SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary

2024

Original language: Japanese

animation
mystery

The story

Kobato decides to become an honest, humble citizen after enduring a bitter experience known as “wisdom work.” He forms a pact with Osanai, his classmate with the same goal, and they plan to enter high school leading quiet lives. But for some reason, inexplicable events and disasters keep happening around them. Will Kobato and Osanai ever manage to live ordinary, peaceful lives?

What it’s like

Bright, clean hand-drawn animation sets sunlit school corridors, tidy classrooms, and quiet residential streets against soft pastel skies and warm afternoon yellows, giving an ordinary Japanese town just enough exaggeration to feel playful. Cuts snap between deadpan close-ups and wider comic staging, and the score is light and bouncy, dropping out entirely for awkward pauses and small comic beats. The vibe is wry and low-key: a comedy of escalating mishaps with an undercurrent of unexplained oddness, gentle enough for a lazy weekend afternoon or an easy evening after a long week. The pacing is brisk, with each episode building on the last, and the emotional register stays dry and affectionate as two boys who only want to blend in slowly become unlikely allies. Intensity is mild: slapstick, some peril played for laughs, no gore, no sexual content, and nothing truly frightening. For viewers who want quirky, low-stakes mystery with a sense of humour, a comfort watch with a pinch of strangeness.

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