Common Name: Blend S
Score: 7/10, 4/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life, Romance
Summary: Always feared for her cruel-looking eyes, Sakuranomiya Maika worries ceaselessly that she'll never find a job, and thus will never be able to gain the funds to travel abroad and see the world. As chance would have it though, the manager of a specialty cafe has been looking everywhere for a girl like her. With her naturally sadistic glare, Maika would be a perfect fit for Cafe Stile, a restaurant that caters to the desires of otakus of every color, since they already have the staff necessary to please the Tsundere and Sis-con enthusiasts. Now all Maika needs to do is get used to the idea of verbally abusing and harassing customers when she would rather overcome the social impediment that is her inability to look happy and amicable. Still, working for an Italian manager might give her the experience and funds necessary to make her dreams a reality.
Review: Calling Blend S a "problematic" anime would be a good first step at addressing the issue that is this show. I say this because, on the one hand, Blend S is a legitimately good comedy. It has a few running gags that define each character for the duration of the show, gags that are rarely monotonous and offer two, distinct looks at who these characters are. What's more, to increase their likability, it also goes to great lengths to set up scenarios that allow the characters to really grow or express who they really are. So, in other words, this is something of a god-tier character comedy worthy of all the praise it can get. On the other hand, however, Blend S also features a lot of topics and material that ranges from morally questionable to outright offensive. On average, these sensitive and divisive topics are generally played off as, "well, that's just anime for you" kind of stereotypical comedy and they mean very little in the long run. Yet, at the same time, these issues do eventually compound when you start to think of the anime as a whole--killing a great anime with a thousand stings--assuming one of the more problematic gags didn't kill your interest in the show then and there. So, like I said, "problematic" is just a good first step to describing Blend S and why I'm not particularly inclined to judge those who tabled this show.
OK, I might judge you a little, but I definitely won't hold it against you...probably.
It really just depends on what did it in for you.
Love it or hate it though, it can't be denied that this show got A LOT of attention and for good reason. While the general premise is a fairly simple one that's been seen dozens of times already, it is far more engaging than the rest because of its multi-layered characters. To elaborate, the main push of this show is that the cast of characters all work for the same restaurant together and thus have to deal with each other in a variety of different scenarios. The premise is thrown for a loop, though, when it's made clear that this restaurant is basically just a fetish cafe. No, I'm not exaggerating. The Cafe Stile, a quaint little cafe owned by an Italian weeaboo, essentially functions as an otaku's paradise where they are served good food by a collection of waitresses who appeal to various stereotypical fantasies. The main girl of the show, Sakuranomiya Maika, is hired as a waitress purely on the manager believes that she will be the perfect "Sadistic" waitress due to her characteristic ability to look like she's always glaring or looking down on others. Along that same kind of screwed up logic, the diminutive Hoshikawa Mafuyu is hired on as the cafe's little sister character even though she's 20 years. Hinata Kaho was hired on as the shop's tsundere because she's just kinda awkward around people. Amano Miu, a published doujinshi author, is hired as the seductive elder sister character because she's trained in hyper-sexualizing characters already. And lastly, Kanzaki Hideri is hired on as the "surprise" idol character in spite of being a guy...kinda.
More on this walking, talking trigger warning later.
In case the developing trend is not initially clear, the main push of this show's comedy lies in the fact that none of these characters really fit into their roles perfectly. Maika is actually a kind and caring person in spite of her cruel gaze. Mafuyu is very much a responsible adult who is too old to take shit from people who treat her like a kid. Kaho is way too air-headed and honest to actually fit the role of tsundere. In this way, Blend S builds its comedy from that simple fact. At the same time, however, there's a kind of meta-comedy to be had from all this absurdity, in that the show means to say the cast of characters are more than just tropey stereotypes typical of most anime. At the same time, however, it can't be denied that they do fit those roles to a certain degree, giving credence to the manager's decision to hire them. So, because of this forward-backward, do-they-don't-they sort of gimmick, the comedy of this show can be understood, analyzed, and explained entirely through the juxtaposition of how the cast plays their assigned characters and how they trip up from time to time since they are more than just their characters.
Trippy, I know.
This kind of "characters that are more than characters" concept really comes together, though, when we get to see the cast just being themselves. Over the course of the show, we eventually see Maika and crew transcend their roles and become caring, funny, and complex characters that are just hard to hate. In these scenes, we get to really know the characters--their loves, hates, hopes, and dreams--we get to see all these things realized and expressed, if only for a moment. For example, one of my personal favorite moments of the show was watching Kaho get some real talk out of Mafuyu, a character who is typically very tight-lipped and terse. In this moment, we learn all about how Mafuyu wants to teach kids, in spite of her size, all because she's already getting a taste of that dream by helping Kaho study. While the scene is certainly comedic, it gets to the heart of the character that has been, until now, hidden under layers and layers of costumes and personas that she's put on over the years. And, to be clear, Mafuyu isn't the only one who gets this kind of characterization showcased during the show. While Maika isn't nearly as complex, due to her youth, she is similarly fleshed out because of her desire to see the world and break free from her traditional upbringing--a dream that bears no relevance to her role at Cafe Stile. In this way, the show takes what is already a solid C+, moeblob premise and bumps it up to 11 all because it actually puts some efforts into its characters, making them both likable and believable people.
Unfortunately, the rest of the show just throws all that quality right out the window.
As much as I love these characters and the comedy they provide, I have to say that the secondary push of this show is one of its greatest detriments and speaks to the myriad of other issues I have with what Blend S had to offer. I am, of course, referring to the romantic aspect of this show. I label this particular aspect a problem because it hinges on validating a romance between a naive, 16-year-old, high school girl who wants to see the world and a 26-year-old Italian man-child. Due to how the show is presented, it's very easy to forget how old the manager of Cafe Stile. It is equally easy to excuse some of the scummy things he does, since the show plays it off as the "Oh man, what an idiot" brand of comedy. When you consider the fact that he essentially owns a fetish cafe, has gone so far as to abduct some of his employees, and is kinda taking advantage of Maika's dreams to suit his own professional and romantic desires. Sure, he is basically an excitable idiot who means well, but I found it difficult to ignore that little niggling voice in the back of my head that kept reminding me HE IS 10 YEARS OLDER THAN MAIKA. Even ignoring the questionable morality of that, he is not someone who seems mature enough to handle that kind of relationship, or any relationship for that matter. After all, while the show doesn't touch on it much, he did flee from his home and family to go be a foreign otaku in Japan with no intention of ever going back home. As an adult, that raises a multitude of alarm bells in my head when it comes to romantic consideration. Let me be clear though, this is by no means my biggest issue with the show. This is just an issue that comes up more frequently than any other since it is one of the main draws of the show.
Indeed. The title of "My Biggest Issue With This Show" goes to this little problem.
Now, since I can hear the pitchforks being sharpened already, I'm going to make one thing crystal clear: I LOVE Hideri. My "Biggest Issue" award doesn't go to Hideri herself. No, that award belongs solely to the way the show treats her identity as a joke. It's one thing to be vague about a person's sexuality so as to avoid controversy, appeal to LGBTQ issues in general, or just claim that stuff doesn't matter. It's another to outright mock those issues, and that's exactly what this show does. While I am that I referred to Hideri as "a guy...kinda" earlier, I do actually consider this "trap" character to be a girl. This is because:
A) Hideri is generally happiest when she's considered a girl,
B) Hideri naturally heads toward the women's restroom,
C) SHE PUT THAT SHE WAS A GIRL ON HER RESUME.
Forgive me if I'm going at this a little hard, but this issue is the one that caused me to be actively infuriated with this show. Where Blend S actively treats most of its characters very seriously, giving them complex personalities and paying enough attention to humanize them, it utterly shafts Hideri just for being a character that is likely Transgender. On top of actively shutting down Hideri's every attempt to express that she is, in fact, a girl for the sake of a joke, this show goes so far as to make Hideri's life choices seem inherently perverse or depraved in nature, twisting her natural desire to be recognized into selfish attention seeking. It's nice that we get to see some glimpses at the "real" Hideri over the course. In her more tame, less obnoxiously flamboyant, moments, it's fantastic to see that Hideri is actually a kind and considerate person underneath all that pomp and glamour. That doesn't make up for the fact that her character is basically a slap to the face to anyone who has suffered ostracization for their sexuality though. Honestly, it's dumbfounding to find that kind of insensitivity in a show that has shown its characters a lot of respect up until this point. I guess it just needed to offer some kind of reminder that, in the end, this show was always meant to appeal to people by turning its cast members into walking, talking fetishes.
Well, my anger's gone, but now I'm just depressed.
It really is depressing to have what is otherwise a pretty great and harmless show mired by so many blatantly obvious missteps. I was not kidding or exaggerating when I said this show is a fantastic comedy. Unfortunately, it's all too easy to have comedy go too far and that's what ultimately killed this show for me. Had it not crossed those lines, I would have likely given it a 9 or 10. After all, the show was generally well paced, well animated, had a solid aesthetic that offered some amazing visuals gags. All things considered, it was very well made. But, because of those issues, I cannot in good conscience consider giving this show anything better than what it got. Call it bias. Call it unscrupulous. Call it an insult to your own values. Call it whatever you want, but this is one of those few things that I simply cannot and will not budge on because I believe anime can and should be better than this. As for my final verdict, I'll still say I can recommend this title to some people. Not everyone, for reasons that should be very obvious by now, but I think Blend S was still worth a good laugh in the end.