Boring, annoying, unnecessarily pervy, and otherwise pretty mid · Waifora

TL;DR

Name: Boring, annoying, unnecessarily pervy, and otherwise pretty mid
Item: BLEND-S
Rating: 40
Author: michaohneel

It's a slice-of-life but all the jokes are just repeated over and over again. On top of that, the main cast is nothing special and the two protagonists are weird and just the low-light of the cast.
There is romance, but it's mediocre at best and honestly just gross sometimes: Tenchō is supposed to be 26 and he is constantly trying to hit on the 16-year-old Sakuranomiya Maika. Ew.
At least the show is self-aware about it:

Full Review

The show's premise of a bunch of characters working as actors/servants in a café is pretty good, but the execution is terrible. It gets old really fast, and they do a horrible job at changing things up so that it doesn't become stale. If they hadn't introduced new characters from time to time, I would have dropped it for sure.
A lot of the action is unrealistic to the point of being annoying, and it was hard to make sense of it half the time. For example:

Spoiler, click to view

Around once per episode, Tenchō does something of which he thinks it upset Sakuranomiya Maika, but it actually didn't. Then he apologizes, making her feel bad and she apologizes. This just spins in circles a bit until another character breaks them up.

And this sort of thing makes up a majority of the conflict in the show, it's honestly pretty sad how repetitive it is.

Story — 3/10

I understand that this is supposed to be a slice-of-life anime, where story is not at all the focus, but the way they handled this is just bad in my opinion. Many slice-of-life shows (including some of my favorite shows ever) don't have a story at all, but this anime does it worse.
They tried to make a slice-of-life, but they wanted to jam in a story, and the first best thing that came to mind was apparently a cringy romance story that goes nowhere. That on its own wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the fact that 80% of the shows jokes, actions, and conflicts happen solely because of this ‘romance’ between Tenchō and Sakuranomiya Maika. The show wound be nothing if it weren't for these two characters.

Spoiler, click to view

Later on, a little bit of romance develops between Kōyō Akizuki and Hinata Kaho, and I would have loved to see that lead somewhere, but they eventually just killed it off or forgot about it.

I think introducing the characters one by one is a smart decision, but it doesn't help much, especially when they introduce the dog that they then forget about for the next two episodes and that has absolutely no purpose whatsoever other than being a cheap plot-device.
The last episode is above average until they slap the most unsatisfying ending on it that they possibly could have, and – of course – a fanservice-Onsen-scene.

Characters — 6/10

The main cast is diverse and fun, the personalities play nicely with the characters' acts in the café, and their amount is well-chosen.
However, the two protagonists (Sakuranomiya Maika and Tenchō) couldn't be more generic in my opinion. Their introduction is cliché and unrealistic too, and their age-gap of ten years is just too much for me.
Hoshikawa Mafuyu is pretty okay all things considered, maybe a little one-sided, but I think it's fine.
Hinata Kaho is annoying at first but sees some serious development later on in the show, making her a good character overall.
Amano Miu is a one-trick pony but still kind of fun.
Same goes for Akizuki Kōyō: one-trick pony, but kind of fun. He also sees some development later on, which is nice.
Kanzaki Hideri is best girl. Period. But jokes aside, Kanzaki Hideri is unironically not a terrible character and it's a shame that they introduce her so late into the show.

Spoiler, click to view

Yes, Kanzaki Hideri is technically a boy, but I didn't want to spoil that, which is why I called them ‘her’.

I feel like if the show revolved around Hinata Kaho and Akizuki Kōyō, it would be a lot more interesting and less repetitive than it turned out to be.

World — 5/10

It's small, as usual for a slice-of-life, but the café is nice and everything feels immersive.
The homes of all the characters look convincing and nice.
Overall average, but not terrible at all.

Visuals — 6/10

There are some nice effects here and there that really enhance some of the scenes, but it's nothing flashy.
The OP spoils the characters that later get introduced, but the ED doesn't, which is kind of weird.
My main problem with the visuals is simply that Sakuranomiya Maika is supposed to have this terrifying look on her face, when there is literally no sight of that (or I'm just blind). Akizuki Kōyō looks much more frightening and yet that is never mentioned.

Audio — 4/10

The sound design is pretty decent, but both the OP and ED are musical trash, if you ask me.
The OP was meme'd to death, and that is all that it's good for; it's not fun, it's not natural, it feels corporate and half-hearted. Same thing goes for the ED, except that is also boring as all hell. They even messed up the mixing on the ED.

Comedy — 6/10

There were some funny moments sprinkled throughout the show, but that gets undermined by the fact that nearly every joke gets repeated at some point, making it frustrating and boring.
I like the awkwardness between some of the characters, except between Tenchō and Sakuranomiya Maika, which was just dry repetition of a kindergarten romance.

Rewatchability — 1/10

Really, it's just not worth watching a second time, unless you like the comedy aspect of it.

Note that I did not grade on sadness (as I usually do), because the show just wasn't ever trying to be sad, and it would have just dragged down the score.

Conclusion

Average of all scores: 4.4/10
Average without rewatchability: 5/10
My score: 4/10
It's a very average show with a premise that could have been cool but wasn't. On top of that, the protagonists are unlikable and the conflicts are stiff and dry in most places.
I was expecting more.