Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge: Adventures in Listlessness

Slice-of-life shows earn their following for their charm - the idea that day-to-day experiences can be worthwhile to watch. They prove to us that anime doesn’t need to have guns, death-defying action or big boobs to be entertaining as a medium.

Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge is a lovely evidence to support my argument. While one may brand it as just another school life series, the main character’s what makes it stand out — a young boy invisible and uninterested in a generation craving for adventure and flooded in selfies. Tanaka would prefer to sleep than enjoy being young, though it doesn’t mean he has no friends to speak of. In a way it appeals to a paradox among millenials: the craving for party and “living the life” with the simultaneous longing to cocoon and “chill” if there’s a chance.

Silver Link, known for its fusion of comedy and social commentary, surely delivered with Tanaka-kun. They could even just focused on this rather than having Anne Happy, with this a sure winner than the latter. The source material is decent in its own right, so there’s little effort needed to translate it into something bearable in the small screen. The use of a pastel palette helps to inject life into those scenes that can appear flat on paper.

Another thing to highlight is its restrained use of music and sound. The dialogue is funny enough for you to connect into even if you’re not Japanese. Even a few seconds of silence can be funny as you look into the characters’ expressions and how it’s being framed. In a way it employs a similar technique to Flying Witch, a similarly-celebrated comedy this season.

The manga’s yaoi undertones was a criticism they were able to address. Ohta and Tanaka can be entertaining, but can definitely be a turn-off for a wider audience even if their relationship’s not admittedly homosexual. By giving more focus to the supporting characters they were able to tune the spotlight back to Tanaka — how he interacts with his friends and his involvement with their lives.

I personally enjoy the interactions between Shiraishi and Tanaka. The former’s arguably the reverse of the latter: she spends time curating her image to make herself look good and earn friends in an attempt to reverse her isolationist past. On several occasions Tanaka adorably injects some sense into her head, making him some sort of philosophy machine. Too bad Tanaka is content with himself we can’t expect their pairing to blossom anytime soon.

All good things come to an end they say, and it’s sad that such a good show would have to end so soon. But who knows, with its new-found popularity it might trigger enough demand for a second season. For now, there’s the manga we can follow for more of Tanaka (and his friends’) antics.