OTAKU CLUB: Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless: No Megane Edition

Hey there guys. Here I am again with another review. Oh right. I'm Wolvenciel. Probably gonna be a bit more consistent these few weeks because Big Boss Rkidzz is on a trip to Japan. Look forward for his travelogue posts yeah?

taken from myanimelist.net

So tonight (or specifically morning) I'll be reviewing "Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless" (Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge) and I'll refer to it as Tanaka-kun for the rest of the review.

Summary

Tanaka-kun is basically just another standard slice of life anime featuring a boy's everyday life. No wait I take that back. Its not standard. Its totally out there. I mean the guy is like the most effortless person on the planet. Tanaka (the main character, obviously) is a lazy bum who acts or in his case never acts on anything and always wishes for his days to be as uneventful as possible (even if it means threatening a shrine god).

Yes. He threatened the shrine god. Lol.

The anime tells us about his daily antics and his unending effort to make his days as listless as possible and how Ohta, his best friend, support him in doing so.

Isn't That Just Like Umaru?

Before I kill you for equating Tanaka with that asshole, let me just tell you that Tanaka is someone who understands and admits that he is actually very lazy and useless and sometimes you can see that he's concerned with the people around him and tries his hardest not to annoy them. He's no hypocrite and he stays true to himself and his listlessness.

Yes. Yes it is. I thought so too.

He's just super lazy and his physique is also built around that fact. He gets tired easily. He speaks softly. He doesn't eat as much as a normal growing teenager would too.

That's one hell of a level of tiredness there...

And then there's his best friend, Ohta who carries the role of the doting parent. Literally. This bastard carries Tanaka around as he runs to school, goes for lunch, and halfway back to their house (because Ohta doesn't live near Tanaka). This is due to the fact that Tanaka walks too slowly to school that he's almost always late and Ohta, being the concerned parent that he is, decided that it was upon him to get this lazy ass to school on time.

See. He actually knows that its not good to just slack off so he trains his body so he could slack off in a healthy way... uh...

The interactions between these two are very interesting as they're exact opposites yet they understood and respected one another anyways. Tanaka is always listless (like the title already said) and Ohta is energetic. Tanaka avoids any and all events while Ohta stops by every single troubled soul along the way and offers his services to them. The list goes on and on. You get to enjoy their different view on things and the fact that they still get along really well together despite all those differences.

He tries to avoid anything that comes his way. He hates attention

Is He Anti-Social Then?

Sure, Tanaka might seem lazy (and he is), but he has a knack for attracting people to him due to his overly relaxed mannerism. One very good example would be a loli classmate of his (yes its a loli. Good for you guys who dig that), Miyano who took notice of his laid-back attitude and mistakes it as being mature and reserved.

WANG!

Miyano ends up calling him shishou (master) as she wants to adapt Tanaka's listless way of life so that she might appear more like an adult (yeah this is kinda standard loli behavior I guess?). However, as the series go by, I see that Miyano is actually pretty observant of things (which is quite a rare quality for lolis in anime to have) and that adds a lot of twist into the series itself. But yes I admit she is kinda cute when she's in her usual happy-go-lucky mood.

One of Tanaka's many advice

The list doesn't end with Miyano obviously. As the series go by, a lot more people gets tangled with Tanaka and one even develop feelings for him (BIG SPOILER HERE). You know what? I'm not even gonna include pics of the girl here. Because I liked the girl so much. And yes. Yes, you've guessed it. Its a megane. Try to find her as you watch the anime, yeah?

Any Comments?

Well. Plot-wise, there isn't really anything to comment on because its a slice of life anime. I kinda got interested in this one because Tanaka reminded me of myself back in the days (and now too I guess) but I guess being drowsy and sleepy all the time doesn't mean you're listless.

He's talking about Ohta by the way...

The art is pretty damn awesome (no I didn't check which studio did this) for a slice of life anime that my little brother thought this was some shounen battle anime or something. But its not. Its about a guy who just wanna relax all day and do nothing.

Yep. There's a tsun in this anime. If that's your thing, watch it. She's actually cute.

The soundtrack used also matches really well with Tanaka as in... uh you feel very relaxed and its hard to watch this in the middle of the night as you tend to want to just sleep and not care about shit at all. Its got that soothing and relaxed melody that just makes you wanna drown yourself in it and doze off.

Another Tanaka advice. And I agree.

I'm Tired Too

Well I think that's about it? I kinda get the feeling that twelve episodes of Tanaka is not enough so I guess it must be really good. I mean, if you want more, that means its good, right?

One of Ohta's golden reactions

Or maybe I just like slice of life animes. Yeah. Probably. Oh. I forgot to mention. Ohta is a husband material so even if you don't like Tanaka, watch the anime for Ohta. Yep. Definitely.