Apathy seems to have been a trendy topic for anime the past few years, culminating in 2012 with Hyouka’s Oreki whose, if you’ll forgive the pun, entire driving force was to pursue a languorous existence, free of exertion. Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko (Electrowave Girl and Youthful Boy / Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl) may have preceded Hyouka by a year but nevertheless rails against this trend of laziness, ironically doing so in the most languid and nonchalant way possible.

It doesn’t start as such. The first episode is, for the lack of a better phrase, very SHAFT, by which I mean very Shinbo. It’s sparkling, protractedly verbose and cut together with just enough self-assured rough edges to be purposeful.

It’s pretty terrible.

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I woke up this morning having dreamt about being stabbed in the mouth by a women with a maze tattooed on her face; suffice to say it took the fruit, bread and coffee breakfast before I was firmly back in normality and sure I wasn't dead. My designs for a device that shot flies with lasers was refined with Matt and I constantly barraged by the annoying insects. The shower in the casa was little more than a pipe extending from the wall in a wet-room, however it trumped all the other showers I had experienced in Cuba by actually spewing hot water rather than the tepid or at best, lukewarm the others had managed.

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