Review | Play It Cool, Guys (Episode 1-4)

“Play It Cool, Guys is off to a great start. This is an engaging and fun slice of life about handsome but clumsy guys.”

Pierrot’s latest series Play It Cool, Guys took longer than expected to reach our shores. But, Crunchyroll has finally started streaming the series. So it is time catch up and we are here to tell you all about it.

STORY

Play It Cool, Guys is an adaptation of the manga series of the same name. It is a slice of life about four guys who are handsome but all clumsy. Obviously, as you can expect the clumsiness of the characters is a great source of comedy. So, it is definitely a lot of fun. This feels like it is the type of series you watch on a Sunday afternoon with a nice cup of hot tea (except it does air on Thursdays).

Unlike other anime series, its episodes are only 11 minutes long. And to these eleven minutes, you need to remove around two minutes of opening and end credits. This means you have only 8 minutes of actual story. It is actually quite concise. That is a bit short. I would have preferred the usual 22-minute episode format, especially since the story is so engaging.

The first four episodes serve as an introduction to each character. Thus, each one focuses on a single character. We follow their daily lives of clumsiness. At first, it seems the characters have no connection to each other. Though, there is more than it meets the eye. Indeed, as we progress through the series, their lives are actually more connected than they thought. What appears as an anthology is more than just that. Moreover, I love how each episode ends with the character that will be focus of the next one. It acts as a smooth transition.

CHARACTERS

The first episode is about Hayate Ichikura. He is a college student who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. His clumsiness gets him in embarrassing situations, even more so that he realizes the mistakes he makes. It really adds to the cuteness of the character.

Then, we have Shun Futami. He is a high school student who plays basketball. This is the type of character who tries to hide he is clumsy and pretends he does everything on purpose. This makes him even more ridiculous than he is. I was afraid he would be annoying. However, the way he is written makes him a pleasant character.

Takayuki Mima is a salaryman who unlike the previous two doesn’t notice he is clumsy. For example, he tries to adjust his glasses even though at the moment he is wearing contact lenses. He has to be my favorite character so far. It is just the way he acts that makes him so charming.

Finally, Soma Shiki is a student in a designer school. He is the free spirit. Thus, he can make his clumsiness fit within his style. His sense of self-mockery is something that fans will surely appreciate.

OPENING AND END CREDITS

The opening theme song is ‘Seishun Kippu’ by Mafumafu. While the end credits song is ‘Flash!’ by PICG. Both credits are colorful and capture the vibe of the series – a fun slice of life about handsome but clumsy guys.

VISUALS

Furthermore, this series opts for an animation style that puts the focus on the foreground. The characters are beautifully drawn. While the background characters are faceless and anything that is too far fades away. So your eyes are drawn to what is important in the scene. For a slice of life like this one, it feels like an animation style that doesn’t require a lot of budget which allows them to make more episodes. It is good for us. Because I surely want to spend as much time as possible with these characters.