(uselessly updated Oct. 2015)
The Manga:
Orenchi no Furo Jijo (The Circumstances in My Home's Bathtub) is based on a 4-panel (4-koma) manga series by Itokichi... originally in a shounen manga magazine published for girls. Yes, you read that correctly. (As of 2015, it's currently being published in English by Seven Seas.) I wouldn't have described it as a Boys' Love series by any means
...
(uselessly updated Oct. 2015)
The Manga:
Orenchi no Furo Jijo (The Circumstances in My Home's Bathtub) is based on a 4-panel (4-koma) manga series by Itokichi... originally in a shounen manga magazine published for girls. Yes, you read that correctly. (As of 2015, it's currently being published in English by Seven Seas.) I wouldn't have described it as a Boys' Love series by any means (as far as anything of it I'd read... but I think I may stand corrected at this point), but it is hilariously, mercilessly suggestive and packs a nice dose of satire here and there. The anime short adaption, however... yeow. It totally tosses any trace of that subtle barrier aside like Haru doffing everything but his swim trunks the instant he spies a body of water.
Humour: 4 of 5 (-1 mostly out of terribly selfish personal bias)
I find that the anime version loses a lot of the punch of the humor by taking it in a more extreme and overt direction. For me, it also lost a lot of the casual warmth present in the original manga, by interpreting it into animation this way. (Although this might just be my own bias of viewing things in a more satirical light to begin with.) On the other hand, each episode had me giggling through it like an idiot.
Animation: 4 of 5
The animation is moderately good, pretty middle-of-the-road, but definitely in the high-quality camp for its length. ('Camp' could perhaps describe it in some other ways as well...) The visual gags are pretty well-paced. The shifts in drawing style didn't ever strike me as cheap or jarring, and the chibi characters are not so warped or cheaply drawn as to melt your brain. Not right away, at least. In fact, they might even be endearing. (Naturally, your mileage may vary.) Overall, it's consistent. It doesn't throw magnificent animation at you in the first few episodes only to take it away. Not really sure what else to say about it... Um... it's pretty. Yeah.
Acting: 4 of 5
The voice acting is middle-of-the-road (again), by this I mean it is flatly good quality - very, very good for a four-minute gag-oriented filler show - and is funny where and how it's supposed to be, but it never exceeds that. There's some very high-profile voice actors in this. (It makes me wonder how they wrangled that...) For fans of Free!, there's some familiar voices to be heard, which might be a bonus. (If you've watched too much Free!, you might find it hard not to imagine this as some kind of weird fan fiction in disguise.)
But let's face it; this is a 4 minute gag show and if we put this up against the acting in a high-budget, full-length show like Kamigami no Asobi or Kids on the Slope it's not going to hold up. Personally, I find their choice for Wakasa's voice just a little bit grating... It has a very stereotypical 'effeminate bishonen' sound to it, but that's pretty much an industry standard, so... no real complaints, I guess. (Although for me, rather than helping the humor, it really detracts from it. I've heard enough of that particular stock character. Just my ridiculous personal bias... I might just be disappointed out of imagining him with a deeper more masculine voice while reading, because I found it funnier. :/)
Intro and Music: ??? WTF I DON'T KNOW
The intro is done in a completely different style. Dark and overly dramatic, it borders a little on false advertisement... It reminded me a bit of Cuticle Detective Inaba, but unlike that show, the abrupt out-of-character intro falls flat as a joke, as, so far, there's nothing else to support it. It's just there and then it's gone. The only thing going for it is that abrupt shift in tone and some eye candy, which will probably be taken as an unfair tease to a lot of viewers. The song itself gives away the target demographic right away - it's reminiscent of the J-Pop/J-Rock in Uta no Prince-sama, DRAMAtical Murder, and the like. The stuff going on in the background of the actual show isn't anything memorable, it's just the usual kind of 'anime background music' we all know and... tolerate. (Even now I'm having trouble remembering it to say anything about it...)
Broader Appeal: 2 of 5 (Limited)
I don't find that the show has any of the broad, cross-gender appeal of Gugure! Kokkuri-san, its contemporary in both time and subject matter. (Gugure! Kokkuri-san also features cute male unwanted guests with sexy(??) animal features moving into a dark-haired, distant-eyed, passive protagonist's home.) Orenchi no Furo Jijo is squarely and solidly aimed at those who want to squee over hot boys way too close to each other. Even if some of those boys are only human from the waist up...
Length and Pacing: 3 of 5
The short length of the episodes (4 minutes total) might play against it for some, or cut it short to just the right length for others. If they'd forced themselves to make it longer, it's pretty likely it'd have lost a chunk of its watchability. The gags and jokes flow well (insert water joke here). Asahi Production did a very good job at adapting the incredibly short little arcs of the manga into animation and making them run fluidly. Like I said before, I was giggling through the whole thing like an idiot. The thing is, it's still only a 4 minute show... and a chunk of that is taken up with the intro. I really would've liked to have seen it as a 28 minute show or an OAV... but I don't think that it would've ever come to rest on a studio or team that would've been able to get the resources to expand it, given how limited the audience is perceived as being. A series with the premise of 'Hot Boys in Bathtub - no actual sex' is still going to be considered a very limited sell. Even with the imouto. Well, I guess we're lucky with what we've got... 'cause it's very good for what it is.
Bottom line:
It's a good show for a quick laugh, especially if you're into boys' love. Or mermen. <strikeout>Or tentacles.</strikeout> The short length might play in its favor. (Insert 'delicious bite sized seafood' joke here.) It's sexy and funny and deliberately overwrought, and it makes a great weekend binge-watch... but if you enjoyed the somewhat subtler and slightly more satirical tone of the manga, it might not be for you. As it is, this show certainly made me squirm, and not necessarily always in a good way...
PS - If you're a heterosexual guy, prepare some brain bleach before watching this. For that matter, that also goes for anyone who isn't already immune to yaoi, just in case...
PPS - Watch out for the octopus massage.
(What the hell am I even doing this for? Gah, would you look at that pile of logorrhea... Did you actually read all the way down here? Why? It probably took you longer than it takes to watch the whole show. Just go watch it.)
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