Episode Reaction: The Bookstore in the Electric Town (デンキ街の本屋さん) Episode 1 – Quirky & Cute

Before I begin this post, I'd like to inform you of the current plans for the blog. I will be doing episode reaction posts again. However, I'll only be doing them when I feel like I have to say something about the particular show. Also, I will be doing my first episode reaction for every fall 2014 anime show I'm watching this season. Otherwise, expect some thoughts about the show from my first and mid-season impressions posts.

Today is the first anime of fall 2014 that I will be reacting to! It's been a while since I've made an episode reaction post, but here it is! We will be talking about episode one of The Bookstore in the Electric Town, otherwise known as Denki-gai no Honya-san. It's funny how I still haven't posted my to-watch list for fall 2014, but I'll probably publish it . . . meh . . . tomorrow maybe? I don't know. But anyway, here are my thoughts.

The show is, as its genre suggests, a slice of life—and man is it the epitome of the genre. I have no real personal qualms with slice of lifes: they're supposed to be about a day in the life of the characters. Nothing less, but can be a little more than that. Only in some cases will you see the slice of life genre fused with something other than comedy and/or romance, such as Aria (sci-fi) and Kids on the Slope (music). So what does Bookstore fall under? Nothing but slice of life and comedy. For the first episode, it literally takes a day of the characters' lives and shows it to us. As such, I expect the rest of the episodes to follow a similar formula and ultimately just be an episodic show. Not that that's a problem, of course.

The characters are pretty bland, I'll admit. I've seen these archetypes before, and Bookstore doesn't really try to change anything here. Of course, it's only the first episode, so I'll give it a chance to tell its tale. Anyway, the characters are:

Sensei (no, really, that's her nickname)

Director (no, he's not Glasses-kun . . . and don't ask why he's licking his lips)

And that's about it. Now you may be asking, "What about the others?" Answer: I honestly don't remember their names. So I've taken the liberty of giving them a nickname. They're as followed:

Shark-chan (I contemplated Rin's long lost sister, but 1. that name's too long and 2. Rin already has a little sister)

Blonde Chick ('cause, you know . . . she's blonde)

Ero-girl

NOW it's Glasses-kun.

And a few others I'm too lazy to find images for. Again, these characters are pretty basic, but I am finding enjoyment from Director-san and the guy who has his eyes hidden. Otherwise, characters are pretty uninteresting.

Since there's not much of a story to talk about at the moment (or maybe even ever), let's just discuss the jokes. In the above GIF of Director-san and Glasses-kun, I got a good giggle from the former licking his lips, just because he's a "pervert" in a unique way. You'll just have to see the episode yourself to get what I mean. Another joke was when Blonde Chick looked at a BL (boys' love) manga.

I-i-i-i-it's . . . a-a-a n-n-n................ (Literally what she said.)

The last one would be of Ero-girl and her weird fetish for ero magazines. Like, look at this:

This got a little chuckle out of me, but was not at all laugh-out-loud funny. If this is what the quality of the jokes are gonna be for the rest of the series, it's gonna get repetitive real fast. But again, this is only the first episode.

Music-wise, I'm pretty disappointed. The ending song was cute from what I can remember of it, but the opening and OST are really forgettable. I can't remember anything. Maybe a few more episodes of this show will make some soundtracks more noticeable for me, but otherwise . . . not really pleased.

For the meantime, I say you don't watch Bookstore. Not because it's bad or anything—in fact it's harmless—but I'm yet to see anything of value you can get from watching this. I'll give it the three-episode rule before deciding whether or not to continue this show. And with that, take care, otakus!