This weekend I’m quickly bop through a bit of a trio of romantic comedies from the Summer Season, which might not necessarily bear a full-length review, but are worth at least a bit of conversation. Specifically – I’m reviewing the second season of Cafe Terrace and Its’ Goddesses, Pseudo Harem, and Days With My Stepsister.

Cafe Terrace and Its’ Goddesses Season 2

Cafe Terrace Season 2 takes the tack of “What if we did the same thing, but more” only we were smart about it – which is an important thing to do in a comedy where the majority of the cast is dealing with who gets to use the one brain cell. Specifically, the series takes the angle of having the antagonistic local businessman from last season (who hated Hayato’s grandmother), try to take down the cafe by starting up his own competing cafe staffed with a similar collection of archetypes, to see if his better funded cafe can force the Cafe Terrace out of business. Ultimately the jerk’s plan not only fails, but the girls of both cafes end up becoming good friends.

Even better, from a narrative standpoint, they don’t double the size of the harem – the girls from the other cafe generally don’t have any romantic interest in Hayato. They think he’s attractive, but they’re also not going to rock the Cafe Terrace girls’ boat. Even better, much of the air is cleared among the members of the cast regarding their feelings for Hayato – specifically they all do, except for Ami.

Ami is actually a bit of a problem this season. On the one hand, we get a several-episode arc where we go to her hometown, meet her family, and learn about her grandmother’s issues with senility. It’s emotionally intense, and not something you’d expect from a show that feels like it’s trying to put in the legwork to steal the “You Are All Horny Idiots” title from Girlfriend, Girlfriend. On the other hand – the story also has some weird Flanderization from Ami – as we get a running joke of Hayato’s apparently large penis sticking out from his boxers – which leads to a later joke of his erection sticking out from his boxers, only for Ami to not know what an erection is and try applying anti-inflammatory ointment to it.

On the one hand, look, I get that Japanese live-action pornography, even “hardcore” keeps the vagina and penis censored. On the other hand, I’m also aware that a lot of Japanese ero-manga reduces the censorship to basically a thin black bar over part of the glans or over the clitoris. So it’s rather odd for me to Ami to not have an idea what an erection is. Still, a lot of the jokes landed, the writing is on point, and the fanservice still works.

Pseudo Harem

Pseudo Harem is not, as it’s name would imply, a fanservice series. Instead it’s a light & fluffy rom-com about a couple who are in a high school acting club together. One, Eiji, is a stagehand who focuses on set construction. The other, Rin, is an actress in the club who is a year younger than Eiji. After Eiji jokes about Rin’s acting skills that he’d always wanted a harem, as an acting exercise – and as flirtation – Rin moves through various archetypes from romantic comedy anime in her performance and delivery, and the two – over the course of Rin’s high school years have a blossoming romance.

The show is light, fluffy, and sweet – but not like cotton candy sweet – like the nougat in a chocolate. It mingles with the crisper exterior that surrounds it and really gets to roll around your palate, making for a delicious and more rewarding experience. It made for a really fun, relaxing show to watch, and a really good way to wrap up an evening.

Days With My Stepsister

This show is, I will say upfront, about 12 episodes of will-they-won’t-they over whether the two new stepsiblings will end up in a romance. They don’t actually confess their feelings until the end, and they don’t hook up, but that is the result. It’s also not a more traditional comedy. The show is somber, and atmospheric – with other characters interjecting some anime wackiness in terms of their mannerisms, but instead most of the show is focused entirely on the two leads’ interiority, told through narration, diary entries, and their conversations with the other characters.

The show is animated by Studio Deen, and this feels like Deen working to bring their Sh?wa Genroku Rakugo Shinj? A-game to the work. It made for a story where, even if you weren’t in to the stepsibling incest text, it was told well enough and in a visually engrossing enough manner to keep you coming back week after week. That said, the stepsibling incest side of the story does make it spectacularly difficult to recommend.

All of these shows are available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

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