It’s the first day of High School, and three friends Akane, Sihori and Tanaka are reuniting after losing touch during middle school. All three girls have a goal in mind: Akane wants to be a manga artist, Sihori aims to be a microbiologist and Tanaka just wants a boyfriend…which might be a problem in an all-girls school. So to survive the upcoming year, Tanaka gives all the girls in their class a nickname, such as ‘Loli’ to the petite girl, ‘Majo’ (witch) to the creepy girl in class and so on. The trio are now known as ‘Wota’ (Akane, for her otaku fandoms), ‘Robo’ (Sihori’s emotionless demeanour) and ‘Baka’ (because Tanaka is an idiot). But this is just the first day of school; how bad can a whole year of high school really be?

Wasteful Days of High School Girls is a slice-of-life comedy anime, based on a manga that’s been running since 2014, and it’s proven popular enough to not only have this anime adaptation but a TV drama version in Japan too. Sadly the manga and live action series are not available outside of Japan, so we in the UK only have the anime version to judge. As comedy is quite subjective, not just on one’s own sense of humour, but also usually based on the culture that humour comes from, translating a comedy show to another language can prove to be very risky, especially as Japan’s language allows for a lot of wordplay and puns. Some comedy anime have made a mark on Western anime fandoms, such as Azumanga Daioh and Excel Saga, but not that many. While I did enjoy my time with Wasteful Days of High School Girls, I can’t see this anime making a mark like those other comedy series did.

The title of this anime is very accurate: ‘wasteful days’ is the theme, with each episode being mostly self-contained and about everyday things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but matter to a teenage girl whose life is all about what goes on in high school. Each episode is centred around one idea or character, such as ‘Majo’ being all about the awkward girl of the same nickname trying to make friends, or ‘Buying Swimwear’ being about…well you get the idea. It all feels non-essential and there’s no overall arc the girls go through; it’s an easy breezy watch that you can enjoy without thinking too hard. But the best of the comedy comes from the girls themselves. Despite the first few episodes being centred on the main trio mentioned in the synopsis, the show quickly opens up into an ensemble cast and there’s a ton of girls with a variety of quirks and personalities to latch onto. While I did enjoy the dynamic between the main trio, I found myself really enjoying the other characters more. There’s Yamai, who acts like she’s in a different anime altogether and has many unique scenes in her quest to break out into her own fantasy story; then there’s Lily who brings some yuri tension to the series with her love for women, and the aforementioned Majo with her horror hyper-fixation, which I did love. To be honest there’s no single ‘bad’ character in the cast, as they all get given an episode of focus and interact with the main trio in one way or another; it’s all down to preference and who you related to most when growing up in school, where it feels like the most important days of your life, but in reality passed you by super quick.

The comedy itself is a variety of wordplay (there’s plenty of ‘quick and you’ll miss it’ subtitle moments explaining some of the jokes) and wacky antics but it mostly comes from the conversations between the girls, dealing with issues in adolescences such as developing bodies, boyfriends, and discovering what you want to do as a career. I admit, I didn’t laugh out-loud at most of the comedy, but I did laugh at the smaller moments: the quicker, often sarcastic instances such as Robo’s monotone responses or Majime who often plays the ‘straight’ one against more wackier characters. If anything, I actually enjoyed the series more when it was being sincere, such as the ‘Fashion’ episode, where three girls help each other with their style and also help Loli buy her first bra (even discussing issues that come with having bigger chests). Then there was ‘Dream’, which focuses on Wota’s passion for vocaloid music, leading to a really nice moment with her idol (with a twist) which leads to her being more passionate about her art than ever before. I don’t think this was intentional, but the episodes where comedy isn’t the main focus are the stronger ones, not because of bad comedy, but because the other episodes were easier to forget what happened. Admittedly, I had to double check an episode guide whilst writing this review, to remind myself of what happened in the top half of the series, despite watching the whole show within a few days.

Passione is the studio behind the animation, who have worked on the likes of High School DxD Hero, Citrus, Interspecies Reviewers and Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou. The quality is very consistent across the series; there’s no massive action scenes or set-pieces for this show, but has a very colourful and vibrant palette, with the character designs being separate and recognisable. The best work is the opening, which is set to a really wacky track named ‘Wa! Moon! dass! cry!’ Performed by the Japanese voice actors, it’s a mix of rap, pop, Japanese instruments with an almost 90s vibe to it. It’s really hard to describe, but it’s easily the most memorable part of the anime. The ending theme ‘Seishun no Reverb’ is less memorable, but still nice on the ears with a simple ending animation that highlights each girl’s personality.

Blu-ray on-disc extras include clean opening and ending, episode previews, Japanese promos, and of course the English and Japanese dub. The English dub of this anime is a highlight, containing many familiar voices that are cast pretty perfectly. Genevieve Simmons as Robo does the perfect balance of monotone and having just enough emotion to have variety in her voice but keep the deadpan tinge. Veterans Maggie Flecknoe and Hilary Haag as Yamai and Loli respectively are also excellent in their roles, and Skylar Sinclair had a difficult job with Lily and her unique accent, but also managed to balance the character’s outward ‘lady’ appearance with her lustful inner monologue for loving girls.

This comedy anime is enjoyable whilst it lasts, and there’s talent behind the mangaka for the original story, as well the animation studio and voice actors, but comedy being a fickle thing to translate, didn’t always hit home for me. I can’t see myself re-watching this in the future, but if you’re in the need for a comedy series, and like to have a diverse, likeable cast, you can do way worse than these wasteful high school girls.

Our review copy was supplied by MVM.