Kiniro Mosaic

A British girl transfers to Japan and into the class of a girl that did a homestay at her house when they were younger. High levels of cuteness ensue.

Before all these, a technical question: Sentai changes the title to Kinmoza! under Japanese request. Should we change the Summer 2013 Anime article to reflect this?

Note this is another Manga Time Kirara series.

Spoiler: British girl is the Short Yonkoma Girl(TM) and is Shrinking Violet. If interpreting this series as yuri, she must be uke to Shinobu.

edited 7th Jul '13 5:49:50 AM by SamCurt

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

This is hilarious.

"Japanese girls are scary!"

Moe moe kyun anime of the year!

It's also got some good comedy. I laughed when Shinobu thought the hair chopstick was a stiletto.

Very beautiful bright, pastel, floral-filled backgrounds and cute characters.

Loves feel-good animation a whole lot.

Hilarious, just how many series left from those Hidamari Sketch Honbunsha/Manga Time Kirara commercials are left un-animated? Because this Mosaic seems to round off most of them, especially after Yuyushiki.

edited 7th Jul '13 4:52:18 PM by MyssaRei

At last I can properly write a review after actually watching the entire episode. (Previously I have watched the beginning [up to the point Shinobu enters her room] and the end [post-Time Skip], from a Chinese sub)

In fact, before it was aired, I already considered dropping it, after looking at the art. Mangaka Yui Haru draws some positively cute doujins (Danbooru link warning), but I found the art for the series a bit.. lolicon-pandering. I still watch this show under the request of my wife.

Turns out to be better than I thought. Of course I don't expect dramedy on the scale of Kotoura-san, but the beginning greatly increases the sweetness of the story (sometimes to syrupy levels) and also provides some depth

Still, my usual random points:

• The Carternets (or Cartalets) are all Japanophiles, aren't they? The fact that young!Shinobu knew no more English than "Hello!" pretty much requires this. This justifies why Alice can speak perfect Japanese now.
• Sounds like Shinobu has a blonde fetish.

—> Shinobu (hearts): She's a blonde! She's a blonde girl!

• My wife (who like lolis but keeps a somehow leftist worldview) wondered if they are strengthening the stereotype? Let's say, try moving the Carterets to a Council Flat... I'd say, people living in that kind of place won't be allowed as hosts... And Alice just averted most Phenotype Sterotypes.
• I don't believe a normal person will put Royal Arms-based patterns on their bedsheets.
• Karen's acting Japanese for that doll thing, and the blink.
• Crunchyroll—do you think "assumption" is the kind of word young!Alice can use?
• Crunchyroll—are the following intentional?

—> Alice: Are you mad at me?
—> Shinobu: Yes, it's very warm.

• The bath salt scene— I think the author didn't know the UK has their hydrotherapy culture, I guess. Certainly not as far as the Japanese do, sure...
• Shinobu is an Europhile, so it seems, but her English needs work. Can't even read Alice's letters?
• Chinese forums: judging she didn't◊ change◊ her Inside Shoes after all, many wonder if Shinobu is actually a ditz.
• Shinobu thinks Alice is like a doll. Alice was suitably Blue with Shock.
• To wrap up: the M Cs: Europhile Japanese girl and Japanophile British girl.

edited 7th Jul '13 8:18:45 PM by SamCurt

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

Hallooo!!!

Konishiwaaa!!!

That was pretty cute.

Regarding the shoes, I thought it was just an animation error. Noone called her out on it.

"If music be the food of love, PLAY ON" - William Shakespeare

Just some more points.

• Carternets (or Cartalets) are misspelt. The Japanese spelt as Kaataretto, so the closest should be Carteret.
• The ending credits mentioned the Carteret house was drawn from a British Bed & Breakfast. By enlisting an English school, they also tried to minimize Gratuitious English, but I'm not very optimistic on its effect.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

It sort of worked. I mean, with one or two missteps, the English sounded fine. But it wasn't remotely the right accent. It was kind of funny that the only guy to even really appear only had one line, and it was the main girl's name.

Not Three Laws compliant.

My wife said they're trying to speak in an American accent (and very Japanese-accented ones at that). That can be justified with Karen (A But Not Too Foreign globe-trotter), but not really the others.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

"You aren't going to eat the desert?"

I'm pretty sure that's not something you eat.

Not Three Laws compliant.

No...it would dry your mouth out real bad.

Loves feel-good animation a whole lot.

As to why the house was so british and the mother knowing Japanese?

The premise is that her mother runs a British-themed guesthouse for Japanese tourists.

This is why:

- it's stuffed with British cliches

- her mother speaks Japanese

- she was able to learn Japanese

- their mothers knew each other in the first place

I thought the funniest part was basically the last manga-like thing at the end, compared to the beginning.

Japanese girl in England: Wow, everything's so Western!
English girl in Japan: Everything's so Western...

Anyway, cute series, but is it more than that?

Check out my fanfiction!

The theory for those who aren't Manga Time Kirara readers that there's a bit of generation xerox going on.

&
Both are plausible theories—but for the "official" one, it's a bit strange—"homestaying" at a guesthouse? That defeats the purpose of a homestay.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

By the way, apparently Alice's house is based on a real English bed and breakfast. Everything we saw, down to the quilts in Alice's room, were researched (read:copied wholesale from real life) by Studio Gokumi. Yes, even the Morris Minor the family used was real.

edited 8th Jul '13 9:09:26 PM by MyssaRei

@Sam Curt: How does it defeat the purpose? Shinobu's mother is friends with Alice's parents, which establishes why they speak Japanese (it doesn't say how they met or anything, but that's not really necessary), and it's a homestay because Shinobu's staying with the family, not renting a room.

Anyway, I have to give props to Alice's voice actress. She's only had something like six or seven other roles, but her acting's pretty dang good - and her English is probably the best I've heard in anime.

As for the sub 'problems' you mentioned - Crunchyroll was just transcribing the English Alice used. She does say 'assumption' in the show's audio. As for the 'aren't you mad at me' bit, there are two possibilities. One is that Shinobu doesn't understand what Alice is saying and just assumes she's asking if it's warm enough. Another is that the way Shinobu answers is just fine in Japanese. If someone asks '怒ってないの?' (are you not mad?), the right way to answer would be 'はい、怒ってない' (yes, I'm not mad).

edited 9th Jul '13 3:33:21 AM by RedSavant

It's been fun.

Episode 1: Would have been more interesting if it was about a Japanese girl who went to live in England, but for a show that I was expecting to be only cute fluff, I found myself chuckling a lot. I like Shinobu, just because she mistook a hairpin for a stabbing implement, as opposed to, say, chopsticks.

^It's not quite England (it's actually France), but there's always Ikoku Meiro No Croisee.

It's been fun.

I actually did think of that when I was typing the post, haha.

I suspect the creators of Kinmoza got the Carterets' family name from this guy. Not too hard a name to find, as he's a person of some significance in the history of the Royal Navy and some of the American colonies — he appears repeatedly in Samuel Pepys's diaries.

Otaku News did a feature article on the B&B and its owner, and are also running a contest in conjunction with her to win a trip to the place itself.

all I really care about was that the flashback was adorable.

Is Crunchyroll the only official outlet for subs? I know some anime have multiple official sub outlets.