Series Overview

My Senpai is Annoying (Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi / 先輩がうざい後輩の話) is a slice of life, romantic-comedy anime about a child-sized office worker and her annoying, oversized senpai.

If that description is giving you Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! flashbacks, don’t worry. Takeda(-senpai) isn’t actually annoying in the way Uzaki was. Igarashi just calls him annoying because he treats her more like a child than a coworker. Takeda is only annoying to Igarashi, not the viewer.

Aside from that, very important, distinction, My Senpai is Annoying does play out very similarly to Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! The roles may be reversed this time, but it still follows the same general monogamous rom-com pattern that Uzaki did. One character is annoyed by the other, but then develops feelings for them over time that they’re afraid to confess.

And, that brings us to my main complaint with the series. It’s very generic and doesn’t do anything that would set it apart from similar series. The primary “gimmick” of this anime is simply that the female lead is really short while the male lead is really large.

Do you know what other, better rom-com had that same gimmick? Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. It’s made by the same studio (Doga Kobo), and although it’s from 2014, I don’t think it “looks any older” than My Senpai is Annoying. If you liked this series, that’s my recommendation for you.

This is definitely a better anime than The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, which also aired this season and seemed to be somewhat highly anticipated. But at the same time, I think that, as with Jahy, what made the manga good may have been partially lost when it was adapted into an anime.

Main Characters

Futaba Igarashi is the protagonist of the series. Despite her size, she is, in fact, a “grown” adult of at least 20 years old. We know that much because she can legally drink and that’s the drinking age in Japan. As you might expect, Igarashi is extremely self-conscious about her height — and other proportions.

Harumi Takeda is Igarashi’s titular “annoying” senpai in the sales division of their workplace. I think they work at a print advertising company or something like that. Anyway, he’s large, loud, and likes to take Igarashi out to eat during and/or after their client meetings.

Touko Sakurai is another one of Igarashi’s coworkers and my personal favorite character of the series. Sakurai is the girl in whom all the men in the office (except for Takeda) are interested. She’s also the envy of Igarashi because, you know, Igarashi is completely flat while Sakurai isn’t.

If Sakurai is the best female character, then Souta Kazama is the best male character. His character trope is that of the constantly-bored-looking, loner gamer. You know, kind of like Ishigami from Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Unfortunately, a lot of the content of the series that would be good because it involves Kazama is brought down by supporting characters I like less.

One of those characters I like less is Natsume Kurobe, Igarashi’s friend from her days in school (I forget if it was high school or university). She has dark skin, which is always nice to see in anime. But she’s also just your typical sporty girl who’s not very interesting as a character.

And the last character I’ll mention is Sakurai’s younger brother, Yuuto Sakurai. He’s the one who frequently appears in Kazama’s scenes and makes them worse, though Natsume does this to an extent as well.

Best Couple

The best thing about My Senpai is Annoying is that the two best characters form the best couple of the series. That’s right, Sakurai x Kazama is better than Igarashi x Takeda. Apparently, this isn’t a universal opinion and I’m legitimately not sure why. Sakurai x Kazama is better in literally every way.

Individually, Sakurai and Kazama are better characters than Igarashi and Takeda. So, naturally, they’re a better couple, as well. And, they’re actually a couple (eventually), unlike Igarashi and Takeda. I’d much rather watch an actual couple than whatever Igarashi and Takeda are.

Sakurai also reminds me a lot of Takagi-san, which is getting a new season this year, by the way. Considering how much I love the relationship Takagi has with Nishikata, it’s no wonder I like Sakurai’s relationship with Kazama.

If this series was actually about Sakurai and Kazama with Igarashi and Takeda being the supporting characters, I think it would be better. However, I do recognize that part of my Sakurai and Kazama bias may come from the fact that they’re supporting characters and not the main focus of the series.

If Igarashi and Takeda were the supporting characters, I’d probably be writing about how I want the series to focus more on them right now. But, maybe that’s not necessarily true. Most people I know prefer Yuki and Tooru over Hori and Miyamura in Horimiya. But I didn’t.

To be fair, those people were all manga readers as far as I know, and the Horimiya anime didn’t exactly explore Yuki and Tooru all that much. So, maybe that’s a bad comparison. But I brought it up just to show that I’m not automatically biased against the main couple in rom-coms.

Anyway, I just want to see a cute anime couple doing cute anime couple things and Sakurai and Kazama gave me that (sort of).

Conclusion

My Senpai is Annoying is a 6/10. It’s fine. It’s acceptable. It’s above average. But that’s all it really is. And that sentiment extends to the OP and ED of the series as well. I think I watched them both once before determining they were skippable.

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