Working!!!: Lord of the Takanashi Review

It feels kind of weird to review a single episode of an anime that’s not a First Reaction, but Working has put me in that position by not giving us an ending to the series at the end of the third and final season… that is… until now. One anime season later we get the one-hour special called Working!!!: Lord of the Takanashi!

This won’t be a typical structured review because I pretty much covered all of that in my review of the entire series. If you want to get my thoughts on the first three seasons of Working, then simply click here.

Let’s jam!

First off… I have to applaud A-1 Pictures for the fantastic troll they pulled off at the end of the third season. The promotional video that they released for this one-hour special depicted our cast of characters going off on a Sword Art Online-esque adventure. The PV worried many people as we didn’t think we were going to get a proper end to the anime series, but instead, be force-fed the stinking tripe known as filler. Thankfully, the PV, along with the infamous cake, was all a lie and we DID get a proper ending to the series.

Well played, A-1…. Well played

So it’s just another day at Wagnaria and things picked up right where the third season left off. Everyone is transitioning into their new roles and we get to learn what happened to Takanashi when his mother came by the restaurant and scooped him away. The entire hour-long special served as the grand finale to the Takanashi-Mahiru story. You know, the story EVERYONE wanted to see conclude, but didn’t because trolling.

The outcome of that story I will leave for you to watch for yourselves. The journey to get to the ending, however, was a joyous one. They managed to fit and/or involve every single member of the cast into this hour special and they all had a nice role to play whether it was for the story or for just a supporting role.

The one thing that felt off, though, was the trademark humor of the show. While it did have its funny moments, it just didn’t seem as funny as it could have been. I understand the episode was supposed to focus on Takanashi and Mahiru’s conclusion, but it was just missing that certain spark to make me continuously laugh out loud. I’m not saying the episode didn’t have any humor because there was plenty to laugh at, but some of the jokes just seemed like they were there for the sake of being there. Maybe it’s just a case of me getting used to this brand of humor so it just didn’t strike as funny as it once did? Who knows?

Outside of that, it was still very enjoyable. The ending left me very satisfied and I hope it was the ending you all were looking forward to seeing. This is still the one of the best anime comedies I have seen and I would recommend this a thousand times over to anyone who just wants to see a good show. Now with 37 episodes, definitely check out Working in all of its glory!

Overall Rating: 8/10

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Until next time,

Ja ne!