Taste Test Part I – A Channel

A Channel is yet another “girls doing cute things” show, but just with different girls and a loli that makes things rather interesting.

A girl named Torru has finally passed the admission test to attend the same high school as Run since they were childhood friends. When she visits Run, she meets two of her friends, Nagi and Yuuko.

I felt that Torru is a unique character and she is overprotective of Run. For instance, Run attracts a group of fanboys and Torru fends them with a bat. In addition, Torru is pretty short, which explains why the uniform doesn’t fit well on her body. Since she is short and flat chested, there is a jealousy of Yuuko’s well-endowed body to the point of grouping her chest. This is nothing new since other twin-tailed, flat chest tsunderes had the same appearance.

As you expect, the first episode is mostly about Torru getting used to her new school and being introduced to her new friends. There were some cute and funny moments that happened during the episode, most of them coming from Run-chan and Yuuko. Run-chan feels like a slightly altered version of Yui, but with lighter hair and not nearly as annoying. Yuuko on the other hand is like Mugi and Mio merged together, but she brings in candy and her eyes kind of bothers me. It doesn’t help that the same voice actor who voiced Mugi voices Yuuko.

Compared to Nichijou, I liked the animation a bit more because the characters and the settings looked better. Everything just looked so detailed while maintaining the cuteness. As for the opening/ending themes, they were catchy and enjoyable.

Overall, A Channel is a refreshing comedy and slice of life. I felt that I enjoyed this a bit more compared to Nichijjou. The enjoyment has to do with Torru since she has a unique and stoic personality. Hopefully she will settle down with her new friends in the next episode when they play with the Nintendo Wii playing some video games. ¶