Cheerio, Shigofumi [Eps. 4 - 12]
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Shigofumi seemed like a show at odds with itself. Like its protagonist Fumika, it had two personalities – one of candid introspection and one of flamboyant, often clumsy, extroversion. Its introspection offered many moving insights into Japanese adolescence, yet it played them out through such jarring melodrama that often felt awkward and difficult to relate to. JC Staff and their writers obviously had interesting things to say in their analysis of Japanese school life, and sometimes they succeeded when due subtly was employed, yet they constantly botched it with paper-thin characterisation and messy storytelling.
