One of these days, Doga Kobo will once again decide to adapt source material as good as Nozaki-kun… but it is not this day.

You know, this episode was actually pretty okay until it got to the final scene and I realized/remembered that it was a romance series. I wouldn’t say anything about it up to that point was terribly clever or original, but both of the leads were perfectly tolerable, and it’s always cool to see a slice-of-life piece set in the office rather than in high school or even college.

I was worried at first that the same joke would be repeated over and over again, beating the whole “This lady is short, this supervisor guy is tall, isn’t that set-up hilarious?” joke like a dead horse, but in fact, the comedy parts, while not outrageously funny, didn’t all center around size jokes. Granted, it only took two minutes and thirty seconds exactly for Igarashi to glance at one of her office colleagues and wish that she too were not only taller but also better stacked (I’m getting so tired of this in anime, as if all women are walking around silently comparing breast sizes), but as a whole, the episode was fine – for the most part, a lot more slice-of-life than comedy actually, which I appreciated.

Then the final minute happened and the show lost me. C’mon now, all I wanted was a nice office series about two workmates and their fellow colleagues in sales, just living out their lives as Igarashi learned the ropes of her new job and Takeda, being the super nice guy he genuinely seems to be, helping his junior out. Dear anime (and media in general), repeat after me: it’s fine for a main male character and a main female character not to get together. I promise. Romance doesn’t have to be your main hook, or even any hook at all. Wow. I know, right?

I can’t say exactly why this aspect of the show bothered me so much – after all, there’ve been other romance anime I’ve watched and loved – but for whatever reason, it felt like a totally superfluous part of this show, and I immediately lost all interest. This of course isn’t to say that it’s a bad series, or that other people won’t enjoy it; however, any desire I had to watch a second episode vanished at the premiere’s conclusion. Make of that what you will.

Score: 5/10