You know what show no one ever talks about this season? Chu-Bra!. When I saw the previews and everything, I knew it wasn’t exactly the pedigree to success. A middle school girl obsessed with girls underwear starting an underwear club to educate her classmates on how to properly wear underwear isn’t exactly setting off a massive wave of anticipation as the second coming of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. But for some reason or another, I really really really like watching this show…

So lets cut to the chase. This show is about women’s underwear. Nayu loves it and knows everything there is to know about finding the perfect fit and what they are made of and stuff. The art is really cartoony and the character designs are kinda cute. For what it’s worth, there’s a lot less ecchi in this show than I expect from a show about the topic. Pantyshots are so common nowadays that I don’t even think twice when they happen. I genuinely find this show pretty funny and entertaining and all my friends tell me I am insane.

The voice acting cast is rather odd, with Chihara Minori as the main character heading up a cast including Ohara Sayaka as well as K-ON! veterans Hisaka Yoko and Kotobuki Minako. The voice acting isn’t particularly outstanding, but it’s not bad either.

This almost sounds like a joke but this show is written very well. Nayu is nice, likable, and has an interesting backstory. Her love for underwear is innocent and genuine and her relationship with her older brother and grandma gives her character complexity. Yako is ok but I feel that Haruka is a touch underdeveloped (no ironic pun intended). Kiyono, who shows up a few episodes in, is a nearly perfect foil character for Nayu. While Nayu is innocent, childlike, and aloof, Kiyono is much more knowledgeable about the naughty stuff and more daring. She also happens to be moe off the fucking charts.

This cut made me choke on my drink.

While Nayu has a more utilitarian, functional view of lingerie, Kiyono is almost exclusively focused on the sexual appeal of the garments. This is a microcosm of the actual trends in lingerie design the past 20 years. Generally larger manufacturers targeted the mainstream market for comfortable, aesthetic underwear for general use. The conflicting design philosophy focuses on sexually arousing lingerie instead. Near the turn of the 21st century, however modern technology has allowed for more advanced designs at lower costs, and designers are thus focusing on richer looking designs wish as with laces and more bells and whistles while still making comfortable usable underwear, forming kind of a merging of the two schools of thought. A very obvious modern example is Victoria Secret’s recent Pink group of brands, which are stylishly attractive, mildly suggestive, and designed for comfort.

Before this blog post becomes more creepy, I’ll just speculate that the plot of the show is an extended metaphor about the social views on underwear. I also expect in depth social commentary on the role modern underwear play on the liberation of women. Finally, I expect advanced psychoanalytical metaphors about maturity,  youth, and the coming of age. Enough to put even Salinger into his grave. Oh wait…

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