This week in Shorts we get a healthy dose of lab coat moe from Aiura, service industry espionage in Sparrow’s Hotel, and Muromi-san confirms that birds, no matter how legendary, are brainless and annoying.

Aiura

Recap: KanaKana’s enthusiasm nearly makes her late for school. Iroha High School apparently has some oddball teachers.

Jel’s Thoughts: This episode was further proving my theory that Aiura is some kind of technical demo, possibly to pitch this as a full length show but more likely to show off what this relatively new studio is capable of. The animation work was pretty great, particularly the scene with the teachers where they went as far as accounting for the light coming in between the leaves of the trees. They also continue to do a great job maximizing character development in the tight time constraints, with Misuzu getting her lab coat (and looking slightly reminiscent of Nichijou’s Sakurai sensei but not nearly as adorable) and sneaking in the bit with Yamashita sensei coming in late.

Quick voice acting note: We get a double dip of Yukari Tamura in this week’s shorts as she voices Misuzu as well as her regular gig as Muromi. In previous seasons I’d joke that she’s slummin’ it, but as I’m enjoying both Aiura and Muromi-san now I’m thinking maybe she knew something we didn’t.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: Aiura continues to be the prettiest short I’ve watched. I wonder if these shorts will ever be edited into longer episodes. It would be neat to see if that as the weekly format leaves the animation staff with plenty of of time to work on a small piece of animation. I can’t help but wonder how much worse this would look if it were released as 30 minute episodes instead.

Sparrow’s Hotel

Recap: An undercover inspector arrives at the hotel but she can’t hide from Satou’s figther’s intuition.

Jel’s Thoughts: The glorious stupidity that is Sparrow’s Hotel continues! I really love the straight man guy in this show. His reaction to the inspector asking him out was pretty funny, as was the whole joke that she was fooling no one at the hotel. Also I have no idea what CUTE IS JUSTICE means but I feel like that should be a meme.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: Justice? There is no justice here!

Muromi-san

Recap: Muromi’s friend Yeti finds a harpy while training her katana skills and brings it along to meet everyone. Muromi learns the hard way that you can’t fight the food chain. If you want to learn more, look it up on wikipedia.

Jel’s Thoughts: Another great episode from Muromi-san as the parade of mythical creature friends has expanded beyond the ocean. If you don’t find the idea of a Yeti taking a trip to Kyoto and becoming so inspired that she takes up crafting katanas amusing, I can’t help you. Harpy was appropriately obnoxious and I found it funny that the bird character is so dumb, even though all the other legendary creatures are perfectly normal. Joke of the week though goes to Hii-chan popping in with her little scientific notes, especially in the beginning as she is quickly deleted like the old Microsoft Office paperclip assistant guy.

On a more technical note, if you want a good example of how Muromi’san’s sense of humor is different than other crazy, over the top comedies there was quick scene in which Takurou gestures with his hand and accidentally hits Muromi’s breast… and that’s it. Other than a half second of embarrassment, there’s no extreme reaction and subsequent slug to the face you might expect. I’m pretty sure it was a joke referencing Japanese comedy duos, but in the context of anime comedy it’s refreshing. Just another little example of the easy going and natural humor that Muromi-san manages to pull off, even with its ridiculous characters and plot lines.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: These food chain jokes amuse me more than they should. I love how the protagonist solves the issue by feeding the stupid harpy. I am continuing to love how this anime can be absurd and laid back all at the same time. The protagonist has just kind of become accustomed to the fact that mermaids show up and antics ensue. The mermaids themselves don’t think anything of it. Muromi-san creates a great atmosphere. One I like even more than anything that has come out of this seasons high profile anime.