Anime With Popcorn

Halfway Checkpoint: Is It Still Just About Underwear?

Let’s quickly recap what happened in Episode 1. We met an indolent loner, Shirota, who one day happens to witness Takamine use her powers to rewind time and change something from the past.

As I previously stated, the episode didn’t have much substance. Limited character development, no driving plotline, and almost nothing to keep the watcher interested. The only real draw was the fan service and the promise of more.

This review is going to go over the highlights of the show up to the end of the mid-season episode, episode 6.

Has Anything Changed from Episode 1?

Not much has changed. We actually see less fan service than the previous episodes, all the while the plot is still mainly episodic.

The main gag of the show is that Takamine uses her abilities in the most random of times to get a slightly better outcome of her situation, no matter how miniscule this change might be.

One serious problem I have is her powers. There’s no consistency. Sometimes she uses it, and it sends them back a couple minutes to a couple hours. Other times when she uses it, they stay in the exact same point in time while the past changes. It makes no sense. She’ll say something like, ‘I undid my intense workout, so now I’m not as sweaty,’ instead of actually redoing the action. There’s no real explanation of why or how either version of her power works.

What About Character Development?

The show continues to focus on developing the characters more than anything. Portraying that Shirota is this slacking loser because he’s just always been that way. He never experienced a win to make him feel like doing anything was worth it.

Takamine, on the other hand, goes all-in with everything she does. Even down to the conversations she has with people. If she doesn’t like the outcome, or thinks it could be better, then she redoes the whole thing.

Takamine gets more character development out of the two of them. She starts off as this demanding bully who teases Shirota as much as she can, but as things progress, we find out that she’s actually really kind, caring, and affectionate, she just tries to hide it behind her pride and attempt at being callous.

One confusion I have is — why are there no other characters? We’ve gone six episodes and still the only developing characters are the main two. No teachers, no other students, no parents, no other love interests, just nothing.

Animation: Has It Improved?

While the animation wasn’t anything to write home about, it hasn’t gotten better or worse. There’s still the awkward animation for Takamine’s powers. I have started to skip ahead thirty or so seconds each time it starts up. The gong noise and lack of visual stimuli is excruciating.

Character animation hasn’t changed. We see some new expressions and lighting but otherwise there isn’t any difference in animation.

Voice Over and Soundtrack: Any Differences?

Voice actors are really carrying the show with this one. The sound affects for all the time changes and other comedic shots are just flat out bad.

Shirota’s Voice Actor, Daisuke Kasuya, is relatively good at conveying the stuttering and nervousness of his character. The voice he uses has a wide range of being calm and inquisitive, to outbursts of energy. He’s really the only thing that makes this a comedy.

Yurika Kubo, Takamine’s Voice Actor, is also relatively good. Since her character is somewhat limited in range, Yurika does a good job of keeping her interesting. Episode 6 brings out a range we didn’t know this character had, so watch out for that.

The end credit scene appears in the second episode. It’s a pretty standard slide show of Takamine, with all color but red being blacked out. The art and visuals are really well done, and the song is good too. I just wish that there was something more in general, though I can’t really pinpoint what. The song is linked below.

Will I Keep Watching? (Spoiler-Free Verdict)

The answer here is yes. Though this anime is about as middle of the pack as it gets, I won’t consider it bad. I’m really hoping that the episodes can get better and we can get introduced to the other characters listed in the cast list. The following is a rating of each episode and why (as spoiler free as possible).

Episode 1: 4/10 as I previously rated here. Please go check it out if you have not already

Episode 2: 3/10 this episode very nearly had me stop watching. I was getting very bored of the hesitation of Shirota. It was overall not great. Little to no comedy

Episode 3: 5/10 this episode was pretty funny. I won’t go too much into detail, but my favorite lines were —
“That was pretty intense before, handling all those people.”
“Could you not make it sound like I was in some orgy porno?”

Episode 4: 3/10 this episode brought me back down. Took me a few days to want to watch episode 5. Just not much comedy and was overall underwhelming.

Episode 5: 5/10 this episode was decent. I would almost rate it a 6 as there is finally some story and reason for the show’s existence. They brought back the fan service a little, cleverly using a chibi version of Shirota as a censor.

Episode 6: 5/10 wow! Episode 6 finally broke the formula. I thought it was really funny several times. There were several unexpected moments. It falls off a little at the end so we’re sticking with a 5 but it really could’ve been a 6.

Final Thoughts

Please Put Them On, Takamine-san still sits with an overall rating of 4/10, though on the higher end of that rating. There were some decent episodes in the front half so I am looking forward to seeing how the story might progress later this season. I am really hoping for a good supporting character to pop in and make the show a little better, but at the moment it’s just the two.