Mitsudomoe

Mitsudomoe is the stupidest anime I have ever had the good fortune to see. The premise is cliché; the everyday life of three very unique sisters. The art is awful and follows a long line of under-budget slice-of-life comedies that always end up in your computer's recycling bin after viewing. But by some miracle, Mistudomoe is fresh and funny, and will always leave you craving for another episode. What Mistudomoe also is though, is vulgar. It's rude and frequently disgusting, idiotic and atrocious, and violent and inappropriate in any way it can be. That being said you should easily be able to tell it's one ... of the funniest things on TV.

Story: 6/10
Yabe-sensei is class 6-3's new teacher. His class appears normal and easy-going at first, but then to his dismay, he has to control all three of the craaaaziest kids in school who just HAPPEN to be triplet sisters. The Marui triplets run amok through the school and cause everyone problems everywhere. Now, that's about it for the actual story, but whatever segment you watch in Mistudomoe always ends up being laugh out loud funny by the end. The jokes rely a lot on misunderstandings, running gags, and dirty humor. For example, the Marui's father is drawn with a thick black line around him, and the line makes him look extra suspicious. How is this supposed to be funny? Anytime their father tries to do something for them he always ends up getting arrested by the cops. Eventually the joke becomes so frequent you have dialogue like "Sorry girls, I was late because I was arrested three times on the way here." If you've a certain disdain for bathroom humor, I would not recommend this. There were actually a few scenes that made me so sick I almost gagged myself (a shining example is the episode in which the nurse accidentally spills everyone in the schools urine samples on the ground).

Art: 6/10
Oh, well, it's bad. If you're watching Mistudomoe then the visuals aren't your top priority. It looks very basic and some would as far to say it looks generic - but oh the reaction faces. Even if what just happened in the anime wasn't funny, if Futaba (the middle sister) does her euphoric "my brain is dead" face I'd laugh. The emotion that comes out of the characters faces definitely increases the quality of the humor and characters. The art style works for what kind of anime this is, but I think many things could have been improved upon, and if Mistudomoe were re-done the thing that I would ask be worked would be the backgrounds, CG, and overall fluidity of animation.

Sound: 9/10
The voice acting was great! The very main cast was voiced by some pretty obscure folks, the most well known one, who voiced Nagi in Kannagi, is Tomatsu Haruka, who voices Hitoha (the youngest sister) in Mistudomoe. The side cast is blooming with stars, including Aki Toyosaki (Yui from K-ON!), Inoue Kikuko (Lust from FMA:B), Saito Chiwa (Aika from Aria), and last but not least, Chihara Minori who voices Yuki in Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu.

Now onto the musical portion. The opening instantly caught me off guard, all three girls of the main cast could sing so well! The singing and dancing set you up for an exciting episode every time - not once did I skip the opening song. The ending song was rather unfitting though. It's a slow almost melancholic song that doesn't really seem right until the very last episode. Then there's the BGM. Always supplying a chuckle the music ranges from parodies of talk shows to classical music pieces played in incredibly unfitting ways. Since this show uses a lot of slapstick, the sound effects are also an important part. I found the noises that came from whatever always top notch (the blood leaking noises were so silly I got hearty laugh the first time it happened).

Character: 9/10
The "three stooges" concept has been in media for quite a long time and has become so frequent that it's become cliché. I started watching Mistudomoe expecting some ridiculous corny character archetypes, and I kinda got exactly that. No there's not a lot of character development, no changes over time, no sudden changes in character, and so on. What Mitsudomoe has that other shows lack is the application of such poor designs into being jokes themselves. I've already explained the storyline - and if you take it for face value - it's horrendous. Now if you were to take the storyline and combine it with a colorful cast of different personalities bumping back and forth into each other, you'd have something much more interesting. Each side character has his or her little own story, and after the point that they have been introduced they fall back into being side characters - but the thing is that now they keep adding to the story. Whereas the usual slice of life would have episodic episodes of characters and then you'd never see them again, Mistudomoe repeatedly brings back the same characters again and again making a refreshing feel every time they come back.

The cast includes the sadistic eldest sister, Mistuba, the perverted middle sister Futaba, and the introverted youngest sister Hitoha. Their teacher is an unlucky geek, their dad is loving fellow easily mistaken as a pedophile, and their friends are plentiful. There's the pervert, the nice kid mistaken as a pervert, his three female stalkers, the rival girl and her clique, the romantic, the occult freak, the hamster named nipples and the monkey faced kid. The best part about this anime is seeing how each character interacts with another, and every time they do, something ridiculous happens.

Enjoyment: 8/10
I laughed so hard I got sick and had to go to bed for over 14 hours to recover. Or well, maybe I was sick and the laughing triggered my allergies and then I kept coughing until I had to lie down and go to sleep.

Want an interesting approach to something that has already been done, and want it from a viewpoint where it hacks the slice of life genre to pieces? Mitsudomoe should hit right home. The thing is though, if you didn't listen to warning at the beginning of this review about vulgarity and stupid humor then you're going to hate this. Hate it a lot. This is not an anime to be viewed for it's cutesy moments so abundant in slice of life (although it does has some), it's meant to be a hilarious attempt to get revenge upon the predictable slice of life genre.

Overall: 8/10
In short, Mitsudomoe is both great and awful. Plot wise, it's no better than the worst of anime, but the common misconception is that Mitsudomoe is an anime that is dependent on it's jokes for goodness, not it's riveting storyline (for it has none). The way the characters collide with such wit kept my full attention, while the chance of seeing it again kept me watching. The slapstick might not be for everyone though, it's sure to turn off a fair amount of people and I think that's a shame, because I really enjoyed this anime. So if you're interested in a good laugh, just throw on any episode of Mitsudomoe and have at it.

Story:
It is about three elementary school triplets that have three very different personalities and a teacher who teaches all of them. However sadly the teacher barely had any role in this show which would probably have made it much funnier. Near the end the jokes get tiring as they are repetitive.

Art:
Animation is sufficient. The girls are cute enough, the exaggerations for comedic effect were well executed, however predictable and repetitive. If you are into the cute elementary school animation then you will appreciate it, however if you are one of those that absolutely despise the cutesy animation then this is not for you to ... watch.

Sound:
Background music is bearable. They could have really used less silences, because at some points of the show, it just got boring without any background music. (This is hard to notice though unless you pay attention it) The opening song though is very good, and I love the chorus with the dance. Cheers me right up.

Character:
The highlight of the show is the very defined characters, each with their own stereotypical personalities. Once again, it did get repetitive, but there were a diverse amount of characters to show sufficient originality in terms of the comedy of the show.

Enjoyment:
I really am a sucker for comedies such as these. However the problem with this is that the comedy was not very original, and almost every joke was a dirty joke, so you could practically predict every punchline.

Overall:
This is not something that you must watch, but more of something you watch if you are extremely bored. It is not a show to marathon, but to spread out over a long time period so you might forget a joke that they are planning to use again. You might look at this review and think that a 6 is really low, however given that a 5 is average, this show is indeed above average.

As a fan of comedy and slice of life anime, I am pretty surprised at how well-received this anime is. I just didn't find it very funny - for the most part it just grossed me out.

The story? Well this isn't a story-based anime. It's a slice of life comedy, so calling it out on its lack of story would be foolish. The idea is that a nervous new teacher has a class of bratty children to deal with, including three sisters who are sure to give him a hard time. "Hilarity" ensues.

The art and sound are both sub-par. Which is unsurprising from the forgettable ... studio Bridge. I dislike the character designs a lot. They are very unappealing in that they aren't at all cute. They are sort of comedic with some occasionally funny expressions, but not exceedingly. I'm no expert on OST but this left on impression on me whatsoever. The OP is... alright at capturing the tone of the show. So yeah, it's pretty grating and not very listenable. I have no issues with the voice acting - there are a few big name seiyuu's but none of the voices I heard left much of an impression.

When it comes to the characters, I am not a fan either. Some of them have okay personalities, or at least personalities that clearly fit what archetype they should be. But the character comedy was weak. The tropes were set in stone and just sort of acted accordingly. This can be done well but the characters themselves were just not likeable for me.

The teacher is forgettable and just sort of has no spine. He lacks personality. The sisters - I actually find all of them annoying. One is a real himedere, and likes seeing others suffer - but she's often downtrodden herself. Then there is the airheaded one who is also very strong. She is also mostly a nice person, but then is inconsiderate sometimes too? She had the most potential to be likeable, but between doing some physically gross things and just not being helpful I couldn't warm to her. The youngest sister is the worst. She's got a very dark aura, but not in a brilliant relate-able way like Tomoko Kuroki from Watamote for example. She's just sort of... terrible. A very unpleasant character. Other supporting characters are mostly forgettable and not likeable. The boys are pretty much just perverts which is... ugh. And there is the new school nurse who is just a ditz. In a very over-the-top and annoying way. She's absolutely useless, and it goes too far to be funny. I just wound up disliking her. She's also part of the most disgusting scene ever - let's just say it involves urine.

Now I know it seems that I have been overly-critical of these 11-year old characters. After all, they are kids. Kids are supposed to be bratty. Well... Sure. But maybe in a less vulgar way? And maybe they shouldn't all be so consistently irritating? I'm not saying they necessarily had to be cute, but they REALLY weren't cute. At all. They are about as un-cute as it gets. And yet, there are all of these swimming pool scenes, various scenes about getting a bra and boys being interested - I don't really like this aspect of it either. It felt weird to me. I know they aren't babies so it's not exactly unreasonable, but I just couldn't get enjoyment over that stuff that happens in the class at all. Again, a lot of this would be forgivable or maybe even a good thing if it was actually funny. But for me, it just wasn't.

I may have touched on this, but my personal enjoyment was the problem here. It got barely a couple of chuckles out of me. I think I cringed more while watching it. The jokes were pretty predictable and never really caught me by surprise - except for when it got more unpleasant than I expected it to.

Please by all means take this review with a pinch of salt from the fact that I've seen so little of the show. But with these kinds of anime with no real plot, that is less of an issue that clouds judgement. I think this anime has too many overly-positive reviews, so just please be warned that this anime might not be as hilarious to you as some are painting it to be.