I like my short anime. Many of them manage to get things done in a slither of time compared to some lengthier shows and can successfully create a good atmosphere with only 5-10 minutes per episode. Ganbare Douki-chan, whilst still pretty wholesome and sweet, personally did not quite live up to expectations. Twelve weeks of absolutely nothing. You know something feels off when an anime short such as this, feels almost like a waste of your time.
The shows duration says it runs for five minutes, but we would be lucky to get HALF that amount of time spent on something that's not the fricking ending sequence. It's no wonder nothing meaningful happens, I'm sure Douki-chan is indeed, doing her best, but she's got such a short window to work in lol. Come on, you're making a mockery out of short anime here...
For the first eight weeks, we have the timid Douki-chan struggling to get her feelings across to no face senpai (you feel nothing for this dude, his whole thing is just being abashed all the time), either backing down or getting cucked by her two significantly bustier work colleagues. A frustrating and tiresome formula, you'd think some sort of development would have happened by now. Then episode nine rolls around and pretty much everything is forgiven, as we are treated to some lovely Douki-chan x Kouhai-chan yuri scenes and the main ship is swiftly forgotten, lost out at sea somewhere. Unfortunately, that ship is found again relatively quickly and it continues to play out the same regurgitated scenarios until the end of the series.
To call this ecchi would be an insult to ecchi anime, there is next to nothing remotely ecchi in this series, so if that tag is what caught your attention initially (raises hand), then prepare to be disappointed. They show some skin a couple of times, that's about it folks. That's as risque as it gets.
I can't help but compare this to Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi, a show that also aired side by side, a vastly superior full length anime also revolving around the relationship between a Senpai and Kouhai. Everything seems to fall flat in comparison especially the characters and their relationship dynamics they have going on. Just go watch that instead.
