www.wagnaria

Summary: >

Any guy would feel fortunate to receive chocolates from a girl. Unless it's so bad it almost kills him. This has become reality for Daisuke, as he inadvertently becomes a test subject for the worst chocolate ever. Hana is determined to keep feeding it to him until she gets it right, but it's already taken its toll on his personality. This is just one of the strange happenings working at cafe Wagnaria.

Thoughts: >

It took a while for Wagnaria to grow on me, but I think it was a matter of the characters growing into their situation before I became a fan of the show.. However after three seasons the jokes and gags went about as far as they could. www.wagnaria is a new cafe with new characters with the theme of a wacky work environment. www.wagnaria doesn't quite live up to its predecessor, but pulls off the formula well enough if you have the patience for it to get everything in place.

The critical flaw with www.wagnaria is that I didn't like the characters as much. Anime often has emotionless doll type character, but this show has 4 emotionally flat characters, which sapped the vitality out of the show. There are multiple relationship pairings, but it takes time for them to develop.

The "main" relationship is between Daisuke and Hana. I felt Hana was a drag on the show because I found her so annoying. While it tends to overuse gags, it gets amusing as the two continue to get "deeper" into a "relationship" although neither are interested in each other. There's another relationship between a rich girl and a boy who's family is indebted to hers. She torments him by doing things like slapping him in the face with money, and giving him dog food to supplement his meager diet. It's malicious and kinda messed up, but humorous.. sort of.

The third relationship involves Hasahiro who falls for a coworker who is cursed and prone to supernatural phenomena. It's hard to say if she terrifies him or infatuates him. Honestly I didn't get this romance. It is probably the weirdest relationship I've seen in any show, so maybe worth watching for that alone.

The other characters don't add much, which is too bad because certainly have the potential for great comedy. www.wagnaria has concluded in its 12 episodes, and it has a fairly coherent "story" to it making it feel complete. While I didn't think this version did as well as the original, I like the idea of doing the concept with new characters. Hopefully it will get it right next time, because www.wagnaria is close, but missing that spark in implementation that made wagnaria work so well. Good enough to watch.

Screen Caps: >