qcormier - 2016-04-04 23:17:45

I've seen many shows like Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?, and I've enjoyed pretty much all of them. Moe slice-of-life is one of the few genres I can stand in an ever-growing cesspool of gorefests with dark stories and sexually-explicit content. Now, it's even rarer to find a show that perfectly captures true maturity in its content and storytelling. Let me tell you: this show is not it. There's the occasional underwear or swimwear, innuendo or fetish, and yuri undertones most shows like this have to offer. Despite all that, I did enjoy this show a lot.

We start in a EuroJapanese town where a mysterious girl named Cocoa (pronounced Ko-ko-ah) enters a cafe with a subtle rabbit theme. In fact, all of the cafes in the town have some sort of rabbit theme to them, but I'll get back to that later. She tells one of the cafe workers, named Chino, that she was told she would be living in the area. When she discovers that she's supposed to live at the cafe's address, she happily accepts the idea of becoming a part-time worker there.

From there, the story is the usual fluff of these kinds of shows. Throughout the show, however, I often brought up to myself how similar it was to other shows of the same nature, particularly Kiniro Mosaic and Non Non Biyori, which are two of my favorite slice-of-life shows. The situations these characters get themselves into are enjoyable to watch, but I felt that something was lacking. It wasn't until a good few episodes in that I realized I wasn't laughing out loud every episode like the aforementioned KinMoza. It felt disappointing that the show's "humor" ended up being extremely dry, and therefore hit-or-miss.

There are a couple moments when the show stops to tell an actual story, but these surprisingly come off as the least interesting parts of the show. As far as the characters go, they are almost perfectly and universally average in appeal. Chino stood out to me a little more on most occasions (she's the one I took the most pictures of, anyway), and I hear that the cast gets better during the next season, so I'll be a little lenient on this category.

The animation was done primarily by White Fox, whom I know from the second opening of the visual novel Rewrite. The animation is standard for the kind of show GochiUsa is, which means soft, bright colors and little action except in key moments with either incredible art stills or the rare action scene. Something I noticed in particular about the character designs is the many different pieces of clothing the characters wear over the course of the show. They're very pretty to look at, and some clothing choices can be quite funny, as well.

The design and animation of the rabbits in the show are pretty nice too, almost lifelike. The abundance of rabbits in the town does raise up a good question, though. If some rabbits are kept as mascots in some of the cafes, how are they not 'marking their territory' in some instances? I know excretion jokes are some of the most distasteful kind of comedy, but it's breaking my suspension of disbelief when I don't see bullets or a yellow puddle coming out of a rabbit's behind. :P

The show's opening seems to go the KinMoza route and have the main cast sing it out. It's a very catchy opening theme and I love listening to it at the beginning of every episode. The music of this show in general is particularly noteworthy among its peers, as I was able to point out many favorite tunes while watching the show. It was honestly surprising to hear that Ruka Kawada, the background music composer for KinMoza, also scored this show. I would have never guessed otherwise, as it's as if she had an epiphany before composing this show's music. I don't have anything bad to say about the ending theme, but I didn't listen to it often. The final ending theme of the show, on the other hand, was a nice sendoff to the characters, even though it's not quite the end yet...

You guys are probably sick of my constant citings of KinMoza, but I can't help making comparisons. The two shows are so similar, but each have their own strengths and weaknesses that make them enjoyable to different people. To the average moe slice-of-life fan (which is a criminally tiny fraction of all anime fans) this is a good show to watch whether you've seen KinMoza or not. I've definitely seen better slice-of-life shows, but perhaps you'll enjoy this one better than I did.

cecilia.armstrong - 2015-09-10 14:00:29

THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY GOD DAMN LIFE. I GIVE THIS SHOW A PERFECT 9/11

jackeline62 - 2014-09-14 04:00:15

THIS SHIT FXCKING KILLED ME BRUH DAMN THAT CHRISTMAS EPISODE THO LIKE DAMN THAT'S CUTE AF BRUH IMMA WATCH THAT ISH EVERY YEAR

joel.walter - 2014-07-27 07:23:17

Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka? is your typical moe anime about cute girls doing cute things. Does that make it a bad anime? Not at all. It really depends on what you want to get from your anime. If you want an after-school/work relaxation anime that does not make you think or feel too much, I would suggest GochiUsa. Let me explain why:

Story: The story is very simple - Cocoa moves to this alpine-esque town where she works and lives in a cafe called Rabbit House and makes friends with more kawaii girls. This is a very episodic show, each episode divided into two halves showing random events from the girls' lives together. While most SOL anime are like this there is always a background story/goal the characters are trying to reach. In GochiUsa, this is not the case. So that's what disappointed me slightly. Nevertheless, it wasn't a bad story per se, for what this anime portrays itself as. Light-hearted, airy-fairy, happy-go-lucky: that's pretty good but I still wish the story would have had a teensy bit more depth to it. 

Animation: The animation was pretty good. Nice colours, hair was drawn nicely, enough attention to detail of the background was given, special effects wherever necessary enhanced the episode when needed. Pretty nice to look at. But nothing really special. 

Sound: The sound track of this anime was a bit of a disappointment. They sort of fit the events being shown but the music really wasn't that great. A lot of places don't even have any music in the background. A key element of a great SOL is a good OST. GochiUsa's OST was just mediocre. The OP is sort of nice but not something I'd listen to on repeat (Kokoro pyon pyon :3 ). The ED was okay too.

Character: The characters were all drawn in a semi-chibi style so even adults looked small. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. The main girl characters were likeable, each one had their own unique personalities and quirks. The character designs were adorable (I am definitely getting myself a Rize or Chiya nendoroid when they come out) and the supporting characters were also quite amusing.
What I didn't like was this: you can't really feel attached to the characters. Since the story doesn't really have a development per se, the characters are not very relatable nor do you feel that tiny twinge of sadness when in the final episode they say goodbye. They were still amusing though. 

Enjoyment: If I were watching this based on airing dates, after-school, I think I would enjoy it. But I did marathon it so it wasn't all that great. It was mildly amusing and quite funny in places but I didn't have a terrible lot of fun. At least it didn't bore me. But it didn't particularly exhilarate me either.

Overall: Compared to the other moe SOLs, GochiUsa falls a bit short. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't amazing either. Just pretty decent. It doesn't present itself as a post-apocalyptic world with moe girls acting like they're saving the world when in reality they're just being moe: it presents itself for what it is. That's a pretty good thing. 

friesen.leilani - 2014-07-23 01:25:29

Can I have a cute slice of life anime to go with that please? Thank you~

I had a feeling this show was going to be one of the best from the moment I've heard about it. A cute slice of life comedy with cute girls working at a café? Sign me up! ...I have a very specific kind of taste in anime ok? Well how does this anime hold up?

Story: Cocoa Hoto moves into a new town to attend school. There, she begins living with Chino Kafuu at her family's Rabbit House café, working as a waitress to pay for her accommodation. She also comes across some other friends and enjoys the place surrounding her.

One of the reason I was looking forward to this beside the adorable yet generic work story was the artwork and animation. The animation is very fluid and vibrant, there are no lip sync errors, no awkward facial expressions/errors/walking animations, and everyone looks and moves nicely. As for the art, its very bright and colorful and the characters all have a very nice and cute design to them. Nobody looks the same and you can tell them apart quite easily. The background design also has a very nice look and feel as they are all detailed and wonderful to look at :3

The voices also are very cute. All the voices fit the characters and their personas and none of them sound annoying, unfitting, or oddly out of place. The OP is nice to listen to but you need to listen to it a couple of times in order to truly get it in your head.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SveuUClF3E

The ED song is the same thing, its not bad, in fact its very good, but like the one above you gotta listen to it a lot of times in order to get it stuck in your head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-loMZ15GHo

Speaking of characters, let us talk about them shall we? After all you can't have a show this cute without having characters to go along with them~

Well I don't think they're bad characters, in fact I like them all just fine, though they're not really great and three dimensional. But for a show like this I guess this isn't really a big problem :P

Cocoa, the main character is a nice naiveté who loves cute things. She especially loves her friends (and Chino) and the world around her. Chino is a soft spoken and quiet girl who is the grand daughter of the owner of the Rabbit House café and is kind of a tsundere. Rize is a serious disciplined and has a military-like personality (she is the daughter of a solider though). Chiya is a kind but kooky and spacey girl who runs a traditional Japanese coffee shop and loves making weird names for her recipes. Sharo is a childhood friend of Rize's and is also ordinary, and dignified, except for when she gets scared of rabbits.

There are also side characters who have nice personalities and go along well with all the other characters too. It's got a lot of heart and humor to go on and they both go perfectly with one another. There are some things that bothered me like with Chino's grandpa's... backstory but it is explained later on in the show so I'll let it slide. It may seem out of place for some people but it didn't bother me as much.

Overall, I really enjoyed this anime, I knew it was going to be one of the best this year had to offer and it certainly showed. This is definitely a must see for anyone into slice of life, comedies, or anyone who just wants to relax, sit back, and laugh. I look forward to its next season... and there better dang be one too!

Thanks for reading my 50th review (WOW, has it already been 50!? That's actually quite shocking :O)~

orrin.sanford - 2014-07-16 00:31:28

Considering it as an anime made to be enjoyed, and not criticized with terms like "moeblob", "fan service" et cetera, it is worth watching.
Or at least if you just want a nice, peacefull and cute anime of comedy/slice of life, because otherwise just go away.
The animation is really good, the ost and the nice comedy too, so yeah, it is worth watching.

Sure, we all know that that kind of anime is "easy to produce" for studios, so what ? Freely appreciating an anime without savagely criticizing it isn't wrongdoing.

lillian71 - 2014-06-27 09:18:28

I hate coffee. I really really fucking despise coffee.

So yeah, this is a moe slice of life show that supposedly takes place in Japan, but based on the architecture, I'm going to ignore that and say it takes place in South Germany. For the lulz.

Excitable every-girl Cocoa (and with a name like that she was practically destined to end up working at a coffee shoppe) transfers to a new school in scenic wherever-the-fuck-this-town-is and stays in a spare board room in an old coffee house. She ends up having to work there part-time to pay for her room and board.

Along the way she makes some friends and they have adorable hijinks, like you couldn't figure that out.

Story gets a flat baseline score because there's nothing inherently wrong with slice of life, but I'm not going to pretend there's a plot here. But the premise works for the type of show it is.

Character I gave a slightly above average score because each of our five leads is distinct and has decent chemistry with the others, although not all possible relations are explored. There's also a bit of subtle development in the way they interact with eachother, which is a strong point of the genre.

This show is based off a manga that run in Kirara, a magazine famous for its usual yuri undertones. And in GochiUsa it actually enhances the show by being just subtle enough and keeping it well in the background. Unless fucking Sakura Trick where it was the whole goddamn point and it had nothing else to back it up.

This is an easy to watch show. It is consistently amusing and always cute, which is about all you can ask of a show like this. I enjoyed the relationships, I enjoyed the comedy and I even enjoyed a bit of the yuri undertones (which is extremely rare for me). (Cocoa/Chino forever lulz).

The animation for this rabbit-themed anime was done ironically by Studio White Fox. (Ironic in the sense that foxes primary diet often consists of rabbits). It looks very nice. Bright, colorful, cute and consistent. Motions are fluid when they need to be, unless they are stiff for the sake of a joke. The backdrops are nicely detailed and it's clear a lot of effort was put into this show.

The music is mostly forgettable fluff aside from the OP. 

Definitely a high roller in the moe SoL genre, but definitely won't appeal to anyone who isn't already invested in that kind of thing. If you want cute girls doing cute things, this is as good a place as any. And perhaps better than most.

Alternative Recommendations: Kirino Mosaic|GJ-Bu

Rewatch Value: Yes (Based on a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

larkin.jessika - 2014-06-26 22:47:49

Everything is cute about this anime.  Each episode is unique and you can't help but want to watch more of these girls' silly behavior.  Regardless of the fact that it didn't really have a plot, the animation and characters made it worth watching.