went on, this wasn’t a quirk. This was a deep-seated problem she hated and was trying to solve. By the end, I was really rooting for her.

Souta Takanashi was a great lead character. Like everyone else, he had an interesting way of looking at the world. Souta loved all things cute and small – the tinier, the better. That was why he was a massive fan of Popura, although he had no romantic feelings towards her.

Souta also had a brilliant deadpan and could read a room instantly. He was quick to adapt to any situation, and he was incredibly hard to fool. He wasn’t above trying to manipulate a situation to get his way. But no matter what, Souta had his friends’ best interests in mind.

I do want to keep going, but a primary reason I enjoyed Working 1 as much as I did was due to how surprising this show was. This series did things you would not expect, and it went down roads I had no longer thought were possible.

I can’t wait to get to season two.

Series Negatives

This is actually going to be very difficult to write since I have absolutely nothing to say here.

If I had to guess, I don’t have many issues with Working 1 because it is the first in a decently long series. Granted I do believe the fourth season, WWW.Working!!!, a.k.a. Working 4, is a spin-off series that has nothing to do with this cast of characters.

For seasons two and three though, I am curious to see where this show will go.

I will admit that by the end of Working 1 episode one, Welcome to Wagnaria: Takanashi Works, I wasn’t sure how it was possible for this series to have more than one installment. Hell, I wasn’t convinced there was going to be enough material to fill this one season.

I didn’t think episode one was bad, I only thought, “There needs to be more than this.” And wouldn’t you know it, there was more. There was a lot more.

Now, even though things may not go the way I predict, I can totally see how a series with this cast of characters could endure for two more seasons.

I also have a strange feeling that the Series Negatives sections for the Working 2 and Working 3 reviews might be a bit longer since the next two seasons will need to match this high standard.

This is starting to sound like a continuation of this review’s Series Positives section, isn’t it?

I can’t say I’m shocked this is happening since the one gripe I have with this show may not be a gripe at all.

Episode thirteen of Working 1 “introduced” a new character. Normally I would hate this since this usually means sequel baiting. This time, however, I have no idea if that was what was going on.

For starters, Working 2 may have been a done deal by the end of this first installment. If this were the case, then this wasn’t really sequel baiting since a continuation was already going to be a thing.

And if this weren’t the case, I still don’t think this was sequel baiting. I think this was the conclusion of a very long joke.

The character who got introduced in episode thirteen was in the background throughout the entirety of this series. This show was clearly making her presence know, but she still never got brought up. She was just going about her job and had no connection to the randomness around her. We then came to learn that this person, like every other employee at Wagnaria, was a bit odd.

If this was a joke, I’m not saying it was a funny one. But if it was a joke, I certainly respect the set up that went into it.

To cover my bases, if I am wrong and episode thirteen was indeed trying to sequel bait, had I watched this series when it first aired, yes, this would have been a problem. I’ve said it many times: this is not a tactic I want to encourage.

And that’s the extent of the negatives I have with Working 1.

Final Thoughts

I hope I have made my point clear.

This series was surprising. It was smart. It was funny. It was nothing I expected it to be. In short, this series was great.

With a huge cast of outstanding characters to its name, this show will be impossible to put down; I say that despite knowing I won’t be getting to the sequel immediately. And speaking of sequels, this is a series I am very much looking forward to.

I believe this goes without saying, but just in case, I cannot recommend Working 1 any higher.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Working 1? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.

I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.

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Others in the Working!! Series