One anime I had watched last year was called Blend S. It is about a 16-year-old girl named Maika who is hoping to get a part-time job so that she can earn enough money to study abroad. She comes from a traditional Japanese family, as in a VERY traditional Japanese family, but she eventually got bored by it. The only issue? Maika has the misfortune of having a naturally scary looking look in her eyes. After searching for a job here and there, she winds up working at a restaurant named Stile which is managed by an Italian man named Dino who is an uber otaku. He immediately takes a liking for her because of her naturally black hair and cutesy appearance, and she appoints her with playing the part of the sadist. Yeah, it's that kind of restaurant where the waitresses would be playing the parts of character types. There's Kaho, a gamer girl who plays a tsundere, Mafuyu a short 21 year old woman who plays the little sister, Miu an author who plays the part of the older sister, and Hideri, who's a trap. You also have Akizuki, the cook who is very passionate on yuri.
With the show, I do admit that overall, it is average. The animation isn't striking, the jokes tend to range from being funny to just being slightly humorous. For instance, one of the recurring humorous moments revolves around Maika having that sadistic glint in her eyes even though she wouldn't actually hurt a fly. It does get to a point that it is repetitive that it comes off as predictable. Same with Dino trying to confess to Maika, but either she misinterprets his declaration of love for her as just being one of friendship (again since she is from a very traditional family so much so that she was basically sealed off from any form of outside communication). The funnier moments take place in the restaurant since the setting revolves around it. My favorite episode is when Dino decided to make the restaurant jungle-themed for the day. There are many opportunities to draw from, and I feel that they did succeed at some of it. However, when the characters leave the restaurant, I just find the episode average.
The characters are fine, but they aren't that deep. Maika for the most part is a good character, but one aspect that I felt they should've dwelled on more was her time at school. As for Dino, he is also a pretty funny character because of his overt otaku behavior, but he can also come off as creepy since he's older than Maika by 10 years. Kaho was also a pretty good character, but I felt that they could've done a bit more for her other than have her be addicted to gaming. Mafuyu I disliked because of how she basically acts like a little brat and goes unpunished for it. Some of it is justified, especially when it comes to Dino perving on Maika, but for the most part, she just comes off as a bitter character. Miu, I honestly felt was pointless. While the other characters at the least got an episode to build off on their relationships, Miu's issue is that she seemed to be criminally underused. Hideri I do like, but he is also pretty flat. Aside from liking yuri, Akizuki is gravely afraid of girls which makes him being close to Kaho uncomfortable. Now that is interesting and I look actually like to see how this develops. But for the most part, he is flat as well. Really, all of the characters are one-note in some way, but they are by no means boring. They are average and can be forgettable because the show overall is pretty average by pulling off the same tired slice of life shtick.
At least we got a meme from it.
