Originally posted on r/anime [27.02.19]
Winter 2019 has been a pretty good season so far. There's the okay stuff like 'Endro' and 'Gotoubun no Hanayome', the slightly better stuff like 'Tate no Yuusha' and 'Slime', and the *really* good stuff like 'Mob Psycho S2' and, as you can tell from the title, WataTen. Now do I think it's really the best anime of this season? Probably. Yes, Mob Psycho has indeed been great, but with Shieldbro reaching kind of a low point last episode and Slime's arguably continious downfall in quality since the Charybdis fight (I mean, just look at that dragon in episode 21). But all hope is not lost, for while some shows may have forsaken us, moe loli comedies *always* stay consistent, except for when they don't. As with everything, it's a matter of personal taste and opinion, and my personal tastes and opinion tells me that WataTen is indeed the best show this season. But why?
First, let's start with the fact that I was already excited for this show before it came out. During the Fall season of last year I was looking at the shows for Winter I would be the most excited for, and what did I see? A moe loli comedy produced by none other than Doga Kobo. If you want cute girls, you go to Doga Kobo (sorry KyoAni, male swimmers and archery clubs just don't quite do it for me). I'll admit i'm not that industry-savvy, and while I have tried to pay attention to staff other than seiyuu, I'm very much new to it, so I didn't recognize any of the specific staff names. Except for the Seiyuu of course. The character Hinata was being voiced by Nagae Rika, who while still being fairly new to the industry, had voiced best girl Olivia from Summer of 2018's 'Asobi Asobase'. I can't claim to have heard of any others, but Kito Akari did voice Horikita from 'Classroom of the Elite' so there was at least that.
So now we've established my hype for it, but what about the actual show? Well... it's what you'd expect from reading the synopsis. A college student has a little sister, little sister brings home cute friend, loli hijinks ensue. It actually reminds me a lot of last seasons 'Tonari no Kyuuketski-san', which was my favorite show from that season as well (UzaMaid ain't got shit on otaku loli vampires). But I've gone on a tangent now, let's get back on track. The execution of each episode is mostly the same. Hinata's friends come over to play, Miyako dresses them up, maybe they eat sweets, it's pretty consistent on that part. In a few episodes they'l introduce a new character to spice things up, and that's about it. So what makes me hold this show in such high regard? It's simply, actually. The character designs and voice actors. The animation is nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to complain about, nothing to praise. It's passable, and in no way the focus of the show. But the voice acting is *so* *darn* GOOD.
If you've lurked in the weekly discussion threads for this show then you've definetely seen people gushing about Rika's performance, and especially the constant use of Hinata's catchphrase "Mya-nee". And how can you blame her, she sounds absolutely adorable. And she manages to do it in a good way, because an "adorable voice" is extremely easy to mess up. There are countless shows where a character is suppossed to sound cute, and it all just falls flat because of how annoying or overdone the performance feels. If you want an example, look no further than 'Tate no Yuusha' and the way Filo's voice sounds. That's what happens when someone doesn't understand the concept of "too much". But it's not just Hinata's seiyuu who does a good job, everyone does! Kanon, Hana, Noa, basically the entire main and supporting cast does a good job. The only one I kind of dislike is Hinata's and Miyako's voice. Not because it's badly done, it's just so darn generic I feel like I'm watching the exact same mom every single other anime character has.
As I mentioned previously, the character designs are also great. The main thing that sets these designs apart from others in the same genre is the hair, not only does the shades of red on Miyako and Hinata compliment their clothing perfectly, the unique way in which their hair is shaded is also something I've never seen done before. If there was anything to complai about here it would be Miyako's tracksuit. I mean, last weeks episode was literally about how boring her clothes look. But self awareness doesn't mean the problem goes away. Her outfit is still lame.
In conclusion, WataTen is good, and you should be watching it. Unless you're like those people who for some reason depsise joy and don't enjoy watching cute girls dress up in cute outfits and eat delicious looking foods
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