Review: Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! (パパのいうことを聞きなさい！)

This is the black-haired main male protagonist.

The penultimate entry of the relatively short ‘Anime of the Year 2012’ audition is now here, featuring another slice-of-life series, titled Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! This anime differs from another slice-of-life title in the audition, Daily Lives of High School Boys in some key areas, which will be explained in more details below. Obviously, comparisons between them will also be inevitable.

Story:-
The main male protagonist, who is starting his first year at university, was suddenly saddled with 3 new daughters (all of them are below the age of consent) after his sister and her husband died in a plane crash. Living in a small one-room apartment, each of the members of the newly-formed family has to adjust themselves to new ways of life together.

The biggest difference between the two slice-of-life titles that is this anime and Daily Lives of High School Boys, is that the former focused far less on the comedy aspect and placed more emphasis on a storyline and also character developments. Yes, what I want to say is that this anime has a plot while Daily Lives of High School Boys doesn’t have one. As for the quality of this anime’s storyline, it (the storyline) is actually good overall. The storyline has two weaknesses though, the first one is the fairly predictable plot and the second one being the weak ending (the final two episodes) that probably has a plot hole too.

There are very little amount of comedy moments in this anime; most of them happens within the RORI club that the main protagonist is a member in. The quality of the comedy is also nowhere are good as the ones seen in Daily Lives of High School Boys. This anime has done one thing right though, and that would be avoiding any romantic relationships from evolving from the infatuation stage, especially for the two of the four major characters of this anime. With this, the probable love interest of the main male protagonist was then reduced to be part of the comedic setup of the RORI club. Keeping this anime strictly on the slice-of-life track with very little comedy and zero serious romance moments is an excellent editorial decision many other anime titles out there cannot do.

As mentioned before, this slice-of-life anime has plots in it, therefore character developments is also there. Character developments in this anime is uneven though, partly because of the low episode count (12) and the high number of major characters (4). Only two of the 4 major characters can be said to have major character developments, and they are the main male protagonist and his new eldest daughter. The main male protagonist is definitely the best characters in this anime, and the eldest daughter is actually one of the better tsundere characters you can find in the anime world. Far better than the one in OreImo, but still behind the one in B gata H kei.

The second daughter has far less character developments, and hers seems to only happen near the end of the series. Well, at least she is better than the youngest daughter of the household, who presents her role mostly as a plot device than as an actual anime character. Her plot device’s role in the storyline was executed very well though, and I have no complaints about that.

With a prevailing plot, this anime doesn’t have the 4-koma-style presentation seen in Daily Lives of High School Boys, opting instead for a more episodic type of storytelling technique. Therefore the pacing in this anime is slower than the latter, which suits this anime’s need perfectly. The flow of the storyline is fine in the first half of the series or so, but it deteriorates somewhat in the second half. Obviously, this problem also contributes to the weak ending alongside the potential plot hole I’ve mentioned before, that I will discuss more below.

The two younger siblings out of the three daughters that the main male protagonist has inherited. I don't show the oldest one exactly for the same reason that the president of the RORI club has.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime isn’t that different than the ones in Daily Lives of High School Boys, with its shounen-style designs. Coincidentally, black hair is common, and the blonde second daughter is actually a blonde (minus all of the stereotypes associated with one of course). Unfortunately, I think the character designs in this anime is too bland for my liking though, unlike what you can see in Daily Lives of High School Boys.

Voice Acting:-
Overall, voice acting in this anime is decent, and that’s about it. This anime doesn’t have any outstanding voice acting gigs in it unlike Daily Lives of High School Boys, but then again this anime doesn’t have a single one of the bad jobs that can also be seen in the latter.

Music:-
This anime has done quite well too in this department. The OST is actually good, and so are the ED theme. Only the OP theme is way below average of my standards.

Animation/Direction:-
In this aspect, this anime is more comparable to the other entry of the audition, Another, instead of Daily Lives of High School Boys. This can be seen by this anime’s tendencies to use pre-painted backgrounds a lot, and I wonder whether this Princess Lover-inspired trend will become more common in future titles. Animation quality is decent, a little bit behind what you can see in Another. Choreography doesn’t apply in this slice-of-life title, but just like Another again, CGI and 2D animation has seamless integration. A minor complaint about the animation is that people in the background were animated very slowly, as if they are zombies (see the screenshot below).

My complaint about the director is about the potential plot hole in ending arc (the voice actress’ action in the final episode). I say ‘potential’, because that particular scene could also goes nowhere. But if that certain scene really amount to nothing, then it is bad form for the director to compose the musical choir scene that way because it can confuse the viewers. But if that scene has hidden meaning behind it, then it is a failure for the director to not explain what really has happened after the musical choir event. If this anime has a second season, then the director can get away from this, but the ending doesn’t seem to be written to accommodate a second season.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. This anime isn’t good enough to challenge Another in this audition for the ‘Anime of the Year 2012’ title. The audition will end in the next post with Nisemonogatari, the only sequel in the audition lineup. Nisemonogatari has to be better than its prequel though to even think of winning the audition.

People in the background scenes in this anime has zombie-like movements. Maybe the president of the RORI club is the same one as a certain gun freak in a certain anime series…