Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend

Episode 0-1

With Saekano, director Kanta Kamei (of Bunny Drop fame) has pulled an unusual stunt: he has put the normal complementary fan service fest episode at the front of the series, and numbered it episode 0, rather than at the back. This was clearly at least partly done in an effort to create an in media res-like situation, where the series can spend most of its time catching up to the point where episode 0 is (which seems to be about six months after episode 1). However, he may also have been playing a bait-and-switch move here, because the raunchy tenor of episode 0 is not in the slightest reflected in episode 1; in fact, the only fan service of any kind in episode 1 is what I call “leering camera” shots, where the camera pans over a female character's (fully-clothed) body or perhaps lingers just a bit too long on her (fully-covered and not-showy) chest, an effect also used quite heavily in episode 0. There's not a hint of undue skin or even undergarments to be seen beyond two very brief shots of the kind of hentai doujins that one of the characters draws. That gives the impression that the true tenor of the series is going to be more akin to Kamei's rendition of Oreshura than more brazenly salacious fare like this season's Testament of Sister New Devil.

The basic gist of the main story is that Aki Tomoya is a well-known and thoroughly-dedicated otaku, one who works multiple part-time jobs to fund his hobbies and goals. An encounter where he rescued the wayward hat of a pretty girl gives him an epiphany about the kind of game he wants to create, so he spends most of the episode trying to recruit a professional writer and professional artist to help him. Those two are fellow students who stand as night-and-day contrasts as the princesses of the school: the standoffish brunette Utaha and the half-Japanese, twin-tailed blonde Eriri, respectively. Though he claims he prefers 2D women, Aki knows both from past encounters (one clearly in elementary school, the other presumably so) and both not only seem to look on him favorably but are also fully aware of the other's interest. Aki also encounters the fourth member of the Blessing Software game design group-to-be, his classmate Megumi, who was also the girl with the hat who inspired him on this endeavor in the first place. (This, then, clearly explains why Megumi's role in the production is as the game heroine's model, and gives further credence to Megumi seeming to be the eventual likely victor for Aki's heart.) Episode 0, by comparison, is a group outing to a hot springs resort as the four of them, along with the yet-to-be-introduced-in-the-main-storyline athlete/musician girl, try to pin down the final details of the game. Vastly sexier hijinks ensue and Megumi has much longer hair.

Also not appearing in episode 1 are the semi-awareness and knowing metafictional comments so prominent in episode 0, so those concerned about how far the series will go with that apparently needn't worry. A greater concern is that all three of Aki, Eriri, and Utaha seem locked into very standard archetypes: Eriri is the typical twin-tailed tsundere, for instance, while Utaha is clearly cut from the Hitagi Senjogahara (from Bakemonogatari, et al) mold, even to the point of having a similar-sounding voice. (It's too soon to tell on Megumi.) The situation is also pretty standard harem set-up fodder, although the time and care devoted to showing that the girls aren't going to just thoughtlessly accept Aki's proposal is far less common; in fact, most of the few true bits of humor in episode 1 involve Aki's reaction to their scathing – but also very practical – criticisms and rejections of his initial plans, as depicted in the screenshot. (The other inspired joke is Aki's reversal of the standard pattern of the girl getting hung up on a childhood promise forgotten by the guy.) That gives the sense that Kamei and Fumiaki Maruto, who scripts this series based on her own source novel series, are aiming to create something which has its foundations firmly in popular harem elements but is actually going to strive to be a bit more literary. (That also further supports the “bait-and-switch” theory.)

The quality of A-1 Pictures' artistic effort shows through more here, including one neat late scene involving a stretching hallway being used to show how Aki is being a little slow on the uptake over a crucial revelation. The series' habit of giving a reddish line to the tops of girls' eyes is a little weird, though. The depiction of Aki's room at the beginning is a treasure trove of anime cameos; I identified references to anohana, Vividred Operation, both Sword Art Online series, and (most surprisingly) World Conquest Zvezda Plot, and I am sure that I missed a few, so please post anything else you spotted in the response thread. Some nice animation sequences, effective use of music, and a good, pleasant opener also suggest a little more ambition than normal.

So how will this play out as it goes forward? More like episode 1 or more like episode 0? I feel pretty confident that it will be the former, as once you set aside episode 0 this just doesn't give the vibe of a super-racy haremfest. It also has the original writer integrally involved and a director with a proven track record (last year's Nanana's Buried Treasure also ended up being a better series than it initially appeared it would be), so there's definitely reason to hope that it could amount to something. And yes, that means I am now retracting the concern I expressed in the Preview Guide about this series' potential.

Rating: B-

Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.