AKA: Pia Carrot e Youkoso 2 DX

Genre: Romantic comedy / drama

Length: OAV series, 6 episodes, 30 minutes each

Distributor: Currently licensed by Sentai Filmworks.

Content Rating: 13+ (fan service)

Related Series: Pia Carrot, Pia Carrot 2, Pia Carrot: Sayaka's Love Story, Pia Carrot: Sayaka's Summer Story

Also Recommended: Hand Maid May, Pia Carrot: Sayaka's Love Story, Ranma 1/2

Notes: Apparently, this is supposed to be a non-hentai version of Pia Carrot 2, with some changes made in the plot, but otherwise a lot of the same characters.

Rating:

Pia Carrot 2 DX

Synopsis

Welcome to Pia Carrot, a diner/restaurant chain, where the food is good, the view is great and the girls are so gosh darn cute.

In this series, we meet Koji who, due to a chance encounter with a girl, is late for his job interview at Pia Carrot. After a lot of hassle, he gets the job anyway and discovers, much to his surprise and consternation, that the girl he crashed into earlier and caused him to be late is the same girl he now will be working together with.

Review

And the second I saw the two crash together, start yelling at each other and calling each other names, I knew that they would proclaim their love towards each other by the time the series finished. And if that seems spoilerish or you didn't see it coming upon your viewing of this title, I have only one thing to say: Welcome to the wonderful world of anime.

Of course, that left me with the knowledge of there being six entire episodes where they would argue, fight or at other times, do something embarrassing towards each other. It's not just the fact that the pairing is obvious enough from the start. They practically hammer it into your head with a large clue-by-four frequently during the entire series, no matter how many alternative love interests they throw in. Oh well, even if you know the destination of the journey, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the ride.

Compared to the movie (or OAV, depending on your point of view), Sayaka's Love story, the art and animation of THIS OAV is less detailed though just as greatly animated. The whole thing is based more on comedy, so the pace is at times more fast and frantic than the movie. (Okay, I'm not gonna say it.) Overall, it's pleasing enough.

The VA's are great as usual. The music is, like in the movie, not really my cup of tea. In contrast to the movie, though, it's far more peppy, though still not any more likable.

Since this is a multi-episode OAV and therefore has a lot more playtime than the movie, they had the chance to put more weight into plot and character development. And, luckily, they didn't completely waste it. True, there are still just too many (albeit very cute) girls there to address each and every one of them, but the few main ones are being played out a lot more than any of the girls from the movie. Mainly Hinomori Azusa, the rather temperamental main love interest and Enomoto Tsukasa, the girl they threw in to try and make it into a "which girl will he choose" deal. (Which ultimately fails because the hints of the "fated couple" are still there.)

And while I'm glad to see that Azusa, despite her temper, is a generally non-violent girl, Koji sort of annoyed me by adapting all the characteristics of the "typical anime teenage male." I.E. A drooling, slightly perverted moron. He's like Golden Boy's Oe Kintaro, except without his charm and his get-going spirit, but most definitely with his interest in girls and their assets. At least I can take SOME pleasure in him improving through the show, if just a little.

All in all, this title is pretty much worth the time to watch as well, like the movie. It plays on the humor a lot more than the movie, which is good. It has more stereotypical and generally typecast characters, which isn't quite as good. The fanservice is upped somewhat compared to the movie, though not too outrageously. (The cleavage factor is a little higher, due to the girls being a little more generously endowed than in the movie.) Whether that is a good or bad thing I'll leave up to you.

In either case, Pia Carrot's a nice place to spend some free time in. I approve.

— Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: Teens or over. While there is still no violence, the fan service part is upped some compared to the movie. Like I said, it really isn't bad. Baywatch is far worse than Pia Carrot 2 DX in that area, just to put it into perspective.