Season Overview

One Room 3rd Season (One Room サードシーズン) is simply an improvement on the seasons that came before it. I enjoyed the 1st Season well enough, but I thought the 2nd Season definitely improved upon it. And now this 3rd Season raised the bar once again.

I’m not sure why you would be reading this review of the 3rd season if you don’t know what One Room is. But just in case, allow me to explain. One Room is a series made up of roughly 4-minute long episodes that are (mainly) viewed from a first-person perspective.

I think the entire 1st season was from a first-person perspective if I’m remembering correctly. But one of the improvements that came from the later seasons is that other shots are mixed in.

But this isn’t just a first-person anime. It’s a first-person anime about spending time with cute girls. Each episode or group of episodes focuses on a single girl who’s the only character aside from the viewer. Basically, it’s a dating simulator but in anime form, which is a pretty unique idea.

This 3rd season breaks away from the formula of the previous two seasons just a bit, though. In the first two seasons, there are three girls who each get four episodes, adding up to the total of 12. In this season, however, there are five girls, so the episode count can’t be divided up in the same way.

So, how are the episodes divided among the girls? Well, three of the five girls are returning characters, so there are four episodes split between them. Two episodes go to the “main” girl of the series and the other two girls get one episode each. Then, the two new girls each get four episodes just like the previous seasons.

Returning Characters

Natsuki Momohara is the first of the three returning girls. She was last seen in the 1st season, having been left out of the 2nd. I think she was my favorite of the three girls in the 1st season, but the 2nd and 3rd seasons have since introduced more girls who I like more.

It’s been a few years since I watched the 1st season, and Natsuki only got one episode in this season, so my memory of her is a little hazy. But I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be the viewer’s younger sister. Whether she’s related by blood or not I don’t remember.

The second returning girl is Minori Nanahashi. Minori was first introduced in the second season and was almost the best girl of that season. Unfortunately for her, the final girl introduced in that season was the best one.

Minori’s family owns a bathhouse which she hopes to one day run despite her father encouraging her to find a more modern job. I believe her one episode in this season takes place after she’s taken over her family’s business — with your help, of course.

Yui Hanasaka is the final of the three returning girls and has been featured in both of the previous two seasons. She’s effectively the “main” girl of One Room considering she’s the only one to be in every season and that she got two episodes in this season instead of one as Natsuki and Minori did.

I like Yui, but she’s also the vanilla girlfriend character. All of the girls in the series are “girlfriends,” but Yui is the girlfriend character if that makes sense. Being the viewer’s girlfriend is her defining character trait, unlike with the other girls who all have some other trait as well.

New Characters

Honestly, both of the new girls introduced in this season are high-tier. I’m not really sure which one I prefer between the two. They both have good qualities despite being opposites in many respects.

The first of the new girls to be introduced is Akira Kotokawa. Akira is the viewer’s kouhai, or underclassman, who joins the gardening club the viewer is a member of. Younger girls are cute, so Akira already gets some bonus points for that.

But, what I also like about Akira is that she seems to have joined the gardening club for the express purpose of getting to spend time with the viewer. She knows a bit about gardening, but she’s no expert. So it’s very obvious that she’s interested in something other than the plants. She’s also just a very wholesome kouhai.

Saya Orisaki is the second new girl to be featured in this season of One Room. She’s an older girl who accidentally makes her way into the viewer’s apartment rather than her own after a night of drinking. This is why you should always leave your door unlocked. You never know when a cute anime girl will come drunkenly stumbling in.

But, what makes Saya a choice on par with the aforementioned Akira? Saya is the perfect blend of reliable, older woman and cute, shy girl. She helps the viewer out as their senpai but also gets very flustered whenever the subject of romance is brought up.

For example, in the Saya scenario, the viewer is a college student and Saya is a “working” adult who decides to help the viewer study for their exams. But, she really just wants to spend time with the viewer as Akira does. However, Saya is also less straightforward with her feelings than Akira is.

Conclusion

Despite thinking the 2nd season was better than the 1st, I gave them both the same score. With One Room 3rd Season, I think it’s finally earned a higher score, so I gave it a 7/10. The 1st season of this series can be a bit cringe-inducing, but it’s pretty nice once you get to the later seasons.

Have you watched this season of One Room? If so, do you prefer Akira or Saya? And which girl is your favorite from the series as a whole? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoublSama.

Overview

One Room 2nd Season is the second season of the anime One Room (spoiler). If you haven’t heard of this anime before today, I don’t blame you (except you should have heard of it because I previously reviewed the first season back in January).

Rather than being a full-length anime, One Room 2nd season, like the first, is made up of episodes which are only four minutes long. In my review of the first season, I mentioned that the short length of the episodes was actually to the anime’s benefit, but that’s no longer the case.

This time around, I found myself wanting more content by the end of each episode, which is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it means I enjoyed what I watched, which is honestly the most important thing for any form of entertainment. On the other hand, it means I didn’t leave each episode satisfied.

However, leaving the viewers wanting more is a great way to create anticipation for any future installments to a series, so maybe we’ll get a third season some day.

Now, for those who aren’t aware, One Room is considered a “VR” anime because the viewer experiences the content from a first-person point of view (usually). Not every shot is from the first-person point of view, and this second season seemed to have even less of it.

Since we are the protagonist in this series, the protagonist has no dialogue. Instead, all of the dialogue of each episode falls on the single other character, whatever girl we happen to be with.

Just like in the first season, this second season follows three different girls, each of whom stars in four episodes (Yui has a special episode 0 as well). While this formula doesn’t change from the first season, the “plot” does, which makes the different arcs feel less cohesive.

No, there’s not really an overarching plot in One Room, but the first season all took place in the same apartment and it was implied that we were seeing everything from the same protagonist’s point of view. However, the second season doesn’t appear to follow a single protagonist.

In the second season, each girls’ arc ends with us proposing to her in some way, implying that we’re going to marry her. This, coupled with the change in scenery for each arc, leads me to believe that this season we’re actually seeing the stories of three different protagonists.

Either that’s the case, or my conspiracy theory about us ditching each girl for the next one after we agree to marry them isn’t so crazy after all.

Characters

Yui Hanasaka is the only girl from the first season who was carried over to the second. At the end of the first season, she was the girl who was chosen to be our girlfriend. I’m pretty sure she originally lived in the apartment next to us, but it’s been a while.

Her arc focuses on life together after the we start dating. Over the course of the arc, we apparently spend less and less time with Yui, and more and more time at work, which she takes to mean that we don’t like her anymore.

However, it’s revealed, predictably, that the reason we were working so much was so that we could afford an engagement ring for her. While this seemingly wraps up Yui’s arc, since she appears to be the main girl of the series, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her again if there’s a third season.

Minori Nanahashi is the second girl of the season, and was originally my pick for best girl, until the final girl was introduced. Minori is voiced by Rie Takahashi who you may be familiar with from a variety of roles such as Megumin from KonoSuba or Emilia from Re:ZERO.

Her arc takes place in the bathhouse and apartment above it which are both owned by her family. Minori hopes to one day run the bathhouse just like her grandfather, but he tells her that as a woman she can’t run it by herself.

While this definitely seems sexist, he also mentions that public bathhouses are going out of style and so it will likely shut down before she’s old enough to take over anyway. However, Minori has a foolproof plan; if she marries us, then we can help her run the bathhouse.

Mashiro Amatsuki is the final and undisputed best girl of the season. She’s voiced by Inori Minase who has previously voiced other fan-favorites such as Hestia from DanMachi and Rem from Re:ZERO.

Despite being the oldest of the three girls this season, her appearance would have you believe that she’s the youngest. Mashiro is a retired gymnast who’s having trouble finding a new job because although she’s confident, she’s not exactly good at anything other than gymnastics.

In the end, Mashiro gets some job she applied for after we help her practice interviewing. While we never actually see ourselves proposing to her like the other two girls, it’s implied that this still happened. I wouldn’t be mad about Mashiro making a return in the future.

Conclusion

Since I enjoyed watching One Room 2nd Season, that automatically puts it above a 5. However, the fact that the episodes are only four minutes long was actually a detriment this season when compared to last, and so I don’t feel that I can give it a 7 or higher.

So, in the end, One Room 2nd Season is a 6/10 just like the first season, but for slightly different reasons. If you watched the first season, I highly recommend checking this one out regardless of how you felt about it because although I gave them the same rating, this season was a definite improvement.

If you haven’t seen this series before, I still recommend it if you’re looking for something with cute girls that doesn’t involve a large time commitment. I also just found out that there’s a spin-off with cute boys instead of cute girls, called Room Mate, so if that’s more your thing, maybe check that one out instead.

The preview (PV) for One Room 2nd Season is available here.

Let me know in the comments which girl was your favorite, and while you’re down there, be sure to click the like button if you enjoyed this post. If you don’t want to miss out on new uploads, I suggest following me on Twitter because I tweet out a link every time a new post goes live.

My review of the One Room 2nd Season Special is available here. And my review of the 3rd Season is available here.

Overview

One Room is an interesting experience to say the least. I’ve seen 12 episodes of it, but apparently there are three more episodes which I guess count as bonus content as well as what appears to be a second season.

It’s a short anime. The 12 episodes I watched were each around 4 minutes in length so you can get through it pretty quickly. This may seem like a drawback, but it really isn’t. It’s an awkward, uncomfortable, and cringe worthy anime because it’s all viewed from the first person point of view.

There are three girls in the show and they each get a mini arc of four episodes. There is the protagonists new neighbor, his little sister, and his childhood friend. The protagonist flirts with all of them and we are forced to have a front row seat.

At least the protagonist has no dialogue, or at least so little that I don’t remember any of it. Nothing is worse than seeing something from the first person point of view and then having to listen to terrible dialogue coming out of “our” mouth.

The writing isn’t so bad, and the art is nice, but if the episodes were any longer than they are then I would have dropped the show partway through the first episode. The fact that this is a mini series really helps the show overall as nobody would want to watch it for any longer.

The story also does not take place in a single room as the title implies. It doesn’t even take place in a single apartment or building. I was also expecting it to be in 3D due to the logo design of the title, but that is also not the case. I probably would have rated it slightly higher if it was 3D just because it would have been interesting to see.

Conclusion

This may have sounded like a scathing review, but it really isn’t. Sure the anime had its drawbacks, but it was decent for what it was. It was a fairly interesting concept and they did it in a timeframe which made it bearable.

It was fine for what it was, and so it gets a 6/10 from me. Still not as good as other mini series such as Space Patrol Luluco, but decent nonetheless.