Review by Ian Keogh
Cherie is a shy girl dreading her first day in high school. While procrastinating when asked to write three lines about herself during class, she instead absent-mindedly draws a character from her favourite anime. It’s noticed by the far more confident Naomi, and slowly a bond develops via that connection point.
There’s no breakdown of credits for married couple Stephanie Evangelista Fukuda and Daiko Fukuda, but both brief biographies mention writing and illustrating, so it’s not until after the story that there’s clarity. Stephanie is the main creator, but Daiko steps in to illustrate anime sequences or the drawings produced by characters. Both writing and drawing are rather sweet, as Cherie develops a crush on Naomi. We’re uncertain if this is just the joy of finding someone sharing the same interests, the attraction of natural confidence, or perhaps something deeper. Maybe it’s all three. The illustration shows this as being coy, via gesture, posture and glances.
A lightness of touch also applies to their shared interest. Fictional anime Orange High School Bakery Club features with the creators delighting in the creation of complicated relationships within it. They’re obviously anime enthusiasts themselves, and readers who don’t know their isekai from their shojo might feel left out at first, but explanations are given.
Once Cherie and Naomi are friends the actual President of the Anime Club appears, the super talented and confident Jenny, yet rather than uniting Cherie and Naomi, the Anime Club drives a wedge between them. The reason why is a long time in coming, partly because President of the Anime Club tells a decompressed story with moments artificially prolonged via silences, reaction shots and contrived delays. It’s possibly imitative, but there are places where sound advice is drowned.
Four characters eventually develop different crushes, but the succession of awkward attractions becomes repetitive and stilted dead ends rather than transmitting the intended romantic turmoil.
Eventually there are resolutions and the story just drifts out with the hope of better to come, but takes too long to spark into life and never greatly develops.
