Senryu Girl

Senryu Girl

Senryu Girl anime series cover art
Senryu Girl

Overview

Senryu Girl (Senryuu Shoujo / 川柳少女) is another anime in the half-length format which has suddenly become so popular. Anime of this length are nothing new, but it seems that their numbers have really exploded during these Spring and Summer seasons.

For this series in particular, I don’t feel like the length of its episodes was either a positive or a negative. Some series do better when they’re shorter, others are hurt by it, but this one in particular handled it well without me really noticing the length.

And since we’re not talking about what the series is actually about yet, let’s continue that with a brief word on the OP and ED. They were both good. Neither were the best of the season, but they were both definitely good. Personally I think the ED was a bit better though.

For one I like the song of the ED more, but the real reason is because it has more Koto-nee content (best girl by the way). Which did you prefer, the OP or ED?

Nanako Yukishiro from the anime series Senryu Girl
Nanako Yukishiro

As for the plot of the series itself, it follows a girl named Nanako who solely uses senryū to communicate. Senryū is basically a subset of haiku, which is something you’re all likely familiar with. And in case you aren’t haiku’s are three-line, unrhymed poems broken into 5-7-5 syllables.

I wrote this poem

It is called a senryū

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As you can see, senryū are easy to write. Why not post your best senryū or haiku down in the comments? If you do, I’ll grant you the @Senryū-Club role over in the official DoubleSama.com Discord server.

But this series isn’t just about Nanako. It’s also about her other friends in, and out of, the Senryū Club. Really it’s just a slice of life series in which the club just happens to revolve around senryū. It honestly could have been the Amusement Club, Neighbors Club, Literature Club, or any other club you can think of.

At least the Senryū Club actually has something unique that they do, write senryū. Often the random clubs we see in anime don’t actually have a purpose other than for the main characters to hang out there. It was nice to see the members of the Senryū Club actually do the thing their club is made for.

Characters

If you’ve been around my reviews before then you’re probably aware of my spiel about how since slice of life anime many times don’t have an actual plot, they rely on their characters to do the heavy lifting. Senryu Girl is no different in that regard.

Now that I think of it, the one reason I would have liked for the episodes in this series to have been longer is for the characters’ sake. The characters were all unique and developed, but more content would have simply made them even more developed.

Nanako Yukishiro is the female lead of the series who solely uses senryū to communicate. However, it’s not that she communicates by speaking senryū, she actually never speaks in the entire series. Instead she writes it down for those around her to read.

I’m pretty sure it was explained that Nanako’s “condition” is the result of social anxiety, but honestly that seems kind of fishy. It would be one thing if Nanako was also portrayed as somewhat socially awkward, but she isn’t she seems to be friends with everyone and doesn’t really have any trouble talking to people… through senryū.

The male lead is Eiji Busujima, a boy who’s also a member of the Senryū Club with Nanako. Despite being an extremely friendly and approachable guy, he doesn’t have many friends due to his appearance. He dresses like a thug, has blonde hair, and always looks angry.

However, his appearance doesn’t completely lie about his character. At one point he really was the thug everyone thinks he is today, but he gave up his fists for the soothing syllables of senryū. Nanako’s cute and all, but I think I prefer Eiji’s character.

Eiji Busujima from the anime series Senryu Girl
Eiji Busujima

There are four other supporting characters who are important to the series. These are Amane Katagiri, Kino Yakobe, Koto Ootsuki, and Tao Hanakai.

Amane is the Senryū Club president. Other than senryū, her interests include wishing she had a boyfriend and stalking Nanako and Eiji to witness their “dates.” Other than that her character doesn’t have all that much going on, but that’s all she really needs.

Kino is a character who I really wish had more screen time, and especially dialogue. Although she’s a member of the Senryū Club as well, her true passion lies in art. We never actually see Kino’s true face. Instead, she sketches out faces on her notepad and holds them up in front of herself.

The defacto best girl of the series is Koto, also known as Koto-nee by Eiji. She’s not actually his older sister, but she acted like one when they were younger, and still does to an extent. Like Amane, Koto enjoys watching Nanako and Eiji’s relationship. She also looks like she would be a member of the Fujiwara family from Kaguya-sama: Love is War.

Lastly we have Tao, the character who may have the best design, but that’s about all she has going for her. When not at school, Tao works as a psychic reading fortunes for people on a street corner. In order to hide her identity while she does this, she parts her hair on the opposite side.

Conclusion

Overall I gave Senryu Girl a 6/10. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite as special as I had hoped it would be before watching it. I was expecting the senryū to play a much larger role in the series than it actually did. It was used a lot, but any other activity could have replaced it.

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