4-nin wa Sorezore Uso wo Tsuku

4 uso is easily the hidden gem of the season. Airing on a packed day like Saturday led it to get overshadowed by other titles, but this was one of the funniest and most enjoyable rides of the year.

Japanese comedy isn’t for everyone. A lot of times it simply doesn’t hit, but on rare occasions, like 4-uso it’s genuinely hilarious. The whole story revolves around 4 girls at a school who have massive secrets they’re hiding from each other. While on the surface they’re having normal middle school girl interactions, on the inside they’re having these hilarious monologues and working out how to keep their ... true identities from one another. The show is really easy to digest, knows what it is, is confident in that identity and does a great job of presenting Japanese comedy in a digestible manner for western audiences. I found the show to be a nice de-stresser after a long week and absolutely loved the girls’ chemistry and antics. Seeing them gradually building up the confidence to be honest with each other was really nice.

The plot is pretty non-existent in the show, it’s a flavour of the week type of anime with some generally consistent themes, but no deep story or anything. But, the gags and skits are more than enough to keep you satisfied.

I think this is a perfect show for people who typically don’t think anime is funny, but still want to give comedy a try. It’s got a bit of magic to it that’s really hard to describe and needs to be watched to be believed. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

4-uso gets 8 UFOs out of 10.

Secrets. Lies. Everyone has a tale that they don't want to tell to hide it away from the world for 1001 reasons. Be it being a human or an extraterrestrial, a boy or a girl being in the suit of the opposite sex, straight or transgender, this is what makes the world revolve in its oddball-shaped mess of a planet that we call Earth. But in this season, there's a show like it: mangaka Madoka Kashihara's 4-nin wa Sorezore Uso wo Tsuku a.k.a The Little Lies We All Tell, that showcases the bizarreness between hiding what's true to the heart as opposed to exposing whatever ... is appropriate in reality. And with just 2 volumes in circulation, one would expect that shows like this needed more time to get noticed, but apparently by the grace of the anime gods, this feels like a breakneck speed of fast adaptations being cash cows, but I guess that there's a silver lining of interest, especially in a very diverse and stacked season such as this.

The series title, also literally translated to "Four People Lie in Their Own Way", it's exactly what the show is going for with its absurd comedic gimmick of ordinary people, but unordinary in their own way of fashion: the loli alien Rikka, the glorified former ninja Chiyo, the scrupulous psychic Sekine, and the tomboy-ish real male Tsubasa/Tsuyoshi. All 3 girls and a boy roam together in their school being the best of friends, but also at the same time, maintaining their posture that they are just as ordinary as they come, forebearing their "true" origins, almost akin to playing Among Us where all of them are sus in their own way. Be it preposterous or full of shenanigans, these 4 characters try to subvert one another into revealing who they really are, while navigating and trying to negate any suspicions along the way to protect themselves and the friendship between the 4 of them. And as weird as it sounds like, it can be funny, or constantly feeling like a hit-or-miss affair.

Each of the 4 characters complement one another by the way of their own personalities, and as eccentric as it is, it's hilarious to see them be hard-wired towards the perception of others, sometimes overthinking to the point of situations like "the total destruction of the world". No doubt that this is a psychological battle of wits and valour to try and see who can get the most suspicions right, but knowing when to take a step back relinquishes the know-it-all minds of the people, preserving the friendship as such. Alas, as much as I would want to like the antics here being in the vein of the superpower-like school setting that's pretty much filled with gag humor, the comedy felt dry sometimes and didn't quite punch the way that it should. Nevertheless, I can understand that "comedy is subjective", and this to you, may be good or bad depending on your watching experience with the show.

Studio Flad is a rather miniscule studio with 4-nin being the 3rd show in its line-up (Winter 2018's Dame x Prince Anime Caravan with Studio Pierrot's production assistance, and last Fall's Shin no Nakama with WolfsBane for production cooperation), so it's obvious enough that they had to have some form of external help, and it came in the fashion with Studio Pierrot and WAO WORLD for production assistance. And for the most part, though bombastic as it comes, it is serviceable and looks decent to the eye for the unkempt weirdness that is its style for flattery. Same goes with the OST, it's really fine though, but nothing to write home about.

There's a reason why the anime community have developed this thinking of "turning off your brain for enjoyment", especially for shows derived from source materials that are unlike the usual fashion of expectation. And while 4-nin is a show where either you find the comedy good or bland, it's really up to personal preference, and this is something that you must gauge whether if this is the type of comedy that you're looking for. While I can say that it's just a fine show, some might find it better (underrated even), and some will find it boring.

What can I say? If Pop Team Epic was already weird enough to begin with, why not works like these? It truly boggles the mind.

I misjudged this anime, I was suspicious from the start.

The first thing is the strange character backgrounds, really very strange, starting from aliens and others.

The second thing is Tsukkomi, or the person who responds, among these 4 characters only 1 responds the most, even though sometimes it's not expressed directly, but it's quite boring.
Yes, who else if not someone who can read everyone's mind? Among the other strange characters, only the mind reader excels, and who gives a lot of Tsukkomi to the other characters' behavior.

In my opinion, if it's like this, it's better to watch Saiki Kusuo, with the same power of ... being able to read minds but with better storytelling and comedy. compared to this one, it's just all girls, and for me this is very boring.