Kaetan desu! (*≧▽≦)
Well it took a while to get the rights, but Crunchyroll has finally begun airing Girlish Number. Our premiere episode begins at what appears to be the wrapping up of an event for an anime. The cast members are taking turns on stage giving their final thanks to the audience members for coming out. We get our first glimpse of our heroine Chitose Karasuma who appears to be in her thoughts, so much so that she misses her cue to speak and another cast member has to jab her in the side to bring her back to life.
The two main heroines of the anime enthusiastically perform the opening song to the game, even though minutes earlier their light discussion was fraught with tension. Once the event is over everyone is invited to go out to eat but the two heroines rush out saying they have other commitments, so they are excusing themselves. Chitose starts to believe that she shouldn’t go since a lot of the seiyuu seem to be ducking out of the event. That all changes however, as soon as she overhears that it is a yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant that they are headed to and she enthusiastically volunteers herself. Her manager Gojo gives his introduction by giving her a chop and reminding her that she is still a newbie and to not get ahead of herself. But the Lead Manager of the production committee says it’s alright, since Chitose worked hard, despite having a small part.
At the restaurant, Chitose is stuffing her face with beef tongue when Kuzu-san (voiced by Nakai Kazuma *fan girling) the producer from the distributor arrives and gives his greetings to all there. Honestly, I love Nakai’s voice, but it sounds a little TOO upbeat here then what I’m used to. Kuzu wastes no time boasting on how he recommended the place and how the lead manager always copies him. Chitose is paying no attention whatsoever.
This show gives off that generic air of “cute girls doing cute things: seiyuu version”, but from what I’ve seen so far, it seems to be more of a cynical view of the anime industry from the perspective of the voice actors.
Back in the apartment, Gojo gives Chitose a check video for a new job before he goes to bed and we find out that they’re actually siblings. We then watch as Chitose thinks about what she doesn’t like about the industry. The next morning, Chitose repeatedly practices the one line she has been assigned. Chitose is complaining about how she can’t get the timing right because the drawings suck. Goda gives her a new script for a job next week to try and cheer her up, but once she finds out that the source material is a light novel, she gets depressed. When she sees that Kazuha and Momoka, the two voice actresses from her just concluded job will be a part of the cast, Chitose starts to get full of herself again.
Gojo reiterates that she’s a newbie and she doesn’t make enough to have to report for taxes (total burn right there), but Chitose says she’s not popular because Gojo doesn’t promote her enough. He lets her know that if the product is bad, it won’t sell no matter how much promoting is done. He brings her back down by reminding her that she hasn’t passed any auditions and she should try for more results as a pro. Chitose then gets mad and goes off to her next job.
At the job during recordings, Chitose walks in front of Shibasaki, full of her own thoughta. Shibasaki gets pissed and confronts her on the issue but Chitose does a good job of playing it off. Shibasaki comes across as someone who takes her acting skills too seriously, nothing else has been said of her, but so far I don’t like her.
Momoka and Chitose are approached by the author of the light novel and a staff member a
fter the recordings to go out for dinner but Momoka refuses for both of them. On the way home, they exchange contact information and Momoka makes thus snotty remark that even though Chitose’s character is funny, her acting is trash which honestly made me laugh more than I should have.
We go across town to a bar where Kuzu, Gojo and the President of the agency are having drinks together. Kuzu gives the President a proposal for an anime project that he is the lead on. Gojo gives him the profiles for the new members. They end up picking out Chitose saying she could do more than be simply a seiyuu….she could be an idol.
The next day, Chitose and Gojo find themselves in the President’s office where Kuzu presents Chitose with a script. The idea that they have is to combine idols and light-novels into anime, which they reason will be a masterpiece. Chitose looks for the cast members and sees her name as the lead. From there, it’s just a bunch of back and forth on how great she’d fit the role and then they all end up laughing boisterously, except for Gojo who hangs his head in ultimate shame at the events due to come. I feel so sorry for him, I really do.
Girlish Number airs on Crunchyroll every Wednesday at 1:00pm (AST)
