Working! ! is a four panel comic strip manga, published by Square Enix Young gangan (aimed at teenagers) and created by Karino Takatsu.
I forgot to review this anime in the spring announcement, mainly due to the usual offspring that clouds most jewels.

Anyway, this work is something you just don’t want to miss. It’s a comedy genre, filled with many jokes that will make you want to watch the anime version. The scenario in the anime is a little different from the manga, which focuses more on the characters situations while the anime focuses on the characters stories. Either media, the story is a mix of slice of life, little jokes (tsukkomi), small details that make you realize all the characters are really out of the ordinary, that each one of them posess an inner charisma.

The characters

Everything begins when Poplar Taneshima (17) begins her quest: find someone reliable to work at the family restaurant with her, at Wagnaria. She’s a high schooler but she looks like a middle schooler because she’s short. That’s why she has a height complex.
She bumps into Souta Takanashi (16), a young man who accepts immediately.
Actually, he likes everything that is small and cute and Poplar just falls into this category. So she’s the main reason why Takanashi accepted to work.

On his first working day, Takanashi meets with the other staff members: the manager, Kyouko Shirafuji and the chief, Yachiyo Todoroki.
Basically, Yachiyo is a waitress, but she carries a katana and is in constant admiration for Kyouko (which can also be considered as love).
Kyouko is a former yankee leader. She’s always hungry and even eats all the foodstock from the store, when Yachiyo doesn’t give her enough Chocolat Parfait.

There’s also Jun Satou, who works as a cook (because he dislikes being a waiter) and whose unrequited love for Todoroki makes him vent his frustration on poor Poplar, such as building a coconut tree hairstyle.

Then one day he meets Mahiru Inami. This girl has a phobia of men so everytime she meets one, she goes hysterical and hits him to shreds. Every man in Wagnaria is scared of her. But not Takanashi, because he’s quite sturdy.

Takanashi also works with Hiroomi Souma. This guy likes to know everything about anyone’s shameful secrets. This makes him able to blackmail anyone. The only people he can’t do a thing are Inami and Satou, because Inami punches him before he can even talk and because everytime he does so with Satou, he retaliates with a frying pan hit.

The chief manager, Otoosan, is a fatherly figure (even his name pronounciation matches the word “father” in japanese). He’s always going on some sort of trip because he’s searching for his wife, who lost her way somewhere in the north. That’s why he often brings back food keepsakes that are usually eaten by Kyouko.

Once, he brings back a girl, who names herself Yamada Aoi. Due to obscure reasons, she seems to have eloped and now lives in the restaurant. She’s pretty clumsy and her dream is to recompose a proxy and ideal family.

Later comes a new recruit, Matsumoto Maya, who’s somehow frightened by all the freaks around her, because she doesn’t want to be called a weirdo. Actually that’s a trauma she had when she was still a child, so she doesn’t want to be out of the ordinary.

There’s also The Takanashi family, with the oldest being Kazue, a divorced woman who just came back home. She’s quite violent and is quite harsh on people. Next is Izumi. She has a weak constitution and is a novel writer. Then there’s Kozue, a beautiful lady who always drinks. Finally, there’s Nazuna, the youngest one. She is quite tall for her age (and even has begun her breast growth) as she’s still a middle schooler. She’s the only ally to Souta.

An unpredictable turn of events

As the series begin to unfold, we see the links between the characters strengthen. There are tense moments, but most of the time there are lots of unexpected situations because of the character personalities.
At first sight, you’d say the characters are pretty simple, and that is the case, but when the scenario unfolds, you just find that it begins to be difficult to keep saying this. You find that the tranquility zone is often attacked.

In any relationship, characters have four fields of knowledge. The first one is the previous history quarter, which contains one’s experience. The second quarter is the hidden zone, where one puts one’s secrets into and doesn’t share at all.
The third quarter is the common shared experience, where the two parties share common knowledge about each other willingly.
The last and fourth quarter is the shared secret zone, where the two parties share secrets about one another.

The tranquility zone is actually the definition of these four sections, where the limits around the characters are, what defines their relationship, being friendly, hateful or anything else. When the tranquility zone moves, so does the relationship. It might move from friendship to lovers, friend to foe or whatsoever.

The author seems to be quite skilled at using different kind of humor: characters personality, situations, misunderstandings…
You are guaranteed to laugh at least once.

I personally like Inami Mahiru because despite being violent toward boys, she has her reasons and she tries hard to correct her attitude. Actually, she’s a pretty shy and very cute girl.

This series can be watched anytime – because you won’t have nighmares and because laughing is good for your mental health.
I guess this series will have a sequel because you just can’t fill seven manga tomes with so rich development in just a thirteen episodes length, but that’s only my opinion.

Maybe the sequel will then be named “Second service”?