First Impression: Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge

Silver link sure to have some good experience in adapting slice-of-life manga into an anime. Some of the shows turn out to be received warmly by fans. Take a look at Non Non Biyori that even got its second season last year. The show was not that awesome, but at least it’s funny, relaxing, and heart-warming. To some person, it may felt a bit nostalgic because of the atmosphere of rural life that becomes the setting of the anime.

In this year, another heart-warming slice-of-life anime comes again. Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge (Tanaka-kun is Always Listless) is an anime series adapted from a manga with the same title. Planned to have 12 episodes, this series tells about the daily life of the listless Tanaka. Everyday, Tanaka always think about how he could maximize his skill in laziness, and then his friend Oota would give advice, reject it, or left it to Tanaka himself. In sum, it is like Oota guiding Tanaka to not become a wrong person. As the story progresses, the two will meet other classmates that have some unique characteristics. This will make the shows more interesting to be watched.

Tanaka is just another usual high schooler who spends his days studying, chatting with friends, eating in break time, and so on. But one thing that’s special about him is that he is very lazy. Well, laziness is not that rare to be found on students who attend school. Some students are lazy because of the school activities that they hate, or because they don’t fit well with their friends. But Tanaka is a very different case.

While he is a lazy person, everybody in his class never complains about it. It can be seen from Oota, who always carry Tanaka like a sandbag when he’s too sleepy to wake up, or when Oota reacted to all discussions on laziness with Tanaka. Oota never questions, nor even get angry with it. The same thing happened with his classmates, they would say something like: It can’t be helped, that’s Tanaka for you. Even another character like it and wanted to become Tanaka (she is Miyano). Although as the story progress, there appeared other character who questioned Tanaka’s laziness (as for now, she‘s Echizen), eventually they will have good terms on it.

Another interesting point about this anime is the unique characters in it. It is the norm for comedy series to have various characters with strange habits. As the main character is a listless person, his friend is a quiet one. While another character, Miyano is a small yet energetic girl who wanted to become lazy in order to become more mature (where is the logical connection?). Her friend, Echizen likes to challenge Tanaka with games. But even when she won the games, she still felt lost to him for some reason. Other characters will appear as the episodes continues, and from the opening clip, it seems to be another funny person.

Yes, this series is funny, but maybe you will wonder if there’s any conflict in the series. There actually is. On episode two Miyano was frustrated enough when she couldn’t become a lazy person like Tanaka. Then in episode 3, Echizen had a fight with Miyano. At the end, it turned out to become some funny scenes again. And Tanaka unintentionally solved the probblem with his wise words (from a listless perspective, of course).

The opening song is good. It fits well with the anime’s slow paced storyline, and it also gave a heart-warming sense while listening to it. The video itself is also pretty telling on what to expect from this anime. It’s worth to not skip the opening song.

Overall, the series is quite enjoyable to watch. It might seem to be boring to watch another usual high schoolers daily life again, as it is has been used so often. Also, as another comedy slice-of-life series, it may not have any intense development in it. But just relax, and watch the comedy as it flows. Maybe you’ll become attracted to it, or even you’ll have a desire to master your skill in laziness? Well, whatever it is, maybe Tanaka-kun is still yawning right now.

The Indonesian Anime Times | Written by M Razif Dwi Kurniawan