Working!! [Anime]
WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!
Around January last year, I started to search for an anime that could make me laugh (besides Mitsudomoe Zoryochu which was nearing its completion by that time). I rummaged my hard drive and found an oddly titled anime which piqued my interest.
That anime was Working!! and the rest as they say, is history.
WHAT THE HELL IS WORKING!! AND WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT?
Based on a 4-panel comic strip manga, Working!! is a slice-of-life comedy series that tells the story of Wagnaria (the name of the family restaurant where the anime, for most of the time, takes place) employees’ everyday activities.
Sounds boring eh? Not until you get to meet the different employees whose own unique personalities and quirks you’ll definitely fall in love (if not get addicted to) with.
The Employees
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Takanashi Sota (16)
A self proclaimed “minicon” who is obsessed with everything tiny and miniscule and despises everything that is tall and humungous. He considers everyone above the age of twelve years old to be an adult. This perspective, combined with his straightforward attitude, often leads him to trouble (especially towards the manager and Inami). Despite this, he still regards his co-workers at Wagnaria as dear friends and will go on lengths to save or comfort them when they’re in a pinch.
He got into the restaurant when Popura recruited (it was more of a begging actually) him to become an employee at Wagnaria.
Being small and cute (very, very, very cute), Popura easily won Takanashi’s heart. Takanashi agreed to become a part-timer at Wagnaria with Popura’s minute stature and kawaii-ness as his motivation for working at the restaurant.
Taneshima Popura (17)
A height conscious seventeen year old girl who works as a waitress at Wagnaria and is the sempai of Takanashi. Named after a tall tree, Popura is often mistaken to be a child (usually a kindergartner or middle school-er) due to her tiny appearance. Some of her co-workers at Wagnaria tease her about her height which only makes her more determined to grow taller (often following the unreliable advices of Sato and Soma).
A hardworking person, she occasionally makes clumsy mistakes and is very gullible and simple-minded. She also sports a fluffy hair to which Sato frequently takes out his frustration.
Like this.
And this. Holy cow, someone bring me someone who knows how to do this hairstyle!
Belated Merry Xmas everyone! (And no, “screwing” here isn’t mean to be a lewd thing you pervs!)
GAHD! Kill me now! So Kawaii!
Last 2 pictures above where taken from: http://animehex.blogspot.com/2011/12/working-11-tis-season.html
Inami Mahiru (17)
One of the few anime characters that I know who can keep an innocent face while doing something violent (in this case, punching males to death). Inami is a shy androphobic girl who punches any men who get very near her since she believes that every man out there is bent on attacking and killing her. So technically Inami’s punching is a result of a self-preservation instinct rather than being innately violent. Her fear of men came about as a result of her father feeding her with false information about men so that she will not marry anyone. Her father even went to absurd lengths to make Inami’s strength grow like putting weights in her school bag which resulted in her punch being very deadly.
As the series goes, Inami begins to develop a crush on Sota and shows her affection to him by, yes you guessed it right, punching him. Later, she falls in love with Sota when the latter confronts her father about making her scared of men. Regardless of what she is feeling (be it positive or negative), she makes this known to Sota or any other men by punching them straight in the face.
And Sota receives her punches almost everyday. Everyday.
Poor Sota. Clearly, love hurts.
Shirafuji Kyoko (28)
Wagnaria’s manager, this gluttonous and ex(?)-delinquent can always be seen eating sweets (usually different flavors of parfait courtesy of Yachiyo) and never doing anything else in the restaurant except for contributing in diminishing the food supplies of Wagnaria. She always gets into argument with Sota, who insists on her acting more of a manager, and Sato, who dislikes her because she always eats the ingredients in the restaurant’s kitchen.
Really not the best way to “manage” the restaurant Kyoko-san.
Though extremely lazy and apathetic, Kyoko’s first priority is protecting his staff, though her means might be a little under-handed and a bit violent too, as she uses her personal gang to exact justice upon those who wronged anyone working in Wagnaria. Personally, I think she is fit to be more of a chief security personnel rather than a manager but really who cares anyway? She’s got her own way of running the restaurant and who are we to judge that eh? The only thing that ticks me off about her is how loyal Yachiyo is to her (yes, she save her from bullies but Yachiyo doesn’t really need to become her personal parfait-machine).
Todoroki Yachiyo (20)
Photo Credits: http://www.zerochan.net/880813
Yachiyo is the beautiful chief of staff (which means she’s like the second in command of Kyoko in terms of organizational) of Wagnaria. A lady with a cheerful disposition, she seems to have sworn and dedicated her life to be at Kyoko’s side every time. So what makes her weird? See the long thing tied at her hips? Is that a kitchen knife? Or perhaps it’s just part of the Wagnaria waitress uniform? Damn no! That’s a fully functional katana and she’s ready to slice you with it when you show the slightest sign of hitting on (doesn’t matter whether positively or negatively) Kyoko. The only visible exception to this is Sato whom Yachiyo considers her dear friend, much to the disappointment of the latter who is very much in love with her. It’s also very interesting to note that Yachiyo’s eyes are almost always closed except for a split second in episode 7 of season 1.
I wonder how the customers feel whenever Yachiyo is the one waiting the table.
Satou Jun (20)
Sanji Satou is one of the two chefs who works in Wagnaria. He suffers from an unrequited love with Yachiyo who apparently can’t take her (closed) eyes from Kyoko without going berserk and slashing everyone around. Whenever he feels frustrated over Yachiyo’s constant Kyoko babble, he unleashes his inner hairstylist and tinkers with Popura’s fluffy hair.
Almost everyone in the restaurant knows of Satou’s predicament and they constantly drop hints to the oblivious Yachiyo but to no avail. To make matters worse, he is constantly friendzoned by Yachiyo herself (to which sometimes he asks her if she is teasing him). He is very sensitive about his feelings for Yachiyo which he clearly shows when he hits Souma when the latter tries to help him with Yachiyo.
Friendzoned
from: http://acertainspasmodicarchive.tumblr.com/
Souma Hiroomi
Souma a.k.a. the wolf in sheep’s clothing, is the other chef in Wagnaria and is known for blackmailing almost everyone in the restaurant. The only ones who are impervious to his evil schemes are Satou and Inami. Aoi Yamada, on the other hand, is the only one person (so far) to be able to backfire his blackmails which left him depressed.
Add to that Aoi’s constant nagging to be his Imouto.
What makes Souma’s character hilarious is that he seems to be spending all his time in collecting information about the other characters (how he collects them is really unknown but he is sometimes shown to be eavesdropping in the conversations of others) which he will boldly use whenever necessary.
Pictured above: Souma talking to Inami. Apparently, Souma has been gifted with “hearing” the thoughts of people (which explains how he manages to extract information from others without meeting them physically).
Yamada Aoi (??)
Though she may look young and innocent, Aoi Yamada is one of the most mysterious (and perhaps dangerous?) character in Working!! Not much is known about her since she often lies about things like her age (according to her she is 16) and true name (her surname maybe an alias according to Takanashi). She came to Wagnaria when Otoo-san brought her from a trip. Apparently she came from a wealthy family as hinted by her school uniform, her haircut (hime-cut to be specific), and her inability to do tasks that is required from her as a worker of Wagnaria (read: cleaning and washing the dishes). She was allowed by Otoo-san to live in the restaurant’s attic. Much to Satou’s dismay, she also steals food like Kyoko in order to eat.
She sees Otoo-san and Souma as part of her ideal family, with the former being Aoi’s ideal father and the latter her ideal big brother. Both, of course, are reluctant with it.
Also, Aoi + Popura = explosion of kawaii-ness.
Chibi!
Otoo Hyogo (not stated)
Wagnaria’s general manager, Otoo is always traveling, not for work-related purposes, but because he is constantly searching for her missing wife who has a terrible sense of direction and thus, can’t go back home by herself. He buys anything related to his wife and comes back to Wagnaria once in a while carrying present (mostly food) to Kyoko. His life is in constant danger due to Yachiyo being jealous of him giving gifts to Kyoko.
Poor guy.
Matsumoto Maya (18)
The “normal” one. Maya is obsessed with normalcy which borders into abnormality. She cares about being normal so much that she separates herself from the others in Wagnaria because she sees them as weird. This, unknowingly to her, makes her a weird person too.
Maya is probably one of my favorite characters because of the way she is portrayed in the show. She is almost always shown in each episodes but never gets a speaking role not until the last episode of (GASP!) both seasons. I really enjoy finding her in each episode which for me is like a game of “Where’s Waldo”.
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Aside from the employees of Wagnaria, we also get to see other characters in the form of Sota Takanashi’s three elder sisters and one younger one.
Takanashi Family
Kazue Takanashi (31)
She is the last lady in the extreme right of the picture above, Kazue is a divorced lawyer who more often than not, uses law books as a throwing weapon and uses law jargons to win in arguments.
Izumi Takanashi (28)
The second eldest sister of Sota, who is shown next to Kazue, Izumi is a writer who always locks herself in her room writing her romance novels. Her room is messy and full of discarded manuscripts. She is very weak and gets muscle ache when she lifts anything heavier than her pen.
Kozue Takanashi (25)
Kozue, shown in the middle of the picture, is a drunkard who teaches Aikido. Always drunk and heartbroken, she is often seen in Wagnaria with a bottle of wine.
Nazuna Takanashi (12)
Nazuna, the one on the left side of Sota, is the younger sister of Sota and is the youngest member of the Takanashi family. Despite being the youngest, she is already as tall as Sota and is shown to be mature in terms of thinking. Sota fears that she will grow to be like her elder sisters (which caused Sota to hate older people) and wishes Nazuna to stop growing.
Characters introduced in Season 2 of Working!! (Working’!!)
Mashiba Twins (Yohei and Mitsuki)
Yohei Mashiba
Yohei is one of the members of Kyoko’s gang and is very loyal to Kyoko. He is unemployed which makes him always available whenever Kyoko needs her. He is shown to have a fang, a silvery long hair and always wears a green jumpsuit (except when he is called by Kyoko to be a waiter in Wagnaria). Kozue develops a crush for him and asks him to marry her.
Mitsuki Mashiba
Yohei’s twin sister and another member of Kyoko’s gang. She works as an accountant and wears brass knuckles on her right hand. She hates her twin brother and always points out that she is better than him since she has a job (an accountant) and can now be considered as an upstanding member of the society. She is also shown to be very fond and protective of Yachiyo.
But we could still tell they are related. Apparently, how to properly enter a place using a door is not learned in their family.
Otoo Haruna
Haruna is Otoo’s missing wife and is shown in season 2 of Working!! She uses the sewers as her navigation which explains why Otoo-san can’t find her.
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On Working!!
Working!! concentrates more on the characters rather than plot to tell a story. It’s one of the few animes where every (and I mean E.V.E.R.Y.) character stands out. I find each character delightful and each of them adds to the color of the show. Working!! pays attention to details which makes me more in love with this anime. There’s so many little things that caught my attention like Inami’s many hairpins per episode and Popura’s inability to pronounce Takanashi correctly (hers come off as Katanashi).
I recommend it to everyone who wants to have a good laugh. With the recent finish of Working’!! (the second season), I hope that another season can be made since the source material is still rich.
