What’s it about? After working another late night, corporate drone Seiichiro Kondou crosses paths with a teenage girl being pulled into a magic portal. Trying to help her, Seiichiro winds up as an accidental plus-one to an otherworld summoning ritual The girl, Yua Shiraishi, has been summoned as the legendary Holy Maiden who can purify the once-a-century miasma that descends upon the land. Lacking a purpose of his own (and more than a little suspicious of the whole thing), Seiichiro does the only thing he can: continues working as an accountant.
There are never enough gay genre shows. Much as I love a grounded contemporary drama, my heart yearns to see queer people kissing in space and fighting monsters. The 2020s have seen decided improvements on this front—we’ve had cosmic horror fighters and enjoyers, mecha sapphics and gays, fantasy princesses and magical boys—but it remains a relatively small subset of the industry’s gigantic production slate, and so it still sets my heart aflutter. Especially when the title comes with such glowing buzz around it as Bean Counter, a title that’s been on my to-read list for ages.
It truly warms my heart that Studio DEEN has become a safe haven for queer titles. Once shorthand for stiff and off-model animation, they’ve finely honed the art of working smart with limited resources—AKA the Chiaki Kon special. Doesn’t hurt either that at this point director Shinji Ishihira is a proven safe pair of hands for BL adaptation and series composer Yosiko Nakamura’s resume is a string of bangers from Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun to Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle to Sasaki and Miyano. The sakuga isn’t going to take anyone’s breath away, but it’s deft in using boarding to convey mood and saving the punch for where it’s needed most.
While I’m definitely here to watch this overworked (almost) 30-year-old accountant eventually kiss the gruff knight with mysterious motives, the plot element that’s caught my eye the most so far is the “holy maiden” stuff. Stories about magical benefactors usually slow play the realization through the eyes of the teenager being conned, but Seiichiro has a grasp that something’s wrong from the jump—he just doesn’t know why. There’s a fine line to portraying Yua as impulsive and immature without making her a punching bag stand-in for shojo isekai fantasies, but Bean Counter is walking the line so far. Yua is clearly acting out of good intentions, and Seiichiro isn’t the greatest communicator either, and it all leaves me hopeful that this will be a solid story about how teen girls’ desire to make the world better get exploited. (It does also help that Lizzie is a fan of the novels and spoke well of how this thread turned out).
I’m also extremely here for a court conspiracy story that rests on improperly submitted paperwork. It’s goofy to say but executed with all sincerity, and it’s the kind of attention to detail that’s shared by the most skilled journalists and important whistle-blowers. I do wonder if the show will eventually run into writing problems between the one season curse and the fact that the three-volume novel series is still ongoing, but hopefully there’s at least a graceful ending point to the first act. All I know is that I’m locked in—I’ve heard nothing but praise for the source material, and this episode has been a continued testament to the adaptive team’s skills. Here’s looking forward to next week.
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