Well, this is one that, despite not having seen a literal copy of its pitch before, feels well-worn from the start. Because of that, I’m just going to jump right in. Struggling high school student Shintaro has started living alone when, after a very long day, he discovers a mysterious girl on his balcony
Misunderstandings abound as said girl, Towa, fails to fully explain herself from the start. Eventually she introduces herself as an angel, which Shintaro naturally does not believe. He tells her to go home and heads off to work, but after having to stagger out early he spots her in what turns out to be a tough situation, and encourages her to not be such a gullible victim before collapsing. Towa takes him back to his apartment, nurses him to health, and reveals the wings that prove she’s an angel, earning her his blessing to go ahead and move in.
In brief, our ignorant celestial cutie is on Earth to learn more about humans and humanity, and it’s clear that she really does need a crash course, as she’s quite naive about most things in day-to-day life. She also doesn’t have much of a sense of personal space and little if any awareness that things she might say as an angel would be taken a different way by onlookers seeing a human.
Thus begins our silly cohabitation plot. Mostly fluff and comfort, partially troubles. The bar is set at a level initially most similar to Helpful Fox Senko-san but you could make comparisons to Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Cat Planet Cuties, or loads of other shows. But even the three I listed do things remarkably differently in the end, so how does this real estate listing try to sustain itself?
Well, we rather quickly start introducing more characters, including (in the second episode) a schoolmate of Shintaro’s who has a poorly-concealed crush on him. The next episode revolves around his new co-worker (and also classmate), who turns out to be a Yuki-Onna. What’s more, both of them happen to meet Towa, with Towa being particularly unsubtle about her angelic abilities.
Yup, looks like we’re going the harem route this time. The mysterious con-woman fortune teller seems to have nailed it.
To be fair, we spend a respectable amount of time with this subset of girls, and they actually get something resembling focus and development. Towa is mostly allowed to be a nice little space cadet of an angel for the time being, but she’s the titular character so you kind of expect more time and care will be given to her over the full run. The normal girl, Tsumugi, is the only one who starts in “crush” status, and while most of her notes are very affection-related, at least it seems reasonable that she’d feel a little threatened by the supernatural beauties suddenly showing up in the life of her target of affection. What’s more, they play up the cute side (including most of an episode on her and Shintaro going out to get donuts after school) rather than having her fall in to the old shrill jealous girl archetype. Yuki-Onna Noel, meanwhile, is revealed to be kind of an awkward dork who has no social skills due to randomly summoning blizzards when she gets emotional, a fact that’s kept her away from other people until now. She’s just plain excited to have a friend.
The pitch may have sounded like the “supernatural comfort” genre, but the more the show develops the more it plays out like the less zany version of Actually, I Am.
This shifts when a second angel appears, immediately playing the “Shrill junior” card that would make you think that Haru Onodera somehow achieved transcendence, though personally I’d be more likely to consider that little annoyance for the role of imp. Fortunately enough she’s a one vignette wonder, but the show does get around, after the halfway point, to introducing a couple new supernaturals.
The first is a chunni vampire who would like to be called Lilishka. She’s sworn off blood, but wouldn’t you know it, Shintaro smells tempting enough to at least harass.
Of her fangs.
After working out her sad lonely nature, she (also a student at their school) ends up as part of the “in” crowd and invites the other students to cram for their exams in the Occult Studies club room. The club’s only other member is met shortly thereafter, a socially anxious girl named Hisui who turns out to also be a kappa – which Lilishka knew but didn’t inform the rest of before a masquerade break.
Ultimately, while we get some episodes of just bonding this leads to the Occult Club (and guests shice Shintaro isn’t biting on joining officially) to go to… lemee see… ah, yes, you didn’t think you were going to get out of this without a beach episode, did you?
There’s even a bonus hot springs portion of the material, which manages to get a bit more out of Hisui, who was otherwise the most recently introduced and thus least developed girl. It also dovetails into the finale for the show. The occultists want (or at least Lilishka wants) to summon a demon, and their ritual actually works. Sort of. They get that annoying little angel from earlier for about two seconds, after some setup so that’s exactly what the audience expects. After that they set off some fireworks for more summer checklist and then the show just sort of cuts to Towa and Shintaro having a cute day out, culminating with Towa taking Shintaro flying a little. It’s not exactly a “climax” but it is about what the show needed to play us out.
I will say, there’s a decent amount of earnest material in this. Like we get a whole episode with Shintaro’s mangaka aunt and while there’s some “hide the fact Towa lives here” shenanigains, it’s mostly dealing with their relationship as family and the aunt’s with her editor. Similarly, after rounding up the whole gang, there’s an episode where both Towa and Noel get plenty of time to their evolving emotions – Towa realizing she might be able to feel jealous (though she’s not sure why) and Noel realizing that the others and not just Shintaro are her friends (and that her feelings for Shintaro might be up a level, though she’s not good at diagnosing what that level might be. Besties?). The lower-key episodes and vignettes that spend time with characters we’ve already introduced represent a stark difference in genre compared to Actually, I Am, leaning back towards the comfy show bracket but with at least a little intelligence.
There are parts where I’m not sure the show has faith in its own vision, or where there was clearly the hand of someone in marketing insisting that you needed to tick the right boxes to be popular. The fanservice is a big one. There’s not much and it’s usually not in-your-face, but I think there are a few too many “walked in on a girl changing” scenes for the show otherwise being the kind of place where Shintaro will get flustered and blushy at Towa being generally cute in his vicinity. The one time it’s plot relevant works pretty well (Noel is the victim in her introduction, and though she tries to play it cool a cherry parfait later sets her off because it was her cherry-print undies on display) but many of the other ones are transparently just shoehorning in an underwear shot because that’s what tired harem affairs do.
Because of that, there’s this tension in the show where some elements are beyond stale but the rest… is actually oddly well executed. I liked most of the girls, and none of them were pure waifu-moe-blob generic. The closest would be Towa, and some of that is informed by her status as an angel (who can of course do no wrong) and the rest is countered by the fact that her naivete is played for laughs fairly often. Noel is fun, Tsumugi gets way more earnest pathos than the token normal would usually be afforded, Lilishka is a needed disruption by virtue of being the most proactive about weirdness and Hisui… well, she’s trying, but she comes in pretty late. I’d trust the writing going forward to treat her alright.
Interestingly, both of the most comparable shows to this are ones I rated at C+. I think Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included is… a little stronger on the whole than Actually, I Am, but is it a whole letter grade up better? It’s more different in a way that invites rewatching than it is actually markedly superior. The leading lady here is a little less interesting, but the story is a little better and it’s doing more slice of life than high-energy comedy.
Ultimately, I think this show is more separate but equal than it is a cut above, and thus it will get the same C+ grade that Actually and Senko did. Still, as it’s mostly harmless and at least a little bit charming, I’d recommend checking it out if you’re in the mood for some low-key, low-stakes comfy with a side of fanservice.