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!!WIP!! Analysis/Review of Smiling Friends (TW disturbing content)

Smiling Friends

A 17 episode [adult swim] show that aired on April Fools Day, 2020. The show is rated 8.5/10 on IMDb and has an anticipated second season planning to air in 2024.

This will mostly be a review, but I'll try to analyze as much as I can along the way.

Table of Contents

First Impressions

Characters

tbd

First Impressions

Smiling Friends is about a pair of coworkers/friends who's job is to make people happy! With a cast of wacky coworkers, customers, and other silly side characters, Pim and Charlie do their best to give as many smiles as possible!... Kinda. When I was first debating watching this show, I believed it was going to be a bit of a cringe watch. Like many adult swim shows with very goofy characters, I wasn't expecting much from them. But I was very pleasantly surprised when I started watching it! What I found wasn't an obnoxious adult show, but a surprisingly well-natured comedy. It's still an adult show, so there's blood and deep topics in it, but they're genuinely funny without making fun of minorities or being offensive. As far as I'm aware. (I am a country pasty boy so I don't know every cultural offensive implication that could be made.. I am quite desensitized.) Smiling Friends has come to be one of my favorite adult shows. It means a lot to me, so I knew I had to make a post about it!

Characters

Let's get right into the fun stuff, shall we? There are four main characters: Pim, Charlie, Alan, and Glep. I'll be touching on only these four and maybe a side-rant about one or two others. I'm not including the boss since he isn't the main focus of any episode and I don't like him anyways :)

Pim: Pim is one half of the pair the show focuses the most on. He's an optimistic, hard worker who rarely ever gives up! He cares for his friends and does his best to make them happy and proud! He isn't without faults though, as every good character is. He's a bit of a forgetful klutz that makes plenty of mistakes, but it's all in good faith. Pim, being the happy punching bag in this adult show, easily became my second favorite (Alan is my first, but we'll get to him soon). He represents everyone's inner child in the cruel world that we call home; that last ounce of hope that the world will be ok. But of course this wouldn't be a good adult swim show if he wasn't often disheveled by unlucky occurrences, right? So, he is! Pim is a refreshingly realistic inner child! He gets down sometimes from the stress and gets his ass kicked metaphorically by all kinds of things! But despite it all, he wouldn't be a inner child without the unwavering determination to set things right in the world. THAT is Pim: the unwavering inner child we all have.

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Analysis of Love Stage!! (TW SA)

Love Stage!! A 10 episode (excluding OAD) BL anime published by Kadokawa Pictures Inc. and aired in 2014. Rated 4.6/5 on Crunchyroll and 7.3/10 on IMBd

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. Art/Animation 2. Plot 3. Characters 4. Sexual Assault 5. Conclution/TLDR;

ART/ANIMATION

With most BL animes I've seen (though rarely finished) their art is spectacular! It's colorful, bright, and fun; perfectly appealing to the target audience of female adolescents. Love Stage!! is no exception to this. Though what makes LS stand out from the rest of them is the animation. Most BLs these days are otome adaptations.. Which, while not lacking in style, the animation is quite lackluster. This is where LS is unique to this genre*. The art style is still that sparkling colorfulness that burns your eyes if you look at it too long, but the animation is perfectly fitting and smooth. It's truly an anime, unlike otome remakes! (Dramatical Murder excluded..) If there's anything I can compliment this anime on; it's the art/animation that fits and appeals so well to young girls. * When I say genre, I don't mean just BL! I mostly am referring to BL targeted towards preteen/teen girls.

PLOT

There's not much to say about the plot, honestly. It has it's loopholes, but I'll cover that in the "Issues" section. This is just my summary of the anime. Sena Izumi is a shut-in otaku who's hellbent on becoming a manga artist. His only two set backs? His family and lack of skill. Everyone in his family is in show-biz; his mother is an movie star, father is a singer, and his doting older brother is a rockstar vocalist. Izumi has always been shy, and this was only solidified by a wedding commercial he acted in by chance when he was young. During the commercial, and while dressed as a girl, he meets Ichijou Ryouma; a soon-to-be super star. Ryouma calms Izumi's nerves during the shoot and falls in love. Years later, the company who shot the commercial wants to do an anniversary shoot and invites all the previous cast to shoot it. Ryouma is insistent that Izumi is there to act, or he won't be there himself. Eventually, the two meet again. Ryouma is stil under the impression that Izumi is a female until Izumi's brother exposes him in jealously*. Ryouma, in disbelief and shock, snaps at Izumi and insults him before running off. Fast forward a bit and the two make amends and agree to become friends (after Izumi's SA**). The rest is casual character development with Izumi's endeavor of becoming a manga artist sprinkled in. * Izumi's older brother is basically in love with him.. icky. ** Yes, Izumi was SA-ed by Ryouma and is a second time after they become friends. Both will be addressed in detail in it's own section.

CHARACTERS

Man, have I got A LOT to say about the characters... I'll go through the important ones one at a time. Sena Izumi Sena is, in my opinion, a bit of an annoying character trope; whiny main character with unrealistic aspirations. There's not much to say about him except his horrible stereotyping of otakus. They way he's portrayed is very obsessive about a particular kid's show anime girl. Throughout the anime, Izumi's older brother convinces him to do things with merch. This gives the view that otakus are obsessive nerds who are constantly thinking about a specific character. This is no where near true and it's infuriating that something like that is being pushed onto younger girls. Ichijou Ryouma I hate him. I could write an entire thesis on this man being a terrible person, but I'll cover most of that in the "Issues" section. Ryouma is yet another whiny character. This seems to be a trend. It's mentioned early on by Ryouma's agent that he's a very honest person, though a little TOO honest. It was disappointing that this wasn't developed much throughout the anime, I think it would have been great for character development! Ryouma is rather bland, in all honesty. He doesn't have any discernable hobbies or interests besides Izumi. Another impossible standard for young girls. Sena Shougo Izumi's older brother. Doting older brother... VERY doting older brother. Shougo gives me the ick with how loveydovey he is with Izumi. Throughout the anime, he is consistently stalker-ish and jealous. There's not much to his character except doting over Izumi and being really annoying for Rei. Sagara Rei The ONLY sane main character in this anime. Not only is he the only sane one, but he's the most realistic. Rei is a tough-love sort of person, especially when it comes to Izumi and his dream. Rei often berates Izumi for being so stubborn towards a dream that will never happen. This is not the way to go about it, but his reaction to Izumi's persistence is refreshingly realistic. Even when Izumi ran away and ghosted him, he was genuinely worried and did everything to find him. (Thanks Ryouma for being distrustful even then) Another plus about Rei is his relationship with Shougo. It's mentioned and showed a few times that Rei and Shougo have something going on... The two are often seen together casually in the episodes and seem rather close. The two have known eachother a long time and it shows. Rei is openly bisexual. This plays a part when Izumi realized he likes Ryouma and asks Rei for advice. Rei offers magazines and tips for Izumi, which is SUCH a comforting gesture in this anime full of horrific stereotypes and normalizations.

SEXUAL ASSAULT

I saved this for last because I was excited to write this bit... There are countless issues with this anime, but I decided to keep it minimal and only address the one that stood out the most to me. This anime is guilty for normalizing/romanticizing SA. When Ryouma first learns Izumi is a boy but feels no different, he visits Izumi at his house to try and convince himself not to love Izumi. By feeling him up. It gets very intimate and Izumi is very obliviously NOT into it. Thankfully, it doesn't get far and Ryouma leaves even more confused. The second incident was when Izumi was staying over at Ryouma's house while he ran away from home. Not only did Ryouma not tell Rei he had found Izumi, but he forces himself onto Izumi. When Izumi dejected says he doesn't care what happens to himself anymore, Ryouma CONTINUES! Only when Izumi starts weeping does he stop. This is horrific in many different ways. Not only does this romanticize SA by having it be a leading factor for Izumi's decent into love (which in it of itself is not a far cry away from a type of stockholm syndrome..) but it also normalizes it. It gives the impression that this sort of thing happens often, especially with people we love. Putting this view into a young girl is terrible. Many animes are guilty of this, but Love Stage!! is especially.

CONCLUSION/TLDR;

I hate to say it, but I would recommend this anime to a seasoned anime enjoyer. I would NOT recommend it to someone new to anime; it would shock them away from anime in general. For those who know anime and it's cliches, it is unfortunately a good cringe watch. I've almost finished my 4th watch of it and the only thing it has going for it is the reactions it gets out of me. The SA scenes are hard to watch, but other than that it does what it set out to: getting an emotional reaction from viewers. In conclusion, Love Stage!! is a terrible anime that doesn't deserve the ratings it has. I would rate it 2 stars and 3/10. It only gets points for Rei and his relationship with Izumi's brother.

If you enjoyed reading my review, please consider reblogging, liking, or even requesting something for me to analyze next! Thanks for reading, this was fun to write!