First Impression: SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary

Kobato and Osanai have a deal. The socially awkward boy and quiet girl will help one another “become ordinary.” To do so, they will follow a series of rules for what it means to be an ordinary person. Having been classmates in middle school and now attending high school together, the two will work together to achieve this goal. But it’s not easy to blend in when you’re special, and Kobato is just that. When a friend asks him to help him find a missing item, he deduces not only where it is but who hid it, while Osanai explains the motive. There’s something special about both of them, and they may not be able to achieve the normalcy they want after all.

A Production I.G. version of Hyouka? That’s certainly what comes to mind in the first episode—a series that’s a little more serious, a little grimmer, and a little less sparkly than the beloved high school mystery series, as would be expected from this studio.* And an episode, by the way, that’s very compelling, even though by its end I still didn’t know anything. Well, that’s part of the mystery! If you read the quick summary of the series out there, you’ll actually find out a little more about Kobato than you discover in episode one, a little bit of the reason why he seeks normalcy. Without that, it’s interesting to consider what’s going on with him; what happened in his past that causes him to desire this and who is he exactly? The opening animation pictures him as a wolf, for instance—is that literal? Figurative? Besides that mystery, the other compelling part is his relationship with Osanai, which is already very cute. The closeness among the pairing is already a lot of fun. As expected from Production I.G., the animation is excellent (really cool that they chose to animate at least this opening episode in 2.40:1). I like the slightly dark look to the series, which adds a weight to it that some recent detective shows don’t have, even those that turn up the stakes. There’s drama here and something deep within Kobato’s past (and perhaps Osanai’s as well) that’s calling to us simply by the animation style alone. I’m eager to find out more about both and to see their journey as they apparently solve mysteries. SHOSHIMIN has me hooked.

SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

*A “grimmer” version of Hyouka? Well, that’s to be expected when the source material was written by Hyouka’s author, Honobu Yonezawa, and the episode was directed by Mamoru Kanbe (Elfen Lied, The Promised Neverland), as Twitter explained to me after this review dropped.

Twwk
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