Genre(s): Comedy, Romance, Ecchi
Age-Appropriateness: 15+ (Sexual scenarios, partial nudity, mild language)
Platforms: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 12 five-minute episodes
TheAwersome Rating: 7.6 / 10 (Short and sweet)
Premise: Douki-chan secretly has feelings for her coworker, but struggles gathering the courage to confess to him. Will she be able to win his heart? Or will her much more forward rivals, her kouhai and senpai beat her to the chase?
TheAwersome’s Thoughts: This is a fun bit of spice in a fresh style. No, there isn’t really much in the way of character growth (not that you should expect any with such short episodes), but you’re here to see some fun and spicy scenarios, so that’s what you get. This is one of my first anime hipster moments where I can say “Oh, I read the source material before it became an anime” so it’s kind of fun for me in that regard. The anime does a great job capturing the essence of the original illustrations and the animation is better than most short-episode shows I’ve seen, so that was another plus. It is a bit annoying that there’s almost a full-length ED for each episode (1:30) with relevant content afterward. That’s like, 20-30% of each episode is just the ED sequence, so that definitely could have been shorter.
TLDR: If you particularly enjoy tights, office-attire, or just really want a break from all the “High school” centered shows, this is a fun mindless one to pick up.
(Translation note: Douki literally means “equal” and can be in reference to her comparison to her rivals, or that she is an equal level coworker).
It’s interesting to me that this got an anime, considering that the source material was originally a collection of pinup-like illustrations posted on Twitter/Pixiv that had a loosely connected story, sometimes with sketch manga, sometimes just in the comments of the picture. I’d originally come across a good handful of the original artwork on Pixiv in my academic research for Harbour’s “Thirsty Box” reference material (I only read it for the articles, guys, don’t worry 😉). But that’s probably why I enjoyed this more than I think others would is because I recognized the shots, poses, and scenarios, and they were an excellent and faithful recreation of the original work.
That being said, it does also carry over the common Pixiv trend of “literal blank face male characters” so the lonely thirsty weebs can more easily project themselves into the scenarios. I find this kind of creepy, for the record. I want more equal representation in my spice; give me some swoon worthy ikemen or bara beefcakes, dang it.
You’ll Likely Enjoy This if You Enjoyed:
- The quick and easy episode lengths of Wakakozake, Love is Like a Cocktail, Bonjour Sweet Love Patisserie
- The ecchi-hinting pinup flavored imagery of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, Magical Sempai
- Office-based scenarios of Wotakoi, New Game, Aggretsuko
- The tights and skirts motif of Kakegurui.
At a Glance Anime 