The Spring 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included

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Shintaro Tokumitsu is a high schooler living all alone, but things take an unexpected turn when a girl named Towa shows up on his balcony. Not only is she incredibly pure and sweet, but there's something different about her-something...divine.

Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included is based on the manga series by matoba. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.

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James Beckett
Rating:

There is one quick and 100% foolproof way to immeasurably improve Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included, and that is to replace its ditsy waif of a female lead with a biblically accurate depiction of an angel. Can you even imagine how much funnier and unique this show would be if Shintaro wound up being roommates with a giant, sanity-destroying mishmash of wheels, eyeballs, wings, and fire? “Be not afraid, uwu,” indeed.

Alas, instead of that much better show, Studio Apartment…Angel has instead opted to remain as just another entry in the distressingly popular subgenre of romantic “comedies” that I have come to think of as “Hapless Dweeb That Can Barely Function on His Own Has a Housewife Magically Fall into His Lap (But Not Like That, You Pervert!)” Shows. This time, the gimmick is that Towa is literally magic, being a heavenly angel that has been sent to Earth to “learn the ways of humanity,” and all that jazz.

This show is lame as all hell, and the only emotions it stirred in me throughout its entire runtime were boredom or mild but consistent annoyance. Maybe that is because the premiere is almost entirely bereft of funny jokes or meaningful chemistry between its two leads, or maybe it is because I am too old at this point to find much joy in spending a half-hour with a protagonist who cannot even think of the word “bath” around a girl without getting all embarrassed. Once you have been married to a woman for a full decade, it becomes difficult to stomach all of this “Oh em eff gee, a woman-thing is breathing and eating and sleeping within a hundred square feet of my living space!!!!! However, will I possibly survive living with this permanent soul-boner!?!?!?” crap. At the very least, it needs to be executed exceptionally well, with cute writing, likable characters, and, for the love of God, actual jokes.

There isn't much of that to be found in Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included. The only nice thing I can say about the show is that it doesn't look like an absolute garbage fire, so you won't be physically harmed by watching it. I won't speak to any psychological and spiritual damage you may suffer because of the agonizing dullness, though.

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Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:
The first thing I did when starting to write this review was unconsciously let out a lengthy sigh. On the surface, this is a lighthearted rom-com about an angel and a guy living together. It's supposed to be cute and happy—something you turn off your brain for while you get caught up in all the fluffy emotions. If that's what you're looking for, read no further and go enjoy your show—the last thing I want to do is ruin it for you.

The problem for me is that I can't turn my brain off like that anymore. So what I see here isn't something cute. Instead, I see a typical “nice guy” fantasy. We have Shintarou, a guy who has nothing going for him (other than meeting the bare standard for being a “normal” person). He's living in a one-room apartment, working a part-time minimum wage job, and sponging off his parents to make ends meet. But with no effort on his part at all, he is suddenly living with a beautiful woman who thinks the world of him. More than that, she is so pure both physically and mentally that she's not only never been with another man but also has no inhibitions about her body. It's all just such a lazy fantasy and comes complete with the implied message that a perfect woman will just fall into your life—no personal growth needed!

Then we have the comedy aspect. It writes itself—and I mean that in a bad way. Every single thing in this episode is a trope we've seen before in some form or fashion—from her having to get naked (and later wear his clothes) due to her getting wet to an impromptu fashion show when buying her new clothes. There wasn't a single surprising moment in the whole episode.

Now, maybe the creators were just playing it safe with this first episode—and maybe the introduction of the extended cast will make it better. However, I, for one, won't be around to see it.

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Nicholas Dupree
Rating:
There's a particular subgenre of anime, built around the fantasy of having a domestic partner thrust onto some lonely everyman, that just never appealed to me. Whether she's a pretty classmate/neighbor, a divine fox spirit, or an angel from literal heaven, there's just something so cloying about the whole setup. It often feels like fantasies written by people with no firsthand experience with domestic partnerships, selling a sanitized version of life where your romantic partner exists to make all the menial labors of life disappear, without bringing any complications that come with sharing a home with another person. There are no real arguments, no conflict about personal space or hygiene – just a pristine life of luxury courtesy of a tireless and devoted girl who exists to make you, the presumed 18-35 male audience, vicariously happy.

Suffice it to say this show had an uphill battle to win me over, and that was before our hapless male lead accidentally spilled a glass of milk directly onto the main heroine's boobs and thighs with the precision of an Olympic sharpshooter. From there, this premiere becomes a predictable parade of milquetoast romcom beats, occasionally sprinkled in with repetitive gags about Towa accidentally showing off her wings, or not understanding human social conventions. By the halfway point our heavenly heroine has worn Shintaro's clothes, cooked his dinner, nursed his illness, and slept in his bed. Were it not for the total sexlessness of the whole arrangement – Towa's so gosh-darned innocent she probably doesn't even know what sex is – you'd think this girl was sent from up above by the spirit of Shinzo Abe himself to spread the good word about settling down and starting a family.

While indulgent and obvious, that setup could still work if our leads had any chemistry, but they're total non-starters. Shintaro is the kind of gormless romantic lead whose only defining feature is “being nice” and spends most of this episode screaming in chaste-yet-horny terror whenever Towa looks at him, touches him, or innocently flashes her heavenly body his way. Towa, meanwhile, is a flavorless waif who's just so darn naive about the world that she needs to hold Shintaro's hand through life, lest she be taken advantage of by the evils of the world. She's a pure, saintly heart who just wants to bring our kind hero happiness, and together these two will doubtlessly live a bland, boring domestic life that is perhaps comforting to experience but hellishly dull to spectate.

There is absolutely a way to make having a sudden, supernatural roommate/love interest interesting. Anime comedies have been doing just that for decades. They just require some actual friction and flavor to derive comedy from, which are the two things this premiere is practically allergic to. All that's left is weak characters with weaker punchlines.

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Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

There is a specific name in the romance novel fandom for heroines like Towa: TSTL, which stands for “too stupid to live.” Towa is the perfect embodiment of this trope – she's meant to come across as whimsically innocent, filled with childlike wonder, but instead, I found myself questioning why she, of all angels, would have been sent to Earth to learn about human nature. Surely there are angels less likely to walk off with potential sexual predators up in heaven? I suspect that the show would like us to think that there are not and that Towa's naivete is entirely the product of her divine nature. But then we get into an issue of having one's cake and eating it too, because while Towa is presented as “innocent,” the episode also manages to lovingly animate two separate scenes of her undressing, with bonus male gaze in virtually all full-body shots of her. The fact that we get her getting white liquid splashed on her legs and breasts in lavish detail certainly doesn't help.

But Towa's not just naïve, she's a little foolish, too! This is presumably meant to engage with the fantasy of having a sweet, loving 1950s-style woman move in with you to be your cook and housekeeper while sleeping (chastely) with you in your bed, but once again, things quickly steer right up to the TSTL line. Towa has been prepped to come to Earth to interact with humans, so how is it that she keeps nearly blowing her cover by showing her wings? Why does she not understand that cats interact with each other differently than humans do? Or that if two cats are fighting, you may not want to get between them because they're pointy on five ends when angry? It's all so meant to be adorable that it instead becomes gratingly obvious. Even Shintaro seems a little upset by Towa's actions, although that's largely in the context of either being embarrassed by her in public or trying to control himself when she's in bed sleeping next to him.

Adding to this episode's sins is the color scheme. Maybe I just need new glasses, but the overwhelming pastel art at times made Towa and the backgrounds nigh indistinguishable from each other. A white-haired girl dressed in white against a white wall is not a great artistic choice, although the fussy nature of her angel outfit does show some decent design. Shintaro is the easiest thing to see because of his purple hair, and he's hardly supposed to be the main draw as the viewer inserts character. This issue may become less of one when the promised cast expansion happens, but it doesn't do this episode any favors.

The premise here is hardly new in anime. Many better versions of it don't include TSTL heroines or fully white imagery. I'd suggest finding one of those titles instead because this one isn't off to a promising start.