Uzaki-chan Joins the Work Force?
The trend of office settings in anime continues with My Tiny Senpai (うちの会社の小さい先輩の話, Uchi no Kaisha no Chiisai Senpai no Hanashi, Story of a Small Senior in My Company). Peter-Senpai noted the recent Twitter drama about the main character, Shiori Katase, having the audacity to sport a top-heavy physique in a small package. But anime has recently blessed fans with other office settings.
The big and small couple of Shiori and Shinozaki is easy to compare to My Senpai is Annoying for a gender role reversal. The winter 2023 season had the supernatural slice-of-life office romance anime, The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague. And J-List enjoyed the attention Ganbare Doukichan’s anime gave to artist Yom’s business suit illustrations of tights. I instantly want to check out any anime I see not set in a ninja village or a high school. Shiori’s short-stack fan service is as welcome as Uzaki-chan’s obnoxious college-girl vibe. I want to see how she smothers Shinozaki with loving attention!
The Company Staff of My Tiny Senpai
The original creator of My Tiny Senpai, Saiso, started the small and big, cute tale in a doujin series, which later became a web manga on Takeshobo’s Storia site. Spoilers: Saiso also has a doujin manga called “Story of a Happy Couple.” The newlyweds in those panels look awfully familiar! Studio Project No. 9 is adapting the manga for the summer anime season under industry veteran Mitsutoshi Satou as director. He has extensive experience as an episode director for shounen titles like Bleach and Food Wars!. But one of his two credits as a series director is Ikki Tousen: Western Wolves. Will My Tiny Senpai be as “action” packed? Project No. 9 recently finished the saccharine high school romance The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten for the spring anime season, which makes me expect similar sweetness from Shiori. Let’s meet the cast!
- Shiori Katase — Hina Tachibana (Satono Diamond from Uma Musume: Pretty Derby) Shiori likes cats. A lot. She even starts looking like one when she’s in a good mood. Strangely, the short-stack has never had a boyfriend.
- Takuma Shinozaki — Yuuki Shin (Takemichi Hanagaki from Tokyo Revengers) Shinozaki’s first year at the company became much better when his senpai, Shiori, started mentoring him. Or was she pampering him?
- Chinatsu Hayakawa — Yumiri Hanamori (Nadeshiko Kagamihara from Yuru Camp) Chinatsu is Shinozaki’s childhood friend and junior high classmate. She’s a secret otaku and cosplayer.
- Yutaka Shinozaki — Mikako Komatsu (Fujisaki from The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious) Shinozaki’s older sister, Yutaka, loves cute, small things. After meeting Shiori, she encourages her little brother to get together with her company senpai so she can enjoy Shiori’s presence too. Forever!
- Chihiro Akina — Nobunaga Shimazaki (Shidou Itsuka from Date A Live) Shiori and Shinozaki’s section chief has a rich fantasy life.
Office Love by the Numbers
We can see from the preview trailer and the art on the official website that My Tiny Senpai will hit the usual beats for an office love story. Somebody will get sick and need a home visit. There will be a Christmas office party. Sharing an umbrella in the rain will foster growing closeness. And somebody will drink beer out of a mug way too big for that person’s hands. The visual hook for Shiori will be how she turns into a cute kitten. There’s already a planned pillow cover of that image, so the producers understand their cultured audience.
My Tiny Senpai will stream on Crunchyroll for North American viewers starting July 1st.
Do you remember the swimming pool episode from Ganbare Doukichan? J-List has the figure for you if you want a physical reminder of Senpai-san’s intriguing tanlines. The Senpai-san Figure Swimsuit style is available for preorder now!
Are you ready to make another short-stack your waifu this summer? Do you think that Shinozaki dude will deserve her attention? How far will his sister Yutaka go to make Shiori her sister-in-law? Will you be watching? Let us know in the comments below or online on Facebook, Twitter, or Discord.
