A girl walks around a sepia-tinted city. She sees a white rabbit on a manhole cover, the Cheshire Cat on a screen, and an arcade. “Auld Lang Syne” randomly starts to play. Renji works at the arcade. The girl turns out to be a foreigner. Renji takes pity on her after seeing her strive for hours to snag a koala in a crane game, and wins one for her. They struggle to communicate. Apparently, the girl’s family is British, or at least they’re supposed to be. They mostly SOUND like your average, heavily-accented, Japanese attempts to speak English, though credit to the girl’s VA for making a valiant effort and occasionally almost sounding legitimately British. Anyway, the whole episode is basically Renji and the girl communicating awkwardly while bonding over playing arcade games. Oh, and by the very end, we find out her name is Lily.
So, first off, the whole time, the unknown but apparent age gap between Renji and Lily bugged me. I mean, it’s anime, so it’s totally possible they’re the same age, but it sure looks like she’s fairly young and he’s at least in high school, which makes the prospect of a romantic relationship uncomfortable. That niggling issue aside, the episode is fine. It introduces the premise (a foreigner hanging out at a Japanese arcade) adequately. There’s not much in the way of a plot, and character development is naturally hampered by the communication barrier. I can’t strongly advocate for this one, but overall, the premiere was enjoyable enough that I’ll give the show at least one more episode, so you might want to try it too.
Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl is streaming on Crunchyroll.
[…] Read More […]