Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend

Episode 4

Anime series can become “talky” in two ways: because they just spend too much time on exposition (and thus the chatter gets in the way of the story) or because the conversations are the story. A superior example of the latter is Spice and Wolf, which takes the more classical approach, while versions that are targeted laser-accurate at otaku are represented more by the Monogatari series. Saekano obviously wants to be somewhere in between, though it ends up leaning towards the latter. It spends most of its effort trying to be smart and witty in its character interactions and seems absolutely determined to show that such an approach can be applied to a harem series, too. Surprisingly, the effort is largely working.

One of the reasons it does is because it takes dialogue interplay that would normally be loaded with stale clichés and actually turns it into something interesting. In this episode that can be seen quite clearly in early scenes where Utaha reluctantly agrees to her editor's requests for an interview to promote her books, only to discover that “super-blogger” Tomoya, who has actually been unwittingly instrumental in the success of Utaha's books, is the chosen reviewer. Utaha is thrown for a loop by this and acts dodgy to compensate, which Tomoya merrily interprets as standard-format answers. It also shows up later in the episode when Tomoya is practically ranting at Megumi after being flustered by seeing her with a young man that he later finds out was her cousin; Megumi's nonplussed, even-tempered responses are a particular delight, as not even Tomoya's most demanding nature seems to faze her. Even the interactions between Utaha and Eriri as they squabble over the particulars of the schedule for Tomoya's game (which they have finally completely bought into making) seem a little fresher than normal, as is the way they more simply nudge each other out of the way rather than resorting to exaggerated pushing. Additional clever touches can be seen in the casual reveal of how their struggle over the whiteboard somehow ended up with both of their faces marked up.

Another reason is the heavy restraint and subtle touch shown on the fan service. Combining super-talky and super-sexy just doesn't work, as the two are generally tonally dissonant, so the regular season is continuing to eschew it almost entirely.

Much trickier is whether or not the metafictional aspect is becoming too heavy. When it is used more surreptitiously, such as in scenes where Tomoya represents the hardened otaku and his unrealistic expectations of women while Megumi represents the average person, it has a strong impact. Implications that interviews are laden with banal, canned responses instead of the author's true attitude and feelings also strike sharply, as does the irony about how ridiculous it is that Utuha is both a top-scoring student and an author, and yet she's still doing it. Far less impressive are the scenes which knowingly analyze themselves and/or standard anime clichés, as at times in this episode the effort comes across as heavy-handed. Still, the writing is not pushing hard enough for this to be a glaring problem – yet.

The actual plot progression in the episode is limited, but the developments are important ones. The three girls introduced so far are now fully and officially on board for the game (which leaves Tomoya with nothing to do but fund-raising) and Tomoya essentially asks Megumi out on a date without comprehending that he's doing exactly that – and she essentially accepts. That could have some interesting consequences next episode.

Rating: B

Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.