Corporate drone Sasaki-san is a good senpai. He also loves cat videos. Now that he’s “staring down the barrel of his forties,” as he says, perhaps it’s time to reward himself humbly for his hard work and get that pet he’s always wanted to have! Just his luck though that he ends up with an imperious talking Java sparrow whose demands are out of this world (literally) and tastes, on the expensive side to say the least. Can Sasaki-san really afford this kind of animal companionship, he wonders? Good thing it turns out that Piercarlo (or Peeps) is actually a sage from another world who can magic our aging drone to said isekai, breathing new life into him as he starts up an import/export business. Sasaki also inadvertently makes a contract with his feathered friend, which unlocks his ability to learn magic. Things are going along quite nicely until one night, in a darkened alley, Sasaki sees a woman being attacked and intervenes by throwing magical icicles at her assailant. But rather than being freaked out by his strange ability, the woman is mildly peeved that a “wild psychic” had to come to her aid. And so begins Sasaki’s journey with the top secret government agency that regulates people with special powers! 

Phew! That was a lot to cram into the premiere, which is probably why this is a double-length episode. I’m usually pretty skeptical about these long premieres, but in this case, the length is warranted in order to get to the major genre shift as laid-back isekai is mashed up with superpowers, urban fantasy, and likely a dash of conspiracy too. This genre hybridity is the strongest point of originality that this series has to offer, and it’s enough to distinguish it from the reams of other isekai this season (and every season!). There’s some good writing and editing here, as this episode adapts pretty much the entire first volume and the first few chapters of the second volume of the manga, without missing any vital bits and instead resolving the inconsistent pacing and lack of narrative focus in the source material. The animation is quite nice, on the stronger end of the spectrum for isekai specialists Silver Link, with some decent layouts shining through now and then and good backgrounds, particularly for the parts set in Tokyo. The gentle humor gives it warmth, while having an older protagonist makes for a nice change. I’ll admit, I dropped the manga after two volumes due to the pacing problems and more importantly, the extremely lazy and mildly disturbing characterization of the female characters, including the underage neighbor girl, and I can see hints of what caused me concern back then peeking through here (the girl’s crazy eye of jealousy and blushing around Sasaki; agent Hoshizaki’s OTT-ness), but I’ll be giving this adaptation a couple more episodes to see how the writers handle this other glaring weakness of the manga. After all, they resolved the pacing issues, so they may inject the female supporting characters with a bit more multi-dimensionality too (and edit out some of the cringe). We can hope, at least! Final verdict: I’ll give this until episode 4, when the anime should have moved beyond where I got with the manga. 

Sasaki and Peeps can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

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claire

Claire is a cultural historian by day and anime enthusiast by night. She grew up watching anime without knowing it, misspent her youth studiously avoiding it, and finally came to her senses a few years ago and embraced it. Mostly because of Boogiepop, Kensuke Ushio and Naoko Yamada.

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