Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary Series Review

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

I really tried to give this series a serious shot, but D-A-M-N, it’s too boring! While I occasionally do enjoy slow, leisurely-paced Japanese series – like “Kotaro Lives Alone”, which was simply about a 4-year-old living alone, with his kind neighbors looking out for him – “Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary” was just not for me!

Directed by Mamoru Kanbe (Kimi to Boku/The Promised Neverland), the anime “How to Become Ordinary” (“Shôshimin Shirîzu”) is based on the Japanese mystery novel series “Shôshimin Shirîzu” by Honobu Yonezawa. The plot follows Jogoro Kobato (voiced by Shuichiro Umeda), an intelligent student with a knack for detective work, who makes a pact with his friend Yuki Osanai (Hina Yomiya) about living ordinary lives as high school students. However, problems and mystery cases always seem to find the two.

Honestly, the plot is a little like the laid-back detective anime series “Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions” – which also follows two friends solving cases, but they are serious murder mysteries. Kobato and Osanai unravel mundane mysteries, some of which includes how their friend made perfect cups of hot chocolate without using any utensils that would need washing in the sink. Okay, maybe they do look into more serious stuff later on in the show, but by the end of 4th episode, I had already given up.

To be fair, the animation is quite nice, and for viewers that are looking for a quirky, offbeat show, where not a lot happens, and high-school students are actually behaving like high school students, maybe it’s a fun show to to watch. If you survive the entire series, maybe you should leave your thoughts in the comments!

You can watch the series on CrunchyRoll.

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