Wagamama High Spec

oh my gosh, this was adorable! yeah, sure, episodes 1 and 11 are really just fan service episodes which aren't my cup of tea, but still!
Edit: I didn't even know this was an ad for a visual novel when writing this, but I still agree with what I said.

Story (9/10): irrelevant. these are four girls and one unseen guy working on a manga as student council. each 3 and a half minute episode goes as such: 2 minutes on the episode's premise, 1 minute on the credits, and 30 seconds on the "sort of explain" segment.

Art (9/10): the designs are cute and very open to ... expressions. everything is rather colorful.

Animation (9/10): fluid, quick, dramatic, hilarious movements. the first part is animated as you'd expect. the credits, while technically presenting the wrong profession, is always a joy to watch as it's basically showing some of the animation frames while they were being drawn on paper in an arts and crafts world. the "sort of explain" segments are done with a paper cutout style to them and are quick paced.

Sound (7/10): the music is fun, but it's the voice actors who really sell it. they are full of energy, even Toa's bored tone has some in it. the voices truly match the characters!

Character (8/10):
--Mihiro: the energetic one who tries to make people's day. she's optimistic but still has a grasp in reality and is usually the voice of reason. when she isn't, she's simply just happy. she's usually the focus main character.
--Toa: probably my favorite. she's not really cold and logical so much as she's so smart that she's lazy. that being said, present her with some good looking potatoes and she'll do anything.
--Kaoruko: she's clearly a competent person, but she tends to have a low grasp in reality. her fantastic and bizarre ideas are usually a result of a refusal to look at things plainly.
--Ashe: can she eat or what? while not as bizarre as everyone else in the group, she more so adds to the crazy of other characters, making the other's jokes that much more funny.
--Kouki: we never see him as he's a running gag in the series. for those who've watched "Star Trek: Enterprise", he's the cook. as fan service focused as episode 11 was, it did have a pretty funny gag with him.

Enjoyment (10/10): not everything needs to be some fantastic plot driven show. if the focus of the show are the jokes, then that's what the producers should be working on. this was funny, and that was the goal.

I'll be honest with you: I only picked this one up because the title was fun to say. That, and it was only going to take up five minutes of my time per week (actually closer to four).

Judging by the promo images and such you'd expect this short to be heavy on the ecchi side of things but we don't get that until episode 11 and that one episode where the A/C broke. Other than that this is just standard slice of life/ cute girls doing cute things. No need to go out of your way for this one folks.

Although, I'll make the mostly throwaway ... comment that the ED is actually pretty good. One of the characters is supposedly a manga artist, (although that's just tossed out there once or twice) so the ED consists of pencil sketches of the characters in a carnival that is made up entirely out of drawing utensils set to a really solid and upbeat song just blasting in the background.

Great, but should you watch this just for a pretty good ED? Fuck no. Why are you even still reading this? Go outside and start making better decisions than I have.

Wagamama is a very hard show to review, because there's not much to review- because it's really just a teaser for the VN source. From the anime standpoint, it's a slice of life about four girls that make up the student council. It's a mix of comedy and a bit of ecchi, with the girls randomly undressing and such as apparently the actual male protagonist, one of the heroine's brother no less, never shows up. There's not much to review because each of the twelve episodes is two minutes long, meaning the combined length of all the episodes is equivalent to at most one episode ... of a full length show. If you're looking for a show with any depth or character development, this is not it. This is just some cutely drawn girls having fun, albeit very briefly.

Animation:
The animation is rather basic with simplistic detailing and limited backgrounds. The coloring is bright and pretty saturated, fitting given the light, playful mood. Though the characters are nicely styled, the show shoots itself in the foot; the VN-styled "stick" figures featured in the post-episode sections are drawn in a vastly superior style to those in the anime. There isn't any action in the show but there is a bit of ecchi as mentioned above. The ecchi is rather light and concentrated in specific episodes.

Sound:
The show only has one rock-based OP/ED that is obviously created specifically for the show. Don't expect anything special for the BGM, as nothing is particularly memorable. There are four primary VAs in this show, other than Mai Gotou (who I haven't heard from in two years) they're all pretty new to me. They do a fair job though there's not a terribly lot of depth for them to bring out in the first place.

Story:
What story? This is essentially an episodic slice of life that just shows the student council girls hanging out in various situations. Some are more humorous or ecchi than others, but in general it's average material at best. There isn't any real tension or central plot line; it's one of those shows where you could randomize the episode order (other than the first and last episode) and still have it feel just as contiguous.

Character:
Again, there's not too much depth to bring out in the characters given that there's only 24 total minutes of run time. In all that, I got that Toa is a bit more of the quiet type than the rest; otherwise, they're all just energetic, youthful girls. There are some nice interactions but no development given that the "protagonist" main male character isn't present.

Value:
Unless you want to play the VN or unless you absolutely have nothing to watch, I'd skip out on this teaser; there's just so much better stuff out there than this.