One Room [Review]

Posted on March 30, 2017 by KiritoNarukami One comment

“A P.O.V. anime where you are the protagonist. A new project in virtual anime that revolves around 3 stories that develop in your (one) room.” -ANN

I thought this looked interesting when I saw the artwork for the first time and decided to give it a try! It’s interesting to see anime use the actual audience themselves to be the protagonist of the show, it put the show at a somewhat more personal level.

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Story:

The story is broken into 3 arcs: Yui arc, this is about a student named Yui whom the protagonist helps study for her exams; Natsuki arc, this arc entails of the protagonist’s little sister coming to visit him/her in the big city; and finally Moka, the final arc is about the protagonist’s childhood friend who is an inspiring musician. The POV where the audience themselves are the protagonist is quite the interesting concept. With the story focusing on the girls, and with the short 2 minutes episodees there’s not a lot of room for character development

Artwork & Animation:

The art is absolutely gorgeous! From the nice character designs to the backgrounds the artwork brings the settings and the character to life!

Character(s):

Alright let’s talk about each girl one by one: Yui, as a student myself I, too, feel the pressure of school and the process of study so she is very relatable! Her determination to pass her entrance exam is inspiring as well!; Natsuki, ah the cliché little sister character, but she’ is the “realest” character in the entire show. She’s very observant of the way the protagonist is and is always trying to make his life a little better even if it’s helping with the cooking and cleaning. Super likable and her story gets a little emotional towards the end; and Moka, being childhood friends with the protagonist and making a promise to be successful together right off the bat makes for a touching story, and of course being voiced by Mimorin is a plus! Her story was the most emotional for me, because of her determination being crushed yet she keeps going until she couldn’t handle it, and that’s heart breaking. But ending wraps the arc up ina good way, so no sad tears!

Sound (OST & Voice Acting):

The background music were all very subtle but a great addition to the atmosphere that the anime creates. The voice acting is immaculate, since it’s a series of shorts, with only three character and minimal backgrounds there is a lot of attention poured into the voice acting and it’s one of the best I’ve seen! Subtle tone changes are all it takes to bring a character to life and One Room does a fantastic job of directing the voices.

Enjoyment:

One room was my highlight of the week! Nice, short, feel good anime with a decent story to it, Although I would’ve love to see it turned into a full 24 minute episode. Of course being that long there would need to be more characters, setting, and POV wouldn’t work as well. I still would want to see the stories of each heroine expanded!

Overall: score 9

I’m gonna give it a 9 because the stories were way too short, there isn’t enough time to get emotionally attached to the characters to appreciate the story that is being told. One Room would’ve been much more successful had the entire season been about one heroine.

Extra tidbit: There were a lot of review saying that this anime is all about “fanservice” and for the “lonely otaku” or that the “animators were lazy” and are “taking the shortcut”. I want to say that I disagree completely. One Room is a fantastic anime! The animation studio did a great job with it’s beautiful artwork, and the sound team who did an awesome job with the OST, and the voice actors who did an outstanding job of bringing the characters to life! This is a recommendation from me!