My favourite cartoon has knocked it out of the park again, with a tacit depiction of an often-overlooked part of society. And by ‘tacit’, I do of course mean there’s a ton of magic and the main character is an ordinary guy surrounded by a bunch of illogically-attractive people, all vying for his attention, just like all good Japanese cartoons in my humble opinion. Look, I’m not a HUGE merchandise person- I only JUST got to the point where I can’t sit down on my bed because of all the character pillows, unlike some people who watch one series and get to the same status overnight- but I think I might buy a statue or two of this one. We’ll see.
‘Clear Companion Princess’ depicts some local companies that offer window replacement in Melbourne. They’re generally just doing their thing, but in a very slight alternate reality in which window replacement is the hottest thing around, everyone gets it at least once a month and window replacement and repair companies are in some intense competition. Our main character is an apprentice in one company, and his love interests are all apprentices in a bunch of other companies. Just imagine Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden romance, except there are a bunch of Juliets, the Romeo is ambiguously interested. They’re all working for window replacement companies, the Juliets are the ones vying for Romeo’s attention. One of the Juliets has known Romeo since they were kids and the other is one of his window academy friends and another is a macho girl who takes what she wants. As you can imagine another one is a meek, submissive maiden in her spare time and their forbidden romance is because Romeo works for a specialist company doing the best aluminium window installations Melbourne has to offer. That makes him a business rival for all the others love interests.
But in all other ways, it’s a revival of the classic Shakespearean tale in the modern era, with some nice animation and also window repairs and replacement is done via an extremely complex magic system.
I think Romeo is also the lost heir of an ancient kingdom, but otherwise, exactly the same.
-Dylan