Onii-chan, Gacha - First Impressions (Eps 1 & 2)

A story about an elementary school girl who finds an older brother in a Gachapon (toy vending machine). Something weird like this would only come from an anime/manga. In fact, it is an adaptation of the manga, which makes sense.

Miko (Rio Suzuki) lives with her eccentric family, a mother and three other siblings. Her mother is a manga artist and she doesn't prioritize her time to take care of her own family. So, she lets Miko do all the household chores. Her older sister, Mako, who is too lazy to help her and her younger siblings are little trouble makers. But Miko is finally fed up with her family because nobody appreciates her for all the hard work she's doing. She wishes she had an older brother who can sympathize with her.

Miko goes to the game center to try out the Onii-chan gacha that she heard about from her friend. Normally, how the gacha machine works is that you insert a coin and out comes a plastic ball with a small prize inside. Instead, there are bath bombs inside and you drop it in the tub, leave it over night, and out comes an older brother. Simple and convenient.

Miko has a rival named Natsuko, a snobbish-rich girl who is a diva ballerina. Miko dreams to become a ballerina like her. Natsuko already knows about the Onii-chan Gacha, which explains why she has five ikemen brothers who doesn't look related to her. She can't decide which brother she wants to settle with, so she buys ten more prizes. (Somebody please stop this girl.)

Miko is worried that she might get a Tanaka or a Yakki which are the unattractive and unlucky ones. But luckily she does get a cute older brother and she asks him to became her bother. He replies: "No way."  *shock*

Episode 2

The whole family quickly finds out about Miko's situation and they actually don't mind having the boy around. It's funny that the mother wants to create a new manga series based on Miko's story called Onii-chan Gacha, which she actually does. The boy doesn't have a name, so they name him Toy-kun or Toi, (Yuta Kishi). Miko gets annoyed that her family is making all of the decisions for her when she's the one responsible for him.

Back to the ballerina lessons, Natsuko brags about how great is to have brothers. She describes them as if they were her boyfriends. She rather have a brother than a boyfriend because boyfriend relationships are short-term while a brother's love lasts forever. (seriously somebody stop this girl, she's crossing the line!) But she does get jealous when she hears about that Miko has a brother who is a S rank, which is a rare Special rank. All of her brothers are A rank which is stamped on their bodies.

The family quickly accepts Toi into their family. Toi notices that he has never seen their father. The mother tells him that he went out on a trip to somewhere. But he acts very nice towards the other family members expect for Miko who he treats her coldly. She doesn't understand why he's not nice to her. In the end, she deduces that he's not anything Special, he's Sadistic.
  

Miko takes Toi back to the game center to have him erased. The professor who makes these Onii-chan Gacha, notices that Toy-kun's soul is made from somebody who died of an illness. That's the reason why he gets headaches and he remembers  a small glimpse of his past. But if Miko wants to keep him, she has to pay 1000 coin medals a week. She would like to keep him if he can be nice to her. He disagrees to do so, but he will help her find a brother that she wants
.

Toi can actually see wants inside the plastic balls. As Natsuko draws 10 more prizes to get an S rank, he notes that all her draws are unlucky. He suggest that Miko should get the one after she finishes all her failed ones. It turns out that he was right. Miko did get a nice older brother who is filled with cuteness overload.  

  

Thoughts

I'm not a big fan of Jdramas starring a huge cast Johnny's Jr. because I have very low expectations from them. But they fit-in perfectly in this ridiculous storyline. And, I actually had fun watching it.

I do like the setting of the drama. It has a very whimsical, colorful, and the Game Center had a retro atmosphere. The world that these characters live in is wacky, and it's like they live inside of a theme park.

There are random mini musical/dance sequence in this show, which caught me off guard. It was so random and embarrassing to watch. But it was LOL hilarious. Guys, you seriously need to watch this.

I'm sort of getting a shady vibe from the professor whose making these "Onii-chans." It seems like he's is using dead souls and putting them into a another body. And, exploiting them to children. What's going on here!?  But I'm curious where these guys come from.

Anyway, it's a sweet and silly story. The ridiculousness of it is putting me in a good mood and I do want to continue to watch the show. I think it will be fun to watch what kind of Gacha brothers will Miko encounter later on, since each brothers have different personality types.