iiiAmeal at a family eatery in Hokkaido comes with a big order of laughs thanks to a quirky ensemble of staff in the new anime Working!! Follow the escapades of Sota Takanashi, the new waiter at the Wagnaria restaurant.
Sota, a 16-year-old high school student, is recruited at the restaurant by his pint-sized schoolmate, Poplar, who is 17 but looks 12 and is constantly treated as a child by strangers and teased by bullies. Sota has a thing for kittens, puppies and the like, so he can't refuse the petite Poplar's request to work alongside a host of curious co-workers.
The show is based on a manga that has been running in the anthology magazine Young Gangan since 2005 and is written and illustrated by Karino Takatsu, a native of Hokkaido. Handling the animation production is A-1 Pictures who previously worked on Valkyria Chronicles, Fairy Tail and So Ra No Wo To.
The opening and closing theme songs are performed by the show's voice actors: Someone Else by Kana Asumi (Poplar), Saki Fujita (Mahiru) and Eri Kitamura (Yachiyo), and Go to Heart Edge by Jun Fukuyama (Sota), Daisuke Ono (Jun)and Hiroshi Kamiya (Hiroomi).
Fans of 'Moe' culture will find plenty of things to coo about in Working!! which airs in Japan on April 4 on the Tokyo MX channel. With A-1 Pictures' ties to Sony, it's likely to appear on the Animax cable channel soon.
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