Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again – 01 (First Impressions) – It Does What’s On the Tin – RABUJOI – An Anime Blog
Elderly couple Saitou Ine and Saitou Shouzou, both well into their eighties, are tending to their orchard when they find an odd golden apple hanging from the tree they planted when they were married. The next day, they wake up suddenly young again (though still with grayish white hair).
Their younger family members take this pretty well, all things considered. In fact, their granddaughter Mino and her mom / their daughter-in-law Kaede have the hots for the fetching Young Shouzou, which is definitely … a choice! If I were to continue watching, hopefully they don’t go back to that problematic well too often, if at all!
Ine and Shouzou live in a town with no children left, which is an increasingly common thing in Japan. But when the inter-town sports festival takes place, rival Igarashi’s two grandsons are no match for the young Ine and Shouzou in the various events.
One of the grandsons, Shouta, is in Mino’s class, but while he thinks she’s way out of his league, when his gramps sends him to deliver a thank-you gift, Mino is super friendly and nice to him, and Ine and Kaede start getting excited about the prospect of the two youngins going out, getting married and giving Ine and Shouzou some great-grandchildren.
This is a straightforward gag comedy, jumping from one skit to the next punctuated by interstitials. Its production values are merely adequate, and the plainish-looking characters brought to life by some veteran voice work, including Noto Mamiko as Ine. While unlikely to make the Spring cuts, I dug the high concept and general earnestness.
