Otaku Digest: Café Middle School Vampires

Another week has come and gone so it is time for another Otaku Digest. Not a word of a lie but I cannot believe that this season is nearly over. It has gone by so fast and I may have misjudged how many anime series were left this season, so this week is going to be a little look at some of the anime shorts that were released. There are no changes here; they’re still judged on a first episode basis only, and now they have even less time to impress. Coming up this week is Ame-iro Cocoa, Urawa no Usagi-chan and Vampire Holmes.

Ame-iro Cocoa

The first of our anime shorts up this week is Ame-iro Cocoa or Rainy Cocoa, a comedy and slice of life anime that began airing on the 5^th of April. The anime centres on Aoi Tokura, a college freshman who, due to various circumstances, must get and start a part-time job at a café called Rainy Colour. The café is owned by Kouji Amami and is run by Shion Koga. The type of clientele that attends this café are handsome and cool, like Keiichi Iwase and the confident Ryouta Sakurai. Aoi has entered a more frantic life but finds himself having more fun.
I basically completely flaked and apparently can’t count how many series we have covered here on Otaku Digest, but luckily every season has a few little short anime series thrown in for good measure! What is the downside, you ask? As a general rule, slice of life anime haunts me. However, since they are in little portions, it seems like I am able to handle them a lot better. This anime, for example, is just over two minutes long including an opening theme, and yet I was actually drawn in by the light hearted banter between the characters in the café. Short and sweet seems to be the key for slice of life anime for me because I genuinely now want to see more. There is an awkward meeting between characters; a light hearted guy that would look more in place at a bar than a café, a chilled-out manager and the introduction of the seemingly eccentric owner. All exchanges here are charming rather than nauseating and, with such a short amount of time to introduce viewers to the story and characters, this anime somehow manages to do it well.

Will I Continue To Watch: Yes, I was genuinely entertained by this anime and its characters.

Urawa no Usagi-chan

Next up is another comedy and slice of life anime short called Urawa no Usagi-chan, which began airing on the 10^th of April. Urawa no Usagi-chan is an original series which mainly focuses on the ins and outs of the daily lives of eight junior high school girls from the Saitama prefecture’s Urawa district. We see the day-to-day lives of Midori, Usagi, Tokiwa, Sakura, Minami, Saiko, Kojika and Misono as they play off against each other and bounce off each other’s personalities, while their fun school life develops.
This is the type of anime I dread; not only is it a slice of life anime which I despise, as any regular Otaku Digest readers will know, but nothing gets my goat more than a prep school girl story. Why, you might ask? Because they are unbelievably boring in my opinion. Where the last anime was short and sweet in its deliverance of the narrative, this anime felt far far longer even though there was only a minute difference. A good chunk of the first episode is one of the girls walking to school and that’s it. Then she gets to school and meets a few friends, and suddenly the episode is over without anything happening. I gave this anime a harsher critique because, after the wonderful Ame-iro Cocoa sold me on slice of life, this anime put me right back on the other side of the fence and reminded me why I hated the genre to begin with.

Will I Continue To Watch: No, I could not think of anything worse.

Vampire Holmes

Last up this week is the supernatural, mystery and vampire anime Vampire Holmes, which originally aired on the 4^th of April. Vampire Holmes is an anime that has been adapted from the smartphone game of the same name. It features a character called Holmes who, despite his name, is a private detective quite different from the famous crime-solver of the same name. He is a hard hitter in the sense that he does not reason or explain out the mysteries he happens across. Despite his antics and ways, he always solves the case. Covertly, he commences on a mission issued by the Metropolitan of London to search out vampires. We follow him on his mission as he investigates and discovers all the darkness London has to offer.
Finally, a non-slice of life anime short! Right off the bat, it’s a really interesting animation, as if it was literally lifted straight out of the game it was originally designed for and, although usually this kind of stiff two dimensional animation can be off-putting, it really works for this anime. There isn’t much story in the few minutes that make up the story, but what we did get was gold. The anime did exactly what it needed; it introduced the two main characters. That’s another trend I have seen with anime shorts, as they all seem to be on the comedic side of the spectrum and sometimes that dulls the story. This anime, however, made it work in its favour. It used random comedic cues which worked with its random cut scenes and balanced out any serious portions of the episode. Holmes seems like a character that can get some laughs from viewers and can definitely develop a good story.

Will I Continue To Watch: Yes, it is a great balance of story and comedy. 

Have you been watching any anime short series? What have you thought so far? Let us know in the comments!

Céire Ní Dalaigh