ANIME REVIEW | "Expressive Oota" Takes Teasing Game Too Far
For the past few years, some of my favorite rom-com anime have involved teasing. Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out, Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, and — of course — Teasing Master Takagi-san have all taken the art of the playful jab and crafted something fun and beautiful out of their stories. Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota, a new anime series based on the manga by Fuyu Azuma, attempts to go down the same route as these three hit shows. However, there’s a problem with this new one: it’s just downright mean!
Our titular characters, Kawashida (Akane Fujita) and Oota (Kyohei Natsume), are polar opposites. The former shows very little emotion, whereas the latter is just exploding with expressions. They’ve known each other for a long time, to the point where Kawashida starts having feelings for Oota. However, Oota would rather spend his time getting a rise out of Kawashida, using pranks, games, and other sorts of things to make her show any sort of emotion. However, no matter what Oota does, Kawashida doesn’t change her blank face whatsoever.
One of the biggest problems with Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota is one-half of its title characters. While Kawashida is shown to be a kind and quiet girl, Oota is — to put it bluntly — an asshole. Whether it’s playing a game of Old Maid, making a springy prank for Kawashida to open, or just outright trying to scare her, Oota finds some sort of pleasure in getting the girl to show some sort of emotion. And when he does it, I can’t help but feel outright terrible for Kawashida.
Throughout most of Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota, the former is presented as this kind girl who’s minding her own business. She studies hard, enjoys talking with her friends, and even interacting with Oota by her own accord. And her reasons for interacting with Oota are solely because she likes the guy, something she outright admits — to his face! — in the first episode. His response: pure ignorance.
And honestly, what does Kawashida see in Oota? All he does is try to push her buttons, and not in a fun and innocent way. Oota goes to great lengths to get her to make her sad, scared, mad, and upset. Do you notice one emotion missing from that list? That’s right: never once does he try to do something that would make her happy. Hell, even inviting Kawashida to his home is all a plan to frighten her with a horror game, along with some badly planned jump scares.
There are reasons why the other teasing-influenced series work so well. Teasing Master Takagi-san is about two kids competing with one another, whilst their romantic emotions slowly grow. Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro is about a girl helping a guy grow a spine, which, in turn, the guy starts to help her rediscover her passion for judo. Even Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out has a good plot, with a woman trying to get a man to go out and see the fun that’s around him, rather than him staying at home, gaming, and interacting with nobody!
What sort of layer of wisdom does Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota have? Honestly, it doesn’t exist here. All this show is about is a guy bullying a girl. And there’s nothing cutesy about the way Oota treats Kawashida. Even when the series attempts to tone it down and allow Oota to be nice here and there, it doesn’t help that he goes right back into the cruel antics that he does. (It also doesn’t help that Oota’s voice actor, Natsume, just sounds so arrogant and annoying every time he opens his mouth.)
It’s a shame that this is Studio Polon’s first crack at taking control of an anime production. Known for their assistance on series like Blue Box and Kaiju No. 8, Polon’s work on this show demonstrates why they don’t necessarily care about the story either. The colors are bland, the animation is stiff, and even the scenery is as average as one can get. But even with this low-quality production, it feels too good for a show that’s this bad.
There are far better anime about teasing to watch. I mentioned three of them in this review; twice, even! Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota doesn’t deserve to be placed next to them. Oota is awful, Kawashida looks like an innocent bystander, and the antics get repetitive even before the first episode finishes. Take my advice: just don’t bother with Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota. There are far too many bullies in the real world to deal with, so why would we want to waste our time watching an animated one?
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Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota can be viewed on Crunchyroll, and has been licensed by Crunchyroll. Episodes 1-9 were observed for review. Promotional consideration provided by Crunchyroll.
