Airing in a similar style to how Azumanga Daioh or Chi’s Sweet Home did when they was first aired in Japan, Recorder to Randoseru (Aka: Recorder and Randsell / Recorder and Backpack) is a comedy series that instead of airing in 25-30 minute segments airs an entire episode in three minutes which might sound a bit eyebrow raising in 2012, but I think it is something that might prove to be a strong point in the series. With episodes in short bursts such as this, they have no need to linger on the one topic for too long but can go at a pace of Introduction –> Laugh –> Conclusion without having to think of things to make the audience laugh or end up in a potential spiral of unfunny joke after unfunny joke. But still, if this works for the series was the episode enjoyable in the first place? The answer is actually yes!
On the surface it seems as if Atsushi is an adult, but really he’s just an elementary student! However, he is paired with a second-year high school student Atsumi, whose height is just the opposite of his. These two together create an unusual relationship and will undoubtedly instigate some comedic antics in this slice of life comedy!
The series tries to push the fact that the older sister is a loli and the younger brother looks like an adult and due to the differences in personalities against their looks, can get them into trouble. This is hardly an original concept and I am looking over at my bookshelf to see a copy of Nanaka 6/17 which is about a 17 year old who after falling down a flight of stairs ends up with the personality of her six year old self… but work with me here. While the whole age difference thing was weird and slightly hillarious in itself when seeing a “grown man” wear a school backpack and having a childish expression on his face, they managed to pick the most normal daily activity such as walking to school and giving Atsuhi’s unique situation, grant a few innocent chuckles out of it for reasons you can no doubt guess (Showing off and sharing a scarf… DUH!). If they would have done a whole episode out of it, I don’t think it would have worked as well but at the same time they will need to provide more varied quirks if they expect the laughs to last more than a couple of episodes.
You can check out this series on Crunchyroll and is available everywhere except Japan as a simulcast.
These First Episode Reviews are something I do every season where I take a look at some of the simulcast anime releases and do a review of just the initial episode. The full series is then reviewed upon release on DVD or Blu-ray.
Related posts:
- Crunchyroll to Also Simulcast Recorder to Randoseru this Month
- Dennou Coil Episode 1 and Usagi Drop Episode 2 – Now Simulcast on ANN
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira Episode 1 Parody Shows A Different Take on the Actual Episode
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai – Episode 18 Preview
- Doujin Work – Episode 12 [End] + Review
