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Digital Downloads
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 17 April 2008 16:00 |
 Time for another dip into the realms of "digital delivery", this time with a short offering from streaming service Bost TV: Keitai Shoujo, a complete 6-episode series in just 20 minutes. Now's that's what I call short and to the point. So short that it misses the point, actually...
Hiro Aida is a second-year high school student. He's also single, natch, and with Christmas approaching (a particularly romantic time of year in Japan), he's getting frustrated. Out of boredom, he visits a web site on his cell phone called "Gal☆Mode" and downloads a wallpaper for his phone - and the instant the download is finished, his phone emits a bright light, and transforms into a little girl the size of his palm. The girl is Rin, and to cut a long story short, if Hiro doesn't get himself a girlfriend by Christmas, she's in big trouble. And so Hiro's search for a girlfriend begins...
Keitai Shoujo's first problem is that none of the scenario above actually happens in the show you get given the details as the text blurb when you view the episode details on Bost's site, but once the show starts you're dropped straight into meeting the first of the girls. It's an important piece of background, and if you weren't paying attention and just dove straight in, you simply wouldn't have a clue what was going on, and it's a shame it wasn't animated. Rin herself only finally makes a (brief) appearance during the epilogue.
Once you get started, the idea is simple enough: 5 short segments (originally standalone 5-minute episodes, but after being spliced together here and having the opening and closing sequences stripped out they're even shorter), each one introducing one of the girls that are vying for Hiro's affections. They each fit with the usual stereotypes you'd expect in this sort of situation sporty girl & long-time friend Ichiru; shy gothic girl Sayo; Miya, a flirtatious babe who loves fishing; cheerful, kind and slightly childish Momoka; and Ayano, who's into more traditional pursuits.
During Bost's original run of the series, viewers were able to vote for their favourite girl, and the epilogue scene that ties the series up features Hiro getting together with the "winner". It's a shame then that not all the girls get a fair crack at the "prize" Sayo and Miya both get very little detail to their personalities, with Sayo's in particular being the sort that you really can't do justice to in a few minutes (although I'm sure the gothi-loli outfits they have her wearing in the closing credits swung a few votes). The other three girls, with the advantage of actually speaking to Hiro during their episodes, are much more developed by comparison.
What was really needed, though, was full-length episodes one to set up the premise with Hiro and Rin, one for each girl (25 minutes would be plenty to properly develop each girl), and one for the epilogue. That would have worked well, and given the viewer a chance to actually connect with the girls rather than just see which one they think is cute and go with that. As it is, though, there's simply not enough to it.
While the idea underneath could make a half-decent show (although we're hardly short of romantic harem shows), this short-form offering is just a curiosity interesting enough in itself and as an experiment, but crippled by not having nearly enough time to give itself a real hook. At $1.99 to 'rent' the lot you're not going to hate yourself for taking a look, but you're not going to come away feeling hugely entertained or fulfilled, either.
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