And now for something a little different: Otona Joshi no Anime Time is a short series of standalone anime episodes based on a collection of award winning short stories. The title translates to “Anime Time for Adult Women”, which makes the series’ purpose pretty self explanatory. Like many long time anime fans, I would love to see more mature stories about adults beyond high school age. Does Anime Time fit the bill, or is it too skewed toward its demographic for anyone else to enjoy? Having seen the three recently released episodes I can’t say I loved them all, but I will say it was a fascinating experience. Let’s take a closer look!

Yuuge (Supper)

The Premise: Mimi leaves her arranged marriage to find happiness with another man. Her decision leads to a new set of questions and challenges to face.

Verdict: This story was pretty much exactly what I was expecting going in to this. Running away from your rough marriage with a carefree, attractive man felt like pure wish fulfillment for the overworked and underappreciated housewives I imagine the creators of this series are trying to target. I really didn’t care for the notion that this woman could only find satisfaction by taking care of a man, but maybe that’s just me being too idealistic.

Needless to say I wasn’t really relating to this episode, although it was superbly written and I appreciated how honest it was about love, sex and being in a relationship. There was also one great scene when Mimi is waiting for her new man to come home that was incredibly intense and well executed, so I definitely appreciated how well crafted this episode was. Unless you fit the demographic though, I can’t say I would recommend watching it.

Marlin’s Verdict:
Haha! Jel thought he could sneak a Josei themed thread without me, well think again!

Despite my moralistic reservations against someone running away from their marriage, it’s hard not to sympathize with Mimi by the end. I definitely had some incredulous thoughts when Kou likened Mimi to an animal, but once he decided he wanted her to be his woman it was hard not to like the guy. Still, like Jel said, this is obvious wish fulfillment, and it’s still awfully disingenuous of this girl to live with another man and not at least break off her marriage. Who is she, Kim Kardasian?

Jinsei Best 10 (Life’s Best 10)

The Premise: Hatoko is about to turn 40 and laments the fact that most of the ten best moments of her life occurred before she turned 18. She decides to attend a school reunion in hopes of meeting her old boyfriend.

Verdict: I want to find a woman like Hatoko and marry her – does that tell you I enjoyed Best 10 a lot more than the first story? It definitely took on more universal issues, asking questions about identity and being an adult that everyone has to wrestle with. For risk of embarrassing myself, I found a lot of Hatoko’s inner monologue about not feeling accomplished for her age and her view of her friends and co-workers was almost word for word what I’ve said in my own mind at one point or another. This is exactly what “mature” and “adult” content should be. Instead of extreme sex and violence, can we get more honest discussion like this?

Now I must admit being a bit older than our average reader probably had a lot to do with how much I enjoyed Best 10. While the issues at hand are things you might worry about as you’re entering adulthood, it’s told from the perspective of an older person looking back and that was part of why I loved it. Basically, I’m not counting on everyone that watches it to enjoy it as much as I did. But if you are interested in checking out what this Anime Time thing is all about, this is the episode to watch.

Marlin’s Verdict:

I can definitely see However, as someone slightly younger than Jel I definitely havn’t had the life experience to fully relate with this woman. I also found it incredibly strange how well she took being totally duped into sleeping with a sleezy salesman. I guess that’s just how comfortable she is with her current lifestyle, but man, at least be a little angry! It definitely is a memorable event, I just don’t think it’s quite the right memory one would like to have on their best 10 list.

Dokoka Dewanai Koko (Not Somewhere, But Here)

The Premise: Maho is a wife and mother trying her best to support her family, even if they don’t appreciate it.

Verdict: You want Slice of Life? This is a REAL slice of life, and despite focusing specifically on the daily struggles and emotions of the modern mother I still found it emotionally draining. I don’t think you can say you totally understand how Maho feels unless you’re in her position yourself, but you can certainly sympathize with her. At the very least I’m going to make sure I give my own mom a big hug the next time I see her.

My only complaint is the positive message toward the end doesn’t quite balance out the soul crushing majority of the episode, which would be fine if that was the message but I don’t think that was their intention. This was my second favorite of the batch though and it’s worth checking out, just don’t expect to be in a very happy place when you’re done.

Marlin’s Verdict:

This was honestly the most depressing thing I’ve watched in a long while, and I just watched 5cm per second on Crunchyroll just a few weeks ago. I appreciated how real it was to the struggles of a modern japanese housewife, but it just made you unable to feel anything but pity for what this woman had to deal with. It kinda makes me wonder how well my parents get along themselves. Not that it could be this bad, but just the idea of her discontent being successfully masked to the college aged son really made me think.