It would appear I'm currently in something of a heartwarming anime streak, with the recent Comic Girls and Amagi Brilliant Park so I'd best continue that with one of HiDive's newest offerings, Mitsuboshi Colors.
The anime follows three girls; Yui, Sat-chan and Kotoha, who have formed their own special team called "Colors" to help keep the peace in their home town. They're small school children, so keeping the peace mostly means getting involved in silly games, usually helped along by the adults around them.
The three girls naturally have varying personalities, though they all have childish moments. Yui, the nominal leader, is a very shy girl and tends to mostly act as the conscience of the group (though also has crying powers that often get them out of trouble). Sat-chan is the cheeriest of the three, being the one most likely to get them into trouble and indulge in a bit of risk-taking. And finally Kotoha is the creepy child, tending to have a rather dark sense of humour, and being more than a bit addicted to her DS.
There isn't much by way of serious conflict, perhaps obviously, given that they're children, but everything they do they attack with the wide-eyed naievty of kids, which means that occasionally they'll find themselves in a tiny spot of trouble, usually with the police.
Here, "police" is taken to mean Saito, who is the only officer you see, and who is there mostly to act as a friendly face to the public around him. His generally good-natured meanness to the kids is one of the highlights, as the other adults around help them in their quest to get one over on him.
In general, the adults of the show act as you'd expect, indulging the odd whims of the group, while still giving them a little push towards good behaviour. It runs with the principles of the phrase "it takes a village" very seriously.
And of course, since they're kids, they tend to have a certain bluntness in their speech that sets up some nice jokes. Sat-chan's unfortunately believable obsession with defecation even manages to get philosophical, with her nihilistic realisation about life: "In the end, we'll all be poop."
It's a very simple thing, but it's brought me an uxepected amount of joy. The kids are believable and consistent, the adults are good fun (in particular Pops, who sets Colors small puzzles around the town) and it's just generally heartwarming. Not all shows need to be about wildly important things, and this is one that can just be enjoyed for itself. An excellent one if you need a bit of cheering up.
Tagged: Anime Comedy Contemporary Family/Relationships Friendship Hidive Subbed