In what was a first for me, I watched this on Crunchyroll. It’s a little disappointing, animation-wise. It’s very limited, feeling very static for much of its runnning time, and the character design loses some of the charm of Natsume Ono‘s art work. But it’s worth writing a little about, as it has some sexual politics to it that are fairly refreshing in this age of otakubait shows about schoolgirls.
The main character, Nicoletta, is in her early 20’s. And she falls for Claudio, a married, middle-aged man who works at the restaurant owned by her mother’s new husband. Her mother meanwhile, has made all the men who work at the restaurant wear glasses, which attracts an clientele of women who lust after them. Unlike the typical sex object characters in an anime however, they are all fully aware of it, and there’s a fun scene where they all discuss the matter round a table.
By being a middle-aged man’s fantasy of being hit upon by a younger woman (the internet tells me that the manga appeared in a seinen magazine*), but written from the woman’s POV, it neatly creates a story that doesn’t feel like either gender is being fetishised too much.
The weaknesses in its actual animation production make it an ideal candidate for watching streamed rather than purchasing, and I’ll probably check out future episodes.
Here’s a couple of links that go some way to suggesting why this particular manga got an anime made:
Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans -カレセン[karesen]
The Japan Times – The withered middle-aged guy becomes a hot item in Japan’s dating market
* Have just read that Erotics F contains content for both men and women, so take all of that with a pinch of salt.