3ET: Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou

Remember, if you see a girl reading alone in the corner of a library, she's your true love.

Studio: Brain’s Base

Director: Miya Shigeyuki (Blood Lad, Buzzer Beater)

Writer: Konuta Kenji (Toshokan Sensou, Dia no Ace)

Main Cast:

Iguchi Yuuchi as Usa Kazunari

Hanazawa Kana as Kawai Ritsu

Character Design: Kouno Maki, Kurita Shin’ichi

Music: Matsuda Akito (D-Frag, Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou)

The plot for Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou feels like it was picked out of a bin of anime tropes. An average [middle school/high school/college] student's parents [move away for work/die/are kidnapped by aliens], forcing him to move into a [apartment complex/hotsprings inn/brothel], where he meets a [tsundere/wild/quiet] girl and wants to [get to know her better/kiss her/give her the dick]. Meanwhile, he has to deal with his zany roommates like the [male pervert (young)/male pervert (old)/creepy girl/creepy guy/slutty girl/slutty guy/drunken older woman/drunken older man/grandma type/grandpa type]. Now, just because a show's basic storyline is this bland doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. But, it's a bad sign.

And the worse signs came once I spent some time with these characters. With the exception of one, Mayumi (the drunken older woman), no one has any character besides what I described above. Oh, they have character traits up the wazoo; the pervert is a masochist, the slutty girl is manipulative, the grandma type is... a grandma, and the main quiet girl, Ritsu, likes books. But, none of them feel like people. They are just cardboard cutouts that get thrown into different situations that are supposed to be funny, but aren't. Mayumi is the only one who feels the least bit human, her romantic failures make her sympathetic, even if her personality makes her a bit less so. Also, her complete shut down of the creepy ex-boyfriend trying to get her into bed with him was great, and was the only time I laughed the entire show. 

The fact that a "Violent Retribution for Accidental Infringement" tag exists makes me want to murder things.
Mostly the people who keep using the trope.

As for the main character, Usa Kazunari, he's a nothing character. What I mean is that nothing he does moves me to feel anything about him. Well, except for his creepy obsession with his female roommate and classmate, Ritsu. Now, I'm no expert in women, by choice, but I would think that if I lived with a girl who ignored me at school and at home, I'd take a fucking hint. Yes, she laughed at his joke, once. She'd rather still rather read books than be around him, and he needs to drop it. I don't care if she's "his type", there are other girls out there who are his type and would actually talk to him. And it's not like he's a complete social misfit. He is seen talking with friends during the rare times he's seen at school. But, if he hung out with his friends or looked for a girl who actually would talk to him, then he wouldn't spend his time hanging out at the apartment complex. Which would mean his roommates and their "hilarious" antics wouldn't get as much screentime. And that just can't happen, because if it did, the show might actually get interesting.

It's not that Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou did anything egregiously wrong. It just didn't do anything interesting. I've seen these archetypes before, and I've seen them done better. The idea of older people guiding younger people not to make the same mistakes they made, could be interesting. And yes, that's the type of show that should be made with a cast like this. Instead, it's a disposable comedy that I fail because I have no urge to see the same show for the eleventyth time.