Convincing Someone to Wear a Kigurumi Is Not Hard

School festivals are no joke. They may seem like the most laid-back and enjoyable part of the school year. But preparing for one is a whole different set of challenges. Not impossible, but certainly nowhere near being leisurely.

"Wait, you do know that you girls will be involved sooner or later no matter what right?"

Just ask Tsumiki Miniwa and the rest of the gang. Io Otonashi, the one who thought of the idea, did not even manage to consult them before he was confronted by Mayoi. Worse, their outfit designs were still up in the air until the very same Mayoi brought them direct suggestions.

"It won't just sell well. It's also going to be self-sufficient, AND auto-defensible!"

What was the idea you ask? Apparently, Io is planning to set up a simple crepe stall. This is something that was brought up after he managed to learned how to make one during his part-time job. The actual design of the crepe stall kind of turned to be way too advanced for its purpose, but everything still checked out.

animal kigurumi

"Umm... I don't think she'll be too happy to learn that her outfit is a kigurumi."

There is one single tiny problem though. Io wanted to design a different outfit for Tsumiki to wear. Since Mayoi and Hime are already set to wear waitress outfits, he thought it might be a good idea to assign Tsumiki as the mascot of the stall. Thus, he started designing and sewing what would soon be her signature kigurumi.

animal kigurumi getting carried by her teacher

"Oh, so mine's a kigurumi... not wearing it then."

... except Tsumuki was not amused by the idea at all. She never gave any specific reason, but she immediately turned down the idea once it was revealed what exactly her outfit will be.

"He was up all night for this you know?" "I wasn't."
"Look at all his pricked fingers while he made this." "My fingers are completely fine."

Fortunately, this is the part where Mayoi and Sakaki whipped out their trump card strategy: to guilt-trip Tsumiki using her beloved crush until she caves in. 

"Alright, alright. I'll wear them already!"

It wasn't exactly a difficult execution either. All they needed, was exactly thirty seconds. One half of a minute to get Tsumiki to wear her school festival kigurumi.

animal kigurumi
animal kigurumi getting out of balance

The design of the kigurumi, as you may have already noticed from our "previews", is none other than a black cat kigurumi. Just what is it with cat kigurumi and school festivals being a trendy combo anyway?

animal kigurumi explaining to the teacher

"It's like she'd been wearing it since forever."

Because Tsumiki already has a strong cat-like aura around her, the kigurumi outfit makes perfect sense. Too perfect of a sense actually, and this is a remark that we can universally share with Mayoi and Sakaki, who are not even slightly surprised at how natural it looks for her.

animal kigurumi receiving her food

"Here. I did promise that you would be the first to taste my crepes right?"

In any case, the preparations are done, and all that is left is to use Io's alien-level charisma to reel in every single visitor for the day. But before that, he honors a special request from Tsumiki that was made several days earlier.

"Yup, we suddenly received lots of balloons after giving out free crepe coupons."

At the end of the day, Hime and Mayoi brought lots of balloons for the team, appreciating their job well done.

animal kigurumi in the air tide with balloons

"She's floating?!"

Umm... not to celebrate actually, but to add to our already too adorable crepe stall kigurumi mascot. Apparently, Tsumiki's up in the air for it too... and I mean literally.

Acchi Kocchi (あっちこっち, Place to Place) takes you to the quiet, relatively peaceful slice-of-life days of Io Otonashi and Tsumiki Miniwa. It's even more laid-back if we consider the shy nature of Tsumiki and the overall aloof nature of Io. But the cute interactions, as well as the adorable reactions of the characters spice up what would otherwise be utterly uneventful days. A fact that is even more appreciated by its very vibrant and colorful character designs that are surprisingly not Doga Kobo made slightly chibi.

animal kigurumi

Then again, being that this is a slice-of-life show, expectations should always be at a minimum. Even, if the kigurumi for this series had a surprisingly important role within its episodes.