Fat Lolis is one of those shows that’s easy to misjudge without knowing much about it. I went into it believing it was going to be a slice of life and something along the lines of cute girls doing cute things. Instead, I got a full-on comedy series filled with jokes involving issues you’d expect kids their ages to be dealing with and a lot of more adult and crude humor, that the kids actually do…which makes sense, given that age is usually around when that kind of thing starts. Of course, it’s also got all sorts of other comedy and jokes as well involving much simpler things, misunderstandings, and so on, so there’s something for everyone, and in most cases everything for everyone – and the important part is that it’s all executed hilariously well. And, don’t worry, there’s no fanservice! Stuff like below is the closest you’ll ever get, there’s not a single panty shot or anything – the show, if anything, mocks the idea of sexualizing children rather than doing it themselves like most anime would.
The entire cast is adorable and lovable (with one exception being the occult obsessed girl in class who really did just grate on me every second she was around) and made up of a lot of great seiyuu playing them. The most important thing to mention about them though is that they are a rare closer-to-reality depiction of kids their ages. If you look at other shows you get all sorts of types of kids around 11~14 and all of them seem a little too mature, or a little too immature or pure, to be believable. Ichimaro did an alright job but they seemed a lot younger than 12, and then you have things like Railgun where 12 to 14 year old kids seem like they are all in high school. This show has the perfect balance in everyone’s personalities, character designs, and the writing that they really seem like legitimate 6th graders, which makes it all the more amusing.
Mitsuba is by far my favorite character – and the one I watched the show for in the first place – however the ENTIRE cast (aside that one exception) grew on me extremely fast. Everyone in this is just so well done that they are impossible to hate and difficult not to love. After Mitsuba my favorites would probably be Mr.Marui, Futaba, and then Miyashita.
Miyashita starts off with few scenes but is always around in class, with the other trio of girls, or simply hanging out, but she’s super cute and as the show progresses (especially in season 2) she gets a lot of screen time and long parts dedicated to her trying to befriend Hitoha. She has a very cute tomboy voice, is the tallest in the class (I typically just refer to her as “Tall Girl”), adorable hair reminiscent of Hawkeye’s in FMA, and is entirely unaware of how weird she gets at times. Oh, she’s also got the best fashion sense in the whole school and wears the cutest outfits. Mitsuba is adorable because she’s a fat little sadist tsundere and also has really cute fashion sense, Futaba is cute and just an amazing little daughter and a great sister, and the Marui dad is fucking hilarious but also a really great dad and it’s always very nice seeing how much he loves his kids.
The art is something I thought was done well, it’s simplistic but very fitting for the show and very cute. One of the main reasons I even picked this up was because of how adorable fat Mitsuba is, and she maintained that cuteness throughout the entire show. Aside that, they use the simplicity of the art often in some of the jokes; for example, Hitoha whenever she goes into creepy mode, or Mr.Marui all the time who is drawn entirely different and has shit tons of lines and shading to make him look like a guy the cops would want to stop (and they do!). It really helps in that area plus in general is very pleasing to the eye, it’s soft, squishy, and consistent (just like Mitsuba’s belly).
The music is nice, the opening is especially fun and catchy, plus has a cute dance to go with it. I do have to question why in only ONE episode they decided to put in the sound effects too though, it was halfway through season 1 so I thought it’d stick around as the ‘new’ opening, but it disappeared after that time.
Overall this is one of the very few shows that’s genuinely made me really laugh out loud, right alongside Seto no Hanayome and Gintama. It’s definitely worth a watch and, if you’re a fan of comedy, a must see. It’s adorable, hilarious, full of original humor, and very unique as a whole – and might even make you feel a bit nostalgic or wishing you were in Mr.Marui’s shoes as a father to these crazy triplets.
24 Frames Per Second 