3ET: Kiniro Mosaic

Stabbing you in the neck with a hairpin is how Japan says hello.

Studio: Studio Gokumi

Director: Tanaka Motoki (Debut)

Main Cast: Nishi Asuka as Oomiya Shinobu, Tanaka Manami as Cartelet, Alice, Uchiyama Yumi as Inokuma Youko, Taneda Risa as Komichi Aya, Touyama Nao as Kujou Karen

Writer: Ayana Yuniko (Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko)

Music: Kawada Ruka (Senran Kagura)



Sometimes, the three episode test just doesn't work. A show may have three episodes worth of really good content, and then twiddle its thumbs for the rest of its running time. For example, a show Kiniro Mosaic's writer adapted a couple years ago, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko. The show I'm writing about here has that in common, both start out good. However, unlike Denpa Onna, Kiniro Mosaic show begins to lose steam by the end of the first episode, and has come to a complete stop by episode three. In a related story, I failed Kiniro Mosaic.

I honestly loved the first fourteen minutes of this show. We meet Shinobu, who is staying in England for a while with the Cartelets, friends of her family. The Cartlets have a daughter, Alice, who is initially shy but eventually warms up to Shinobu. We see the two become friends, bonding despite having trouble communicating, as Shinobu's English and Alice's Japanese are not exactly up to the rigors of regular communication. By the end of the first half of the episode, Shinobu is leaving England having made a lifelong friend in Alice. It's all very cute and very pleasant to watch, especially when accompanied by its pretty soundtrack.

Friends forever.

Then, we return to Japan. Shinobu is starting high school, meets up with her friends, and is trying to decipher a postcard Alice sent to her in English when we find out there is a transfer student. And it's Alice! It's at this moment that the show begins to stop being interesting. Instead of being about two girls exchanging cultures and becoming friends, it's the basic show about a group of friends being friends. There is no plot to drive the comedy, or what passes for comedy in this show, and it becomes boring. Not even introducing a friend of Alice's from England can breathe life into this show after it has gone down this route.

I do need to comment on the English, which while I appreciate the effort, was lacking. Now, as a native English speaker, I am going to be judging this show harshly. But, I'm sure Japan does the same thing when Japanese is spoken in any Western media, so turnabout is fair play! Tanaka Manami is not fluent, in fact she only studied English for a year abroad. And she sounds exactly like someone who studied English for only one year abroad. I'd like to think that finding a voice actress who is truly bilingual isn't too much to ask, but apparently it was in this case. As to why this is important, it's jarring to see a blonde girl, who is supposed to be English, speaking with wrong intonations and a pronounced accent. It takes me out of the show and while I do appreciate that they found someone who can speak English decently, it wasn't nearly good enough.

"We're not supposed to add anything to this show, right?"
"Nope."

I wanted to like Kiniro Mosaic, and to be honest, it's fine if all a person wants is watching a group of cute girls be cute to each other. But, I didn't enjoy it after the first episode
. Many of the jokes seemed stale and predictable. I didn't feel that happy when Alice showed up. More than that though, is the feeling that by expanding on those first few minutes, the show could have been a lot better. Maybe if they had expanded it to be the entire show, I could have forgiven its linguistic faults. I would have watched two girls have a character arc where the understand each other and become friends. That would have been a show worth watching, but it's not the show I got.