(Adapted from my MAL review)
(Holy crud, do you see their shoulders?!)
Have you ever purposely watched a bad anime just so you could make fun of how bad it was? Well, it's easy to do that for anime that have disproportioned character designs, among other things. When I first found out about a certain OVA series, the first thing I noticed was not that it was a yaoi anime, but how ugly the character designs are. The next thing I noticed was the amount of negative reviews there were for said OVA series; despite the fact that I've never considered myself a fujoshi (I've only seen two yaoi anime, and both were actually shounen-ai), I knew, at this moment, I had to watch it. After watching both episodes, there is only one thing I can say for sure.
The best thing about "Houkago no Shokuinshitsu", or "After School in the Teacher's Lounge", was the commentary I made as I watched it; everything else is absolute garbage.
Houkago no Shokuinshitsu follows the relationship between Mitsuro Kawase and Toshiaki Kazama, two school teachers. Kazama is constantly making advances on Mitsuro, even going as far as asking him out on his birthday. Mitsuro does say yes, but he wasn't serious; however, as time goes on, it seems as though Mitsuro is starting to fall in love with Kazama, yet I don't even know because the two of them don't even seem to have a lot of chemistry. Add in a brother who gives off serious incestuous vibes, a b***h, and Kazama almost doing a certain something that starts with an r to a random guy as a joke (I don't even care if that's a spoiler, to be honest), and what does it equal? The perfect anime to make fun of!
In a way, I feel bad for doing so, because there are probably a lot of people who worked hard on this anime, as well as a manga artist who thought this kind of scenario was a good idea for a yaoi manga. However, that doesn't excuse the many problems there are, and those problems, of course, begin with the artwork. I can give the animation a slight pass, as this anime was made in the '90's, and based off of the few '90's anime I've seen, I can conclude that no '90's anime has the best animation. The glaring issue with the art is how disgusting the character designs are, from the ant-sized heads to the Daddy Long Legs. I guess I can excuse the huge hands, as I'm aware that they're typical of yaoi anime/manga, but they don't justify the rest of the anatomy of each character.
The character designs don't hold a candle to the characters themselves, however. Kazama, disproportionate body aside, is definitely the creepiest character in the anime, always insisting that he follows Mitsuro EVERYWHERE; he isn't even faithful to him, as he does perverted things to two other people in JUST THE FIRST EPISODE. As for Mitsuro himself, I don't understand what it is that made Kazama fall for him (heck, even when asked, he says himself that he can't explain); he's way too bland for words, and he doesn't even have good chemistry with Kazama! The rest of the characters are either really irritating, like Miho (the b***h I mentioned earlier who wants to marry Kazama), or completely forgettable, like the students at the school Mitsuro and Kazama teach at. Speaking of which, does the fact that they're both teachers have little to no relevance to the plot, or is the awfulness of the characters just that distracting? I'm not even sure.
Now, let's talk about the smaller issues of this OVA, even if those issues aren't even that small. The character development - or lack thereof - hurts the overall run-of-the-mill story, making it increasingly difficult to sympathize with any of the characters. Despite the fact that I have watched very few yaoi anime up until now, I can tell when it's executed in a realistic way, and especially pointing out the fact that Kazama literally has no reason to fall in love with Mitsuro, I can say that it's not. The voice actors - even the relatively well-known Hikaru Midorikawa - aren't much help, either, as their portrayals of the characters make them sound utterly emotionless. Even the ending theme ("Out of a Delusion" by Mitsuru Satou), which I found to be the smallest issue with this anime, is a song that I found myself not caring for; I guess it had potential as a song, but for some reason, I did not like the vocals.
What is there to like about Houkago no Shokuinshitsu, then? Well, if you're in the mood to either laugh your butt off or let out your inner sarcasm for an hour, this is your perfect target. Even if you're the most hardcore fujoshi or fudanshi out there, you won't be able to enjoy this anime if you take everything seriously.
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