Kin-iro Mosaic is an anime based on the 4-panel manga of the same name, with the first season consisting of 12 episodes. It is a slice of life comedy set in high school. It begins with Omiya Shinobu, a young Japanese girl who homestays in England and meets Alice Cartelet. Alice is a shy young girl, but the pair quickly becomes friends. After some cultural differences and language barrier, they build a true bond but time passes quickly, bidding each other a teary goodbye as Shino returns to Japan.
5 years later, Shino is surprised when Alice comes over to Japan to study, at her high school and in the same class no less. Alice becomes friends with Shino's group, consisting of Yoko (a carefree, athletic girl who likes to eat) and Aya (the smart and serious one of the bunch). To round it all out, Alice's friend, Karen from England, comes over to Japan to study as well. Karen, who is soon initiated into the group, is more outspoken and straightforward compared to Alice. Her quick friendship with Shino causes Alice to become jealous. Furthermore, Karen is rich and very random, often inserting one or two English words into her dialogue, and is more informal with her Japanese.
Shino herself is fixated with Western culture, and everything related to it, to the point where she wants to go to England to live forever and become a Westerner herself. Alice on the other hand is fixated with everything related to Japan, which parallels the fact that something is always more interesting if it is foreign to you. The anime seems to play on the fact that Japan loves Western things and everyone at school becomes entranced when Alice or Karen speaks English. Earlier on, the episodes frequently have English dialogue and while the characters are supposed to be British, their pronunciation has a heavy Japanese accent, which kind of breaks the immersion.
It's ironic in and of itself since the grammar isn't great when English is spoken, yet the characters state that it is perfect English and are in awe. As the series go on, there is less English spoken and kind of reverts to a typical school life anime. The humor in Kin-iro Mosaic is pretty good and is what makes the viewer get through the episodes. Shino herself is absentminded and oblivious; her fixation is played to great effect. Accepting the fact that the anime brushes aside the complexities of life, making it seem easy to just immigrate to another country on a whim, it's enjoyable.
There are short funny skits in the middle of each episode which is another highlight. The plot focuses on the everyday life, such as going to the mountains for a holiday, learning about Shino's sister, attending summer festivals and studying for tests. Some of the events can get pretty random though, and it seems that the plot loves going onto tangents. As expected of something where the protagonists are all female, and with a fixation on aspects that borders on creepiness, there is a lot of girls' love here. There is an open ending that doesn't provide closure to the story in any meaningful way. However, it does show that the school year has ended and the characters are now juniors instead of freshmen.
The art style is very picturesque and the backgrounds look pretty. The characters themselves are designed to be younger than their supposed age. There are two different art styles, the normal cutey one and then there is an even cuter chibi design for the gags. Overall, Kin-iro Mosaic is an okay comedy anime. The gimmick of a foreigner staying in Japan quickly fades into the background and not much is really done about it. The main focus is Shino and her creepy fixation on everything Western (including objectifying Alice and Karen) and the humor this creates is the main draw.
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