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alias_sqbrThis anime is about two awkward Info Science grad students who think they might be in love...and so co-opt the rest of their lab into helping with Objective Scientific Tests to know for sure. It is completely ridiculous, and kinda male gazey and heteronormative, with lots of mathematical equations.
I adored it, but only rec it to anyone else into the niche intersection of Ridiculous Anime Rom-Com and Maths Nerdery.
I've watched the 7 episodes currently on Crunchyroll. This trailer gives a pretty good idea.
I would guess that the author has spent time in maths/computer science academia, but to give some idea of the level of realism, everyone wears labcoats, and Science Type is treated as a distinct personality. Also the maths is mostly ok for what it is but the social science has very poor methodology. I keep thinking FORM A CROSS DEPARTMENTAL WORK GROUP, but I guess STEM grads thinking they can figure out social sciences from scratch is definitely not the most unrealistic part of this show.
There's three female scientists with varied personalities but those personalities are Secretly Romantic Science Type Bishouju, Normal Girl, and Flatly Snarky Goth Lolita (who is the senior researcher and best at maths)
Everyone agrees it makes sense to test the same sex pairings for the maximum amount of control data, but "it's ok kisses between girls don't count" and the m/m "kiss" is more of a headbutt. Still, it's not haremy, and while the camera is super into how hot the girls are, the male characters are respectful. There's a weird repeated theme of finding muscular guys gross.
They all have zero romantic experience and get adorably blushy when they hold hands with anyone. Well, except the goth lolita, who gets a kick out of flirting with everyone else, both watching them squirm and complicating the data.
It works pretty well as a silly rom com. It made me laugh, and the central romance is pretty cute: They both get a massive kick out of mathematical analysis and so will have cute moments where they, like, get excited together figuring out the most efficient path for their date using Travelling Salesman Optimisation Algorithms.
It pauses every now and then so that a talking bear can explain various science concepts, which generally assumes like high-school level maths, but you could treat that as incomprehensible technobabble and still follow the plots and jokes.
But oh my gosh look at this beautiful paper:
And then the show goes through and EXPLAINS EVERY TERM:
While actual researchers would hopefully have a better methodology, the author clearly thought about the problem for a while to come up with something at least superficially reasonable, and I had fun thinking about how I would analyse the (very silly) data myself.
*happy, nerdy sigh*
Now to try and track down the manga, which may have even more equations and more kissing.
(I gave summarised image descriptions, on the assumption that would be more informative for most people, but if anyone with image issues wants the full equations let me know :))
I adored it, but only rec it to anyone else into the niche intersection of Ridiculous Anime Rom-Com and Maths Nerdery.
I've watched the 7 episodes currently on Crunchyroll. This trailer gives a pretty good idea.
I would guess that the author has spent time in maths/computer science academia, but to give some idea of the level of realism, everyone wears labcoats, and Science Type is treated as a distinct personality. Also the maths is mostly ok for what it is but the social science has very poor methodology. I keep thinking FORM A CROSS DEPARTMENTAL WORK GROUP, but I guess STEM grads thinking they can figure out social sciences from scratch is definitely not the most unrealistic part of this show.
There's three female scientists with varied personalities but those personalities are Secretly Romantic Science Type Bishouju, Normal Girl, and Flatly Snarky Goth Lolita (who is the senior researcher and best at maths)
Everyone agrees it makes sense to test the same sex pairings for the maximum amount of control data, but "it's ok kisses between girls don't count" and the m/m "kiss" is more of a headbutt. Still, it's not haremy, and while the camera is super into how hot the girls are, the male characters are respectful. There's a weird repeated theme of finding muscular guys gross.
They all have zero romantic experience and get adorably blushy when they hold hands with anyone. Well, except the goth lolita, who gets a kick out of flirting with everyone else, both watching them squirm and complicating the data.
It works pretty well as a silly rom com. It made me laugh, and the central romance is pretty cute: They both get a massive kick out of mathematical analysis and so will have cute moments where they, like, get excited together figuring out the most efficient path for their date using Travelling Salesman Optimisation Algorithms.
It pauses every now and then so that a talking bear can explain various science concepts, which generally assumes like high-school level maths, but you could treat that as incomprehensible technobabble and still follow the plots and jokes.
But oh my gosh look at this beautiful paper:
And then the show goes through and EXPLAINS EVERY TERM:
While actual researchers would hopefully have a better methodology, the author clearly thought about the problem for a while to come up with something at least superficially reasonable, and I had fun thinking about how I would analyse the (very silly) data myself.
*happy, nerdy sigh*
Now to try and track down the manga, which may have even more equations and more kissing.
(I gave summarised image descriptions, on the assumption that would be more informative for most people, but if anyone with image issues wants the full equations let me know :))
