[Anime Review]/Mangirl!

And no...it's not about what you're thinking...

I did have every intention of watching this series from the start of the current season and I'm kind of glad that I waited a bit longer to get to this one. Mostly because I was completely blind sided by the fact that every episode is only three and a half minutes long! Yep, we're back in Teekyu! territory. I should've known better, but I didn't check to see who was behind this one right away. If I did, maybe I'd have seen it coming.

This time though, they've learned from a few of their shortcomings that were very apparent with Teekyu. For starters, the production value has gone way up from last time and gone are the issues with the animation and the hyper speed talking. Some of that is due to the fact that every episode of Mangirl! is a full minute and a half longer. The extra time definitely gives them some more breathing room with things and while still fast, the story is a bit more fleshed out. Though, how they managed to squeeze so much into such a short time frame is still a mystery to me.  

• Genre: Comedy/Slice of Life
• Length: 13ep (*previous had this one at 12ep, but they snuck a 13th in...)
• Rating: 7.5/10
• Recommendation: Definitely worth the 36 minutes it takes to get through every episode. That said, I kind of wish they were a little longer. Maybe 5minutes is the sweet spot for this one.
• Where to watch: Crunchyroll

Mangirl! follows a ragtag group of girls who are starting their own monthly manga magazine. Problem is? They have zero experience at all in the industry, so they have to stumble through the chaos. The only member of the staff that has any real working knowledge of the subject matter at hand that's remotely usable is Assistant Editor-in-Chief Aki Torii. She's definitely the complete opposite of the the ditzy, but extremely spirited, Hana Sasyama, the new venture's Editor-in-Chief. The rest of the cast is rounded out with equally hyper, manic and easily distracted staff; Tsugumi Haraki, Ringo Nishijama and manga artist Shinobu Fujimori.

As you can expect, they run into all manner of problems, pitfalls, failures and other such chaos throughout every fast paced episode. Despite this, they keep trying their hardest to overcome whatever is thrown at them in some seriously strange and amusing ways. Some of the best bits come from them trying to help out the artists in whatever ways they can with their requests. They are definitely an interesting lot and while you don't see (or learn much about) any of them aside from Shinobu. Though, from what they ask for help with, I can only imagine that they're an interesting bunch.

On the Slice of Life angle, all of the old favorites are visited such as the mandatory "cultural trip" in the Kyoto region, Comiket (even a trip to Akihabara) and other such locales but the shortened time frame really puts a new slant on these tropes. There's just not enough time to get bored with any of them due to the pace and things do benefit from that.

Overall, as I said earlier, I'd be a bit more on board with things if the episodes were longer. Mostly since I'd love to see more of this group's adventures. Though, what is given is still well done and a worthy diversion from shows that have longer running times for their episodes. Either way, I say give it a shot...it's only 36 minutes to give it a whirl after all...