Anime Under Construction

Every Summer I take on a major project for my home. Some times it’s re-landscaping the yard, sometimes it’s moving the driveway, some times it’s renovating the garden shed. This year it’s painting the kitchen! The previous owner of the house I live in seemed to think that the best color you could possibly paint a kitchen is vomit green. I’m not joking, the whole thing is painted this muddy, pukey color of green! Even the little nooks and crannies are painted vomit green! Whyyyyyyyy? The color in this room is so noxious that we never eat in the kitchen, and instead have our meals in the den. At last I’ve finally had enough. I’ve endured the assault on my eyes for too long, this color needs to go!

So, as I’ve been spending quite a few hours slathering drippy cream colored acrylic over my kitchen walls (it’s a very boring and slow job) it got me to wondering, is there any anime about fixing up a house? Honestly I couldn’t think of a single one. I couldn’t even think of an anime that mentioned refurbishing a house. I could think of plenty of anime that go into great detail about cleaning a house. In fact there are anime that dedicate whole episodes on just house cleaning, but actually fixing parts of a house that are broken, worn, or out dated. . . I drew a complete blank! So, I went to the internet, and the internet also drew a complete blank.

Hmm, maybe renovating houses isn’t as much of a thing in Japan as it is in North America? And because less people renovate their homes, anime artists put it into anime less? At least that’s my theory of why there doesn’t seem to be any “Flip This House” anime edition. If anyone is an expert on Japanese home renovation, please let me know! So, though there isn’t many anime characters that can sympathize with my project, here are some fun anime series that do gild their nest just a bit!

I’ve been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed out my Level!

The anime I’ve been Killing Slimes ect. is about a woman who dies from over work and gets isekaied into a fantasy world, much like other isekais. But the goddess that brought the main character into this new world has a soft spot for cute over worked ladies, so she gives the main character magic powers, a cute little cottage in a mountain glen, the power to never age, and of course a youthful and cute appearance! The moment the main character is plopped down into her new fantasy world she decides to live the slow life as the country witch Azusa. She doesn’t go adventuring, she doesn’t over throw an evil kingdom, she just kills enough slimes to make a little money and makes healing potions to sell at the nearby town.

Well, times passes, and I mean a lot of time, like 300 years! And she’s been killing slimes and making potions not stop all that time, so without even trying Azusa maxes out her power level and becomes a well known super powerful witch. And once Azusa becomes well known, it starts attracting all sorts of attention she never expected, or wanted. Like a dragon that wants to defeat her to so it can become powerful and famous, or a duo of slime girls that want to get revenge for all the slimes the witch has murdered over the centuries.

Of course the witch Azusa is no push over, and usually beats who ever attacks her pretty quickly. And weirdly enough, the attacker usually decides to stay with the witch! As people challenge her to duels, her found family grows, and before not too long her little cottage in the mountain glen is a bit too little. So bit by bit the little cottage gets improved, then added on to, and eventually replaced by a bigger home. This comedy anime has a wonderful subplot of not just building a family but also building a home where they can be happy!

Fruits Basket

For an anime that has nothing to do with home renovations or construction, it’s pretty surprising how often it does come up in the series! Of course, with the rowdy Sohma boys running around in both their human forms and animal forms, there is plenty of damage getting done to poor Shigure’s house. His modest two story home has to endure everything from getting holes kicked into the roof to countless paper screen doors getting broken! But perhaps the most influential home renovation that changed the whole story was never really shown in the anime. The remodeling of Tohru’s grandfather’s house. It was the beginning of that major project that caused Tohru to lose her place to stay with her grandfather (after her mother’s death) and forced her to camp out in the woods. Woods that happened to be on the Sohma’s family land. Family land that Shigure’s house is on. Shigure’s house that Tohru happens to walk by one morning as she was commuting from her tent in the woods to school. Just think, if Tohru’s grandfather never began remodeling his house, the entire Fruits Basket series might have never happened!

Anne Happy

The anime Anne Happy doesn’t really have much of any home remodeling or renovations mentioned in it, but it does have a bit of very cute construction that was quite important to the main character Ruri. The anime is about a small group of girls that are all put in the same class at school for one reason, they all have terrible luck. Not just somewhat unlucky, they have the worst luck ever. Like when the class was given grocery store eggs to care for, and for one unlucky girl, it somehow hatched into a chick! Or when one of the girls tried to save a puppy and got bitten, and then fell off a bridge! And just like how the girls terrible luck seems to be a bit random, and unexpected, so it the main character’s secret crush. Ruri adores her crush so much she keeps a photo of them in her school bag, and often goes to see them on her way home from school. Though it’s an unusual relationship, thankfully when her new friends found out, they were quite supportive! Supportive for Ruri’s love of . . . A construction site safety sign. Not the person depicted on the safety sign, but the sign itself. Much like the anime itself, Ruri’s affection is both adorable and a little weird!