As the short post-exam period of rest was about to end, I decided to do something unprecedented: hit random on Crunchyroll until I got a 13 episode show, and marathoned it. This show was Kanamemo, and, as expected from randomly picking a show from the largest library of anime I'm legally allowed to watch, it was a fairly mediocre one.
Kanamemo is a slice of life following Kana, a girl whose grandmother recently passed away, leaving her without a guardian. She finds herself working for the Fuhshin Gazette, a small local newspaper, as a delivery girl in exchange for room and board, along with a surprisingly large number of colorful characters.
The Fuhshin Gazette and its surrroundings' denizens are both the show's greatest weakness and strength. On the one hand, some of these characters are really good, and the large number of them means there's a lot of variety in their interactions. On the other hand, there's entirely too many: five workers at the gazette, not counting Kana, as well as a worker for a rival gazette, and four minor recurring characters. This means that some of the good characters, like the supremely likeable Hinata, end up struggling to have the screentime they deserve.
There's two exceptional mentions on both ends of the spectrum. The only downright bad character in this show is Haruka, the resident comedy lesbian lolicon. We all know how this character is: they've got the one joke, namely that they think the young girls around them are cute, and try to touch them, which makes them feel uncomfortable and hahahaha isn't that funny except it almost never actually is. Not only is Haruka a very unoriginal take on this concept, she's one of the characters to get the most screentime, constantly doing the same goddamn joke over and over again. She also happens to be, counter to tradition, a lot older than the (underage!) girls she pervs out on, so it's actually incredibly uncomfortable to watch. Some of the shit this woman says is genuinely messed up, and it really doesn't work as comic relief. The fact that she's a woman doesn't make it any less messed up. I would dare say that Haruka is the single biggest blot on Kanamemo's quality.
On the other hand, you have Yume and Yuuki. Yume's your typical energetic and cheerful "genki girl" character who runs loops around everyone else, and is individually the most likeable character in the show. Yuuki is also a very standard character: the quiet girl who's kind and gentle. The big thing that makes these two unique is that they're in a established, happy relationship from the first to the last episode of the show. If having two anime characters be in a pre-established, continued, relationship instead of dragging the start (or end) of the relationship out for ages, be it for comedy or drama, isn't impressive enough, the fact that this is a show with a happy gay couple in it that's not made a big deal is impressive enough. There's unfortunately still not enough of this stuff out there, and I feel like I need to commend Kanamemo for getting it so right.
The fact that these two are incredibly cute together, to the point where I let out a massive "awwww" at almost every romantic interaction they had, is also something I want to commend. Yume and Yuuki are definitely the best thing in Kanamemo by far. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the two interact all that much, focusing on Kana, Saki and shivers Haruka a lot more. It's a shame, as Kanamemo gets better the more it allows those two to interact on screen.
As for the rest of the characters, they range from bland to good. Kana is a typical protagonist for a 13 year old girl. Her unique trait is that her overactive imagination often leads to her overreacting to things. Whilst amusing (and, personally for me, very relatable), it's not really enough to separate her from the pack. The outwardly strict but secretly kind and sensitive chief Saki is likeable, but I'd argue she has too much screentime for what's a character without much substance. I'm also not sure that making her inexplicably an elementary schooler makes any sense or adds anything whatsoever. As mentioned previously Hinata, the tomboyish girl who keeps failing to get into college, is also likeable, but suffers from the problem of barely getting any screentime, being by far the least developed out of all the main characters.
The final character is Mika, the delivery girl for a rival newspaper and Kana's classmate and eventual friend. She's pretty much a straight up tsundere who seems to be here to provide Kana with someone her own age to interact with from time to time. There's signs that she was meant to be a much bigger part of the show, but is kind of underutilized. Despite having a prominent name card in the OP, she plays a very small part in most episodes, only really acting as a main character in one or two episodes.
There's very little else to say about Kanamemo. There's an outstandingly good couple, an outstandingly awful and annoying comic relief character, and a bunch of characters in the middle. Pretty much everything else is standard slice of life comedy fare, though with a somewhat wackier sense of humor than the average show in the genre. If the reader knows slice of life comedies, they know what they're in for, and otherwise I don't think I can really explain it properly. This is one of the least interesting shows I've ever seen, in the sense that there's very little unique about it. Yume and Yuuki push it just out of perfectly average territory, but not by much. Kanamemo is nice enough to watch, and was a good way to kill a day. I can't muster the enthusiasm to recommend it, but it's definitely not bad. I'm sure you can find a better slice of life comedy if that's what you're looking for, but this isn't a bad one.
6/10
Kanamemo is only pushed out of mediocrity by virtue of having one of the most adorable couples ever on screen.
Kanamemo is a slice of life following Kana, a girl whose grandmother recently passed away, leaving her without a guardian. She finds herself working for the Fuhshin Gazette, a small local newspaper, as a delivery girl in exchange for room and board, along with a surprisingly large number of colorful characters.
The Fuhshin Gazette and its surrroundings' denizens are both the show's greatest weakness and strength. On the one hand, some of these characters are really good, and the large number of them means there's a lot of variety in their interactions. On the other hand, there's entirely too many: five workers at the gazette, not counting Kana, as well as a worker for a rival gazette, and four minor recurring characters. This means that some of the good characters, like the supremely likeable Hinata, end up struggling to have the screentime they deserve.
There's two exceptional mentions on both ends of the spectrum. The only downright bad character in this show is Haruka, the resident comedy lesbian lolicon. We all know how this character is: they've got the one joke, namely that they think the young girls around them are cute, and try to touch them, which makes them feel uncomfortable and hahahaha isn't that funny except it almost never actually is. Not only is Haruka a very unoriginal take on this concept, she's one of the characters to get the most screentime, constantly doing the same goddamn joke over and over again. She also happens to be, counter to tradition, a lot older than the (underage!) girls she pervs out on, so it's actually incredibly uncomfortable to watch. Some of the shit this woman says is genuinely messed up, and it really doesn't work as comic relief. The fact that she's a woman doesn't make it any less messed up. I would dare say that Haruka is the single biggest blot on Kanamemo's quality.
On the other hand, you have Yume and Yuuki. Yume's your typical energetic and cheerful "genki girl" character who runs loops around everyone else, and is individually the most likeable character in the show. Yuuki is also a very standard character: the quiet girl who's kind and gentle. The big thing that makes these two unique is that they're in a established, happy relationship from the first to the last episode of the show. If having two anime characters be in a pre-established, continued, relationship instead of dragging the start (or end) of the relationship out for ages, be it for comedy or drama, isn't impressive enough, the fact that this is a show with a happy gay couple in it that's not made a big deal is impressive enough. There's unfortunately still not enough of this stuff out there, and I feel like I need to commend Kanamemo for getting it so right.
The fact that these two are incredibly cute together, to the point where I let out a massive "awwww" at almost every romantic interaction they had, is also something I want to commend. Yume and Yuuki are definitely the best thing in Kanamemo by far. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the two interact all that much, focusing on Kana, Saki and shivers Haruka a lot more. It's a shame, as Kanamemo gets better the more it allows those two to interact on screen.
As for the rest of the characters, they range from bland to good. Kana is a typical protagonist for a 13 year old girl. Her unique trait is that her overactive imagination often leads to her overreacting to things. Whilst amusing (and, personally for me, very relatable), it's not really enough to separate her from the pack. The outwardly strict but secretly kind and sensitive chief Saki is likeable, but I'd argue she has too much screentime for what's a character without much substance. I'm also not sure that making her inexplicably an elementary schooler makes any sense or adds anything whatsoever. As mentioned previously Hinata, the tomboyish girl who keeps failing to get into college, is also likeable, but suffers from the problem of barely getting any screentime, being by far the least developed out of all the main characters.
The final character is Mika, the delivery girl for a rival newspaper and Kana's classmate and eventual friend. She's pretty much a straight up tsundere who seems to be here to provide Kana with someone her own age to interact with from time to time. There's signs that she was meant to be a much bigger part of the show, but is kind of underutilized. Despite having a prominent name card in the OP, she plays a very small part in most episodes, only really acting as a main character in one or two episodes.
There's very little else to say about Kanamemo. There's an outstandingly good couple, an outstandingly awful and annoying comic relief character, and a bunch of characters in the middle. Pretty much everything else is standard slice of life comedy fare, though with a somewhat wackier sense of humor than the average show in the genre. If the reader knows slice of life comedies, they know what they're in for, and otherwise I don't think I can really explain it properly. This is one of the least interesting shows I've ever seen, in the sense that there's very little unique about it. Yume and Yuuki push it just out of perfectly average territory, but not by much. Kanamemo is nice enough to watch, and was a good way to kill a day. I can't muster the enthusiasm to recommend it, but it's definitely not bad. I'm sure you can find a better slice of life comedy if that's what you're looking for, but this isn't a bad one.
6/10
Kanamemo is only pushed out of mediocrity by virtue of having one of the most adorable couples ever on screen.
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