AKA: 月曜日のたわわ ; Getsuyobi no Tawawa

Genre: Fanservicey Romantic Comedy

Length: Web release, 24 episodes, 6 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on crunchyroll.

Content Rating: 16+ (Fanservice, sexual situations.)

Related Series: Anime Encyclopedia says there is a two-part OVA for Season 1 of the series, and an OVA for Season 2 as well

Also Recommended: Tsuredure Children

Notes: Based on illustrations by Kiseki Himura Copyright: 2021 Kiseki Himura/PBM

Rating:

Tawawa On Monday

Synopsis

Ai (no other name) is a high school girl who starts up a relationship with a salaryman she meets daily on the commuter train. Meanwhile, another salaryman (credited only as Senior) becomes involved with a female coworker (credited only as Junior); and, in the Second Season of the show, we meet one Maegami (who's never actually named in the anime series, as far as I can tell), who's involved with her ex-highschool teacher (she began her seduction of him while still his student); and there's a baseball player who's having moves put on him by a cheerleader.

Review

First, to avoid too much repetition , see my opening remarks on Ganbare Douki-chan, which is strikingly similar in many ways.

Tawawa, however, is ALL ABOUT BOOBS; every female here, it seems, has enormous ones. Ai says she's a J-cup (and still growing!); "Maegami" (again, never named in the anime, unless I missed it) has giant ones too, as well as the captain of the volleyball team at Ai's high school, who, like so many athletic girls in anime, is a lesbian (talk about cliches!), and who loves to fondle Ai's boobs in public. We've also got- let's see- a flight attendant who has fairly enormous ones as well, as does even a gas station attendant (do these even EXIST anymore, even in Japan???). Even Junior (a female character, remember) has atypically large ones. And the cheerleader's are even viewed as somewhat scandalous.

The show uses the enormous mammaries of its female cast as objects of humor, as objects of distraction, and of course as lures for the men of their choice, not to mention some more exotic uses (for example, as a shelf to put their drinks or cell phones on.) They're never depicted completely unclothed (though we do see some in bikini tops); the draw is just their sheer SIZE, and of course their jiggles. (There's muchness of THAT.) Boobs are, in short, the Featured Players in the show, and steal the scenes they're in, which are almost all of them.

Story? Well, they do try to squeeze a little of that in between the breasts, but it's a tight fit. (I could get MUCH heavier on the innuendo with this show, you know, but UNLIKE this show, I think I'll try to restrain it.) The show mostly comes across as a series of loosely connected vignettes involving its couples- this structure reminded me a lot of Tsuredure Children, which I thought MUCH better, and which I've made the Rec- but, again, most of the show is the girls using their massive Secondary Sexual Characteristics to entice the male objects of their interest. Ai, in particular, likes to tease with provocative statements, but then follow that with "I'm just kidding!". To which one would like to reply to her, "Then what DID you mean by saying that?". But it doesn't occur to the guy to say this, because it IS true that some men, when face-to-face with enormous boobs, lose much of their power of speech and ALL of their power of reason.

On the other hand, there are a few (rare) good moments: Senior and Junior have a conversation through an onsen wall, and with the sight of boobs for once not intruding into the scene, we have a verbal exchange that really sounds like a conversation between two people who are on their way to becoming a couple. When a conversation occurs just between our humongously-equipped ladies (in other words, between peers, sort of), then we can also get some sane and sensible exchange, as when Maegami talks with Ai about the fact that many would not accept Maegami's relationship with her former teacher. But when it's men and women talking...and those boobs are hanging there between them...(Sigh).

I should complain, before I go, about the similarity of the facial and hair designs of the female characters. (The similarity of their breasts I've already dwelt on at GREAT length.) I watched Season 2 before Season 1, and I thought there were only 3 couples, because I couldn't tell the difference between Ai and Junior. (The trick is to look at the males; even though they've no eyes (except for, inexplicably, Senior's boss), you can often tell better from their haircuts than you can from the girls' appearances.)

We will say that the show's weight is almost completely carried on the ladies' chests, and all the men can do is say thanks for the mammaries. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: This is as suggestive as a show can get without anybody getting COMPLETELY undressed. Mature situations, big time. 16+/ TV-MA