My Tiny Senpai (2023)

[うちの会社の小さい先輩の話]

Director: Mitsutoshi Sato
Studio: Project No.9
Starring: Hina Tachibana, Yuki Shin, Yumiri Hanamori
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
A new hire learns the ropes under the tutelage of a coworker who's both very small and very cute, but can they keep their relationship strictly professional?

Impressions:
This is a bit of an inversion of My Sempai is Annoying, although male lead Shinozaki isn't anywhere near as big as Takeda or as pronounced in his personality. Actually, he's a thoroughly bland average male protagonist, so the main feature is the eponymous tiny sempai, a hyperactive short stack with a habit of making unintentional double entendres and then getting thoroughly embarrassed about it. While the series does deliver on cute, sugary fluff, that's about all there is to it. Some of the supporting cast are a bit more interesting, but they don't get all that much screentime and what screentime they have is mostly to support the main couple's fumbling baby steps toward a romantic relationship. If you're wanting some real substance, you're not going to find it here. It doesn't take much advantage of the fact that we have an adult cast, as almost all the situations could've easily been translated into a high school or even middle school setting. Personally, I enjoyed it for what it was, but all the other office romcoms I've seen in recent years are markedly superior. If you just want some light viewing, it'll do just fine. From an objective standpoint, I should rate it more harshly for being as childish and insubstantial as it is, but given that it doesn't annoy and frustrate me like so many romcoms, I'm inclined to give it a pass. Sure, give it a watch. There may be better out there, but there's also plenty that's much, much worse.

Rating:
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