My Senpai Is Annoying

Episodes 1-2

What the hell? Before I sat down and watched the first two episodes of My Senpai Is Annoying, I had been feeling particularly drained and exhausted from the everyday struggles of adult life. But now I have a huge grin on my face and my heart feels full. How DARE this show make me feel positive when I'm supposed to feel cynical and jaded about the real world!

Futaba's senpai may be annoying to her, but this show is anything but annoying to me. Two episodes in and already this show oozes so much likable charm from such a relatively simple premise. I appreciate the growing number of anime that have been coming out in the past couple years that focus more on young adult life, but what happens during that in-between phase where you're transitioning into the realm of adulthood? Futaba is a small presence that is fighting very hard to make her voice heard in a big world, and I genuinely did not expect this series to take advantage of her small character design as a metaphor for that growing struggle. I think we've all gone through that at some point in our lives, yet the show isn't overly cynical and almost everyone's intentions in the series seem good so far. You can still see yourself rooting for Futuba to power through the inevitable grinding of sales work despite the more laid-back tone. The show seems to have a solid grasp over the emotional beats it wants to hit in between scenes, often dictated by the music which surprisingly isn't always played throughout these two episodes, especially during moments where we need to let a genuine emotion sit in. I like a show that has a good sense of control over itself without juggling too much. What we have here is a solid slice of life with a few dashes of real-world existential relatability and a splash of romantic comedy antics. I would have been fine with one of those things, but I'll happily take a solid balance of the 3!

The only real complaint I have across these two episodes and potentially with the overall setup moving forward is that sometimes it feels like the show confuses the concepts of child-like with childish. Futuba's childish dispositions and interests in non-adult things can be endearing at times, and I actually find those elements a bit relatable as someone who is into things that I know a lot of other adults might not typically be into (i'm 28 and I still wrestle with the desire to occasionally buy a happy meal toy as well). However, when she is straight-up spoken to and treated like a child with things like the aggressive head pats, I feel like that's a bit much (it also borders on sexual harassment when you consider the actual age of all of these characters). Hopefully they get a better handle on riding that line as the series goes on because aside from that, I have very little to complain about. For a show like this, I'm not looking for anything overly complex or philosophical. Give me those relatable moments of feeling small in a big imposing world. Give me more of those cute character moments and snappy comedy. It's a crazy world out there and I think 23 minutes of wholesome every week is just what the doctor ordered!

Rating:

My Senpai Is Annoying is currently streaming on Funimation.