English Dub Review: Convenience Store Boy Friends “July”

A sports festival!

Spoilers Below:

The sports festival is coming up, and everyone is making preparations. The class is choosing roles for the race, and both Mami and Honda end up being part of the three-legged race. Mami admits that she’s not very athletic, and worries that she’ll just end up slowing her partner down. Mishima points out that Honda can just pull Mami through. Honda resolves to train with Mami, even making her a training regime. They ask Mashiki what she’s doing, and she admits that due to health reasons, she’s not allowed to participate in the festival.

Mashiki later implies that she feels left out of not being able to be part of the festival, but Mishima insists that she’s working hard too. Honda ends up suggesting that she make omamori charms for everyone to look forward to. Mashiki ends up being inspired and resolves to make omamori for everyone in the class. Everyone works hard: Honda and Mami training, Mashiki on her omamori, and Mishima as part of the student council.

The day of the festival, Mashiki hands out charms to everyone in the class and gets a great reception. Honda and Mami run in the three-legged race and make it across the finish line. Although they ended up finishing fourth, the entire class cheers on Mami for a job well done.

Later, Mashiki and Mishima walk home together. Mashiki says that she was inspired by Mishima’s confidence in her, and wouldn’t have been able to think she could participate. It begins to rain, and they take shelter. They decide to wait it out. Mashiki has an umbrella in her bag but chooses to not take it out so she can spend time with Mishima instead.

Overview:

The girls are inspired to work hard and become more confident in areas that they’re unfamiliar with. While the boys were the catalyst and encouragement, it’s shown that the girls’ hard work and dedication were what really paid off. Through Mami’s intense training and Mashiki’s hours of making charms for everyone, they proved to themselves that they can be useful even in unconventional situations. It’s a nice, encouraging sentiment.

Problem is, it’s not that exciting. While there’s nothing wrong with the concept– girls finding confidence in themselves are very good, the episode itself isn’t very attention grabbing. It was cute, but there’s nothing very special about it. When compared to similar series in its genre, this show seems to be rather unremarkable. It’s not introducing anything new, or anything exciting. It’s just okay and needs to end up having more to it as the episodes continue.