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The anime is about the everyday lives of this little girl named Suguri Kinoshita. Her life is not so normal though because she lives with a magical pet named Kappy that has magical powers. The anime mostly revolve around normal everyday stuff like baking, cleaning or playing in the park and it has normal everyday problems like a balloon stuck in a tree, doing your chores or having fights with your friends. These problems are resolved though by having Kappy use his magic powers. The anime usually ends with a happy note after Kappi saves the day but other times, some trouble brews because of ... his interference. There is nothing groundbreaking in the anime though. The story is simple, there is no strong conflict and the flow of the events is predictable. It’s just a very bright colored five minute anime about fluff episodes.

As the anime progresses, it introduces new characters with magical powers. The episodes usually involve the new characters, magical as well and related to Kappi, stirring up trouble and having Kappi use his powers to save the day. Once again, there is nothing really huge. It’s light hearted and cute. I can’t really expect much from a kiddie show that runs for five minutes.

The characters in the anime are all fluff as well. They’re friendly and nice and caring like what you’d expect from a kiddie anime. Some characters are a bit unruly but the cuteness still dominates. The two main characters are pretty bland. Suguri is the typical girl that happens to have a magical pet. There is just enough of her personality to fill in the gaps of the five minutes. The same goes for Kappy. He’s laidback, cute, funny, and loves to eat donuts. That’s basically it and they remain the same from start to finish.

I do admire how much the anime has achieved in the span of five minutes. Including the OP and ED, there is actually a decent amount of story in the episodes. There’s a conflict and a decent resolution to them. Don’t expect much though because the anime caters for kids. Everyone in the anime is friendly and the anime is predominantly made of cakes and butterflies.

This is a simple movie. There’s really nothing big going on in this anime. It’s a straight forward movie about the Yamazaki family during the 39th Showa Era or 1964. This was a significant year for Japan because this was the year Japan hosted the summer Olympics. This was a big thing for Japan because this was more than just the Olympics. It was also a way to reintroduce themselves to the world after cutting themselves off during WWII. The setting of the anime isn’t really that important and only subtle 1964 references are thrown here and there. I wish they did add more though ... because the movie is too plain and too straightforward.

The anime is about the family dynamic of the Yamazaki’s. It’s a laid back story full of typical family problems. It has the over protective dad, the rebellious children, the caring mother and every other typical family issues. There’s nothing grand in the way of the story and nothing really remarkable happen. It just nicely painted how a typical family interacts daily and it shows just how much they love each other. If I’d break the story to bits though, there’d be two plot points to the movie.

The first one, and the one that had more focus, is about the daughter of the family going through her rebellious phase. It’s nothing remarkable. Yuuko Yamazaki, seventeen years old, is in love with this guy and she goes out with him without telling her family. They started worrying when she would say “I’ll go to the library” and then come home late into the night. Given the era, it’s natural that her parents would be mad because seventeen year old girls should be proper ladies and girls shouldn’t date so young. It’s pretty understandable for her age though to act out against her parents and do things she isn’t allowed to do. Nothing blows your parents top than your daughter dating an older guy.

The Yamazaki family is patriarchal household and the father heavily scolds his daughter. The mother keep things calm and the daughter would just brush her parents off. Like I said, nothing awesome happens and the plot is pretty predictable.

The second plot point is the changing times and the father’s craft work being threatened by change. His son insists to move on with the times but the father doesn’t budge. I guess this is where the 1964 setting is more prominent as well. Aside from the Olympics, the rise of western culture (the Beatles and the Ivy League fashion movement) and the introduction of bullet trains were among the changes happening during those times. The traditional era is slowly being invaded by technology and global culture. The lives of the Yamazaki family are being affected by this monumental change.

The 1964 reference is pretty small though. This was a missed opportunity because this was a nice way to spice the anime up a bit. 1960s was also the decade Sakamachi no Apollon is set in and it was able to use it to give the anime some personality. It featured Christianity, foreigners walking the street and the heavy influence of the western culture. In Shouwa Monogatari, everything is pretty unspectacular. Sure it had bullet trains, the Olympics and western influences but it doesn’t really transport you to the era. It’s most just there as a backdrop for the story to function in. It’s such a shame because anime movies need to separate itself from regular airing series and they do so by being grand and awesomely conceived. This movie had none and it felt I’m watching a low budget anime series from 2002.

The story made a nice comeback in the end though and the theme of family togetherness is nicely displayed. It doesn’t matter if your parents yell at you or if your daughters are turning into a grade A slut. At the end of the day, they’re family and family stick together and weather any storm. The story was sweet and I appreciate the subtle approach to something so simple and very relatable. That’s the main strength of the anime as well. The way you can relate to the characters and the family dynamic makes it a treat to watch the anime. It also proves just how strong a family bond is that viewers can relate to a 1960s family.

4/10 “It’s plain and plain comes off as weak and weak is not really something you’d want to watch.”

This anime is about the everyday life of a cat god who was kicked out of heaven because she is a lazy bum good for nothing. Her parents asked her to go down to Earth and stay there. She now lives with a human girl who runs an antique shop. The anime is mostly about the cat god and her fellow gods spending time together and getting into some trouble along the way.

People would’ve probably just passed through this anime and didn’t give it a second look. I kind of understand because this anime is a bit dull and plain. An anime released in 2011 ... shouldn’t be dull and plain yet this anime remarkably is. There is nothing in this anime that you haven’t seen before and almost all of its elements worked against it.

The one big problem about this anime is that the first episode introduced all the characters and it already had an already established status quo. The cat god, Mayu, was kicked out of her house in heaven but the next scene we see is her in a house with a girl. So there was a time leap and the anime kind of just told us that the events in between wasn’t important but it actually is. Out come a bunch of characters who casually speaks to one another as if they’ve been introduced already but they weren’t. The anime immediately told viewers that this is what we have: a bunch of characters talking to one another. It’s now the viewer’s job to catch up with the anime. Most first episodes start out strong with an exciting premise but this anime opened with a yawner that will hardly interest you. The one thing that made me want to watch about this anime though is the way the characters interact with each other. I’m not saying it’s great but there is some pretty impressive blending here. Also, I don’t judge on first impressions. “This anime will get better” is what I said to myself.

This anime will only start to get good though after the third episode. Like I said, the character interaction is it’s only saving grace. The story is non-episodic and they come off as a bit predictable. Why watch an anime if you already know how it will end? This anime is of the Comedy genre and it’s flat. It most certainly won’t make you laugh. Believe me, I tried and forced to laugh but it won’t. It’s just too simple to even try and make you laugh. Even the characters are a bit flat because they didn’t have a proper introduction. There are a lot of negative aspects in this anime that it overwhelms its good parts. This anime is just meant to be watched for simple fun and nothing else. Oh, don’t marathon it as well. It won’t do you any good and you’re just punishing yourself.

The episodes have some basic set up to them and they are mostly divided into three types. The first type is episodes about a random god and some trouble it causes on the characters. Just like the first episode, the characters are scrambling to chase off the god of poverty that wandered into their town. The second type is the simple kind of episodes where the characters just hang out and do random things together. There are episodes like telling ghost stories or helping a mangaka with her work. I like these episodes because the characters play off each other and their individual charm gets to shine for a while. The third type of episode is about Mayu and her relationship with Yuzu, the human girl who owns the house she lives in. These episodes are particularly deep because they explore some dramatic moments of their relationship like the incidents after Yuzu’s parents die and the events on how they first met. This is the special part of the anime but you first must not over think the anime and just have fun while watching.

The character design is simple. I actually like this kind of design because the simplicity makes the characters more pleasing to look at. If you look closely too, some of the characters have some big boobs on them. I love how some fan service is able to make its way on the character design. It has some “moe” on some of the characters as well. They were cute and they were paired with some cute voices. The outfits are pretty nice as well. There is a large range of outfits in the anime from simple shrine maiden clothes to some frilly dresses.

Overall Score

6/10 “It’s a pretty nice anime if you want to just sit back and relax and just enjoy some silly random fun.”

The anime is OK. That’s it. I’ve said all I can say about this anime and it’s up to you if you will like it or not. There are some nice things here. In the overall look of things though, this anime is sadly forgettable.