Working!!! Episode 1
After four years and the end of the source material, the Working!! anime returns with Season 3 (Working!!!) and yet another director.
What They Say:
The family restaurant WAGNARIA stands by itself in Hokkaido. Get ready to dish up some wacky comedy together with Sota and his coworkers.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Starting off with a POV introduction courtesy of Taneshima, the cold open reminds viewers of each character’s defining eccentricities and connections. Yamada’s still breaking dishes and deflecting blame while being yelled at by Takanashi, who harbors a creepy obsession for small, cute things; Inami’s still afraid of men but getting better at pulling her powerful punches under Takanashi’s tutelage; Satou’s still taking out his frustration on Taneshima’s hair over his unrequited love for the clueless Todoroki, who is still doting upon the apathetic and ever-ravenous Manager, who’s still eating parfaits; and Souma, like the intro, has still got the digs on everyone at the family restaurant (but unlike the intro is using the information for potential blackmail). It’s a playful intro and welcome back to Working!!!, a truly underappreciated comedy.
The first episode after an extended absence is bound to be a reintroduction. It’s been four years since the second season of Working!! wrapped up, so it’s assumed viewers need to re-familiarize themselves with the Wagnaria family. I didn’t expect much else besides aptly executed jokes drawing from the usual well of material: Taneshima’s shortness, Yamada’s desperation, Souma’s disturbingly accurate but not-so-menacing extortion, Manager’s single-mindedness, etc. However, Season 3 is already planting seeds, and boy oh boy are there a lot of loose strings dangling for ADD-riddled cats like myself.
Until she’s distracted by food, Manager show’s a glimpse of understanding something concerning her role in the love triangle in which she’s unknowingly involved. But Working!!’s always been great at redirecting focus and using vague hints for springboards to better situational punchlines. So we’ll see if anything’s really sinking in and if it will lead to resolution or misunderstanding. I trust the series to make the best out of it either way. Runaway Yamada continues her quest to adopt family members to support her, while her actual brother continues his search for her — just missing her around corners, on the other side of hedges, etc. In the same vain, this episode starts to set up Otoo’s reunion with his long-absent wife. (She literally went out for milk from the corner store one day and has been lost getting back ever since). I’m convinced she’s a ghost as of this episode, and she’s also the subject of one of the best one-liners in the episode.
But the main chunk of this episode involves a little girl who once got left at Wagnaria by her mother. It happens again, this time as an excuse to have Takanashi squee over and give his total attention to the adorable child hanging literally on his back while working. This ends up simultaneously casting light on two other connections. Taneshima’s starts to feel insecure about her senpai-kouhai relationship with Takanashi, because she’s no longer the shortest thing in his life (as evidenced by not receiving as many affectionate head pats). The situation also showcases Inami’s maturity, both in accepting Takanashi’s oddness, respecting his intimate but non-romantic relationship with Taneshima, and not calling the cops whenever she sees him with a small child.
In Summary:
It was a surprisingly solid episode all-in-all. If I’d been directing, the cold open would’ve been a one-shot — one that didn’t betray its own POV awesomeness by switching to third person at two points. But this isn’t a show about being artsy, it’s a show about bringing stock jokes and situational humor to life via sprightly voice acting and writing that has a ball playing off the characters’ relationship webs. There are callbacks-a-plenty for those well-acquainted with Seasons 1 and 2, pop-up gags that make your gut hurt, and subtly implemented actions alluding to previous episodes that defined character rationale. Working!! gets a third director with debuting Yumi Kamakura for Season 3. So far, the execution of the anime seems like it’s sticking more closely to the 4-koma structure of the source material than the other two seasons and might even be on par with Azumanga Daioh.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Xbox360 running Crunchyroll app via HDMI to Toshiba 40” LED 1080P HDTV. Sony 5.1 home theater system.
