Project #142.5: Gochūmon wa Usagi Desu ka?/ Is the Order a Rabbit?

Hey guys Nituj here welcome to another side blog the blogs between the blogs. It has been a long time since I’ve done a side blog but today we’re doing one and it’s another quick review of an anime. Today I’m taking a look at “Gochūmon wa Usagi Desu ka?” Which when translated means “Is the Order a Rabbit?”. Ever since I admitted to putting this anime on my Top 11 animes of 2014 list it’s been an anime that everyone wants me to talk about and in all honesty I don’t know what you guys want me to say. Well since the second season is coming out I think can give it a shot and talk about it. The series is based off a manga written by Koi. It’s a slice of life series that just follows the day to day life of girls living in a lovely European inspired town. The anime was produced by White Fox (Steins; Gate and The Devil is a Part-Timer) who really stepped up their game last year by making three animes with one of those animes being 24 episodes and they all aired in back to back seasons. That’s pretty impressive for studio. Well enough praising the studio let’s do a quick review of this anime.

Like I said before I really don’t know what you guys want me to say about this anime. It’s not bad and it’s pretty straightforward. The main character is a girl named Cocoa voiced by Ayane Sakura (Gasper from Highschool DxD) who likes cute things and is quite an airhead. She’s new to town and has come to attend school alone without her family. She partakes in a homestay program where she meets Chino voiced by Inori Minase whose family owns a coffee shop called Rabbit’s House. In order to pay for her accommodation and repay their kindness Cocoa decides to work at the coffee shop with Chino in the hopes that Chino will come to think of Cocoa as a big sister and start calling her that. And they’re not alone. While working they meet other characters such Rize another worker at the Rabbit House whose dad is a soldier thus she has a military like personality however she’s quite feminine. Cocoa’s classmate Chiya who also works at her family’s coffee shop which seems to serve traditional tea and ice cream and finally Sharo, Chiya’s childhood friend who attends the same elite school as Rize on a scholarship but is quite poor. She has a slight fear or rabbits and her emotions differ depending on what blend of coffee she drinks. She also works at a coffee shop that seems specialize in herbal tea. The whole anime just focuses on these 5 friends serving guests, hanging out together, and just living everyday life. Nothing more nothing less.

That’s pretty much the anime right there and surprisingly it works. This anime is similar to Dog Days, Lucky Star, and Hidamari Sketch it’s relaxing, fun, and cute to watch. There’s no major conflict or world needs to be saving dilemma it’s just life of cute girls doing cute things and enjoying life. Like I said in my Dog Days reviews sometimes it’s nice to take a break from the good vs evil, philosophical and deep anime and just watch an anime that helps you relax. I always enjoyed coming home from a long day of work and just relax while watching this anime and not having to worry about a major conflict popping up. Well I guess this anime does have one conflict that needs to be solved. The town they live in is very popular for its rabbits and a lot of the shops have rabbits as their mascots. For the Rabbit House they have Tippy an angora rabbit (it’s a real thing look it up) who is secretly Chino’s grandfather. Through some strange event that happened in the past Chino’s grandfather’s mind somehow wounded up in the body of Tippy and the anime never explains how this happened. They hint that Cocoa had something to do with it when she was little but the anime never really goes into much depth about it and it’s not really one of the focus points of the anime as Chino keeps this a secret from everyone. Another fun fact about this anime is that all the characters are named after different types of coffees/teas. Like Cocoa is obviously cocoa, Chino is cappuccino, and Rize and a few of the other girls are named after some popular teas in Japan which I’ve never heard of. You can tell Koi was very passionate about coffee/tea and knew what he/she was talking about.

The anime has a number of funny moments whether it be the comedic routines of Cocoa and Chino or the comedic antics of the other characters you’ll find something in this anime that’ll make you laugh. On top of that the animation is amazing to look. The colors are so bright and vibrant and the town looks so real and beautiful that I honestly want to visit this town. It looks like such a nice place to visit and vacation in for a few days. The music is also quite nice to listen to. Seems to be heavily inspired by France and other European countries. Finally, the characters are all interesting with each one having their own personality that makes them both cute and funny. There wasn’t a single character in this anime that annoyed me.

If I was giving a score to this anime I give it a 6/10. While not big on the plot the anime makes up for it by having fun, cute, and enjoyable characters placed in normal everyday situations that creates a relaxing environment for you to enjoy. If you’re looking for an anime that doesn’t require much thinking and just want to watch something to help you relax just like the animes I mentioned before I say check this anime out. It’s an anime that brings out the moe in you. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.

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