Karen's Anime Blog

This one has a pretty ridiculous premise, and I don’t want to spoil it: just know that a yakuza gets a middle school choir boy to give him singing lessons at a karaoke bar, and the details as to why are priceless. You definitely have not seen this premise before.

This was a nice first episode, and the two mains, Kyouji and Satomi, have great chemistry together. That chemistry is actually a little bit of a problem though, because it seems like things are going in a romantic direction at times, and that’s a no-go given the age gap. I’m actually not as anti-age gap romance in anime as a lot of fans seem to be these days, but with Satomi not even being out of middle school yet, it would be too much in this case. I’m pretty sure nothing sexual will actually occur, but the show is definitely baiting the audience a bit with the romance vibes.

The most engaging part of the episode for me dealt with Satomi alone and his feelings about going through puberty, so I hope this series will mostly feature Satomi and just use Kyouji as the comic relief. I guess Kyouji could serve as a model of adult masculinity for Satomi, but would you really want a strangely goofy member of a crime family as your model?

Daisuke Ono plays Kyouji and pretends to sing badly, which is definitely a plus for fans of the actor, because listening to him intentionally sing off key is funny. To be honest, I didn’t think Kyouji’s singing actually sounded bad enough for him to need a singing tutor, but I guess it was bad if you actually understand “pitch” and “tone” and all that good stuff. I sang in choir as a kid, but I never actually learned all that much about music, so I don’t trust my judgement.

This show is only slated for five episodes, so the premise doesn’t actually have to stretch that far. Hopefully it will remain a charming, if slightly strange tale of inter-generational friendship, and leave all the creepy stuff as barely discernible subtext.