July 08, 2018

One Room



What....did I just watch?

Logging in to Crunchyroll revealed some new shows so I randomly picked a show that was at Episode zero. 

I perused One Room's blurb and frankly read too much into it. 
 You are the protagonist. A new project in virtual anime from SMIRAL Animation that also brought you the "Anitore" series and "Makuranodanshi." This time, the project is about 3 stories that develop in your (one) room.

From that straightforward discription I somehow thought this was going to be experimental story telling. While it kind of is, it's less My Dinner With Andre' than How I Met Moe'. It says right there in the blurb 'you are the protagonist'...and indeed Episode zero involves "You" (presumably a mute) answering the door to find Yui Hasanaka, a young girl who asks "You" to help her study for her entrance exams.



The episode then proceeds to be a montage of her being...disturbingly...Moe'. By the time the show's four minutes was up I was thinking that Yui may need therapy. There's a LOT of codependency there. 

It then dawned on me that there may be more to this show, because I never even made it to the refrigerator when a glaring inconsistency emerged:

Yui is from the country and is completely bewildered by life in the most pleasant and resident-friendly big city in the world. She's in need of remedial tutoring for her college entrance exams. She's a helpless waif...out of her element. 

And yet....




She's frickking DOXXED you!

She specifically says that she learned that "You" are already going to school that she's set her sights on. She "pulled strings" to ensure that her apartment was right next to yours, and the first thing she says to "You" is that she needs help studying. She's obviously pretending to be a hapless, nonthreatening love interest.

And then I began to wonder if this series could be dark urban horror. She could be some sort of preadator or something. Heck all we know is that "You" are at the school she wants to go to...what if "You" are a teacher and this is a blackmail gambit. 

Hell, even if, as seems likely, "You" are a student, this is Anime... in the next episode she could reveal herself as a cyborg recruiter for the secret magical giant robot corps fighting the entropy squid beasts from Dimension X.

Anyway, it seemed that she's obviously up to something, so as I was wrapping up the review, I went back to look at the page to see if there was any indicator of the genre.

I then beleatedly noted that this was episode zero ...of season two.

So;. I checked and got halfway though another episode...

...and I learned a few things.

1: Episode zero....(of season two) is a montage/ recap episode of the first four season one episodes.


Groundhog Moe'


2: Season one was pretty much like this episode...but much more leisurely paced.
3: "You" are probably a rat bastard because the first season seems to involve three girls with four episodes per girl.
4: There does not appear to be any deeper plot here. The girl does not appear to have any hidden agenda. The girl just needs a writer.
5: I probably read too much into things.

This appears to be a dating sim for disabled people. That is, if they are quadriplegic or suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, they don't have to furiously left click to breeze past annoying dialog to get to the se...er...PLOT. Furthermore, if they suffer from anxiety or depression they are spared the trauma of making dialog choices. 

I suspect that this is what it would be like watching a play through of a dating sim on you tube, the main difference being that it is only in 4 minute long chunks.

Anyway. 

This not my cup of tea. 
I can't recommend it.

I note though,  that I've now wasted 5 times the time I lost watching the show writing a warning about it. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Doki Doki Dating Club.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Jul 9 04:57:13 2018 (PiXy!)

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