Spelunker Sensei

It may seem strange at first to make an anime adaptation of a game that was released over 25 years ago, but it makes a lot more sense with context. Spelunker on the Famicom is a very notorious game in Japan for how easy it is to die. You literally cannot drop 2 feet without dying mid-air, à la Action 52. How do you make an anime with a weak protagonist like that? Make him a scrawny teacher, of course!

Spelunker Sensei is reminiscent of classic web animation with its sense of humor and pacing. Me putting it that way could lead you to believe that ... it's going to be nothing but a bunch of amateurishly-made slapstick shorts which would only be funny to people who have played the game. However, that is absolutely not the case. Spelunker Sensei takes the concept of having a super weak protagonist and goes all out with it, creating several creative scenarios that will defy your expectations and have you laughing out loud. I was actually taken by surprise just how smart the setups were and how well the punchlines were handled.

With that being said, can you watch it and still get some enjoyment out of it if you haven't played the game or know of its infamous status? Well, you can definitely get a chuckle or two if you know the context, but being more familiar with it is what I think will really sell this OVA to fans of Spelunker and hardcore retro gamers as a whole. Otherwise it's a solid 30 minutes of fun for everybody else.

But for those who are deeper into gaming culture, you may associate bad games with angry nerds and irate gamers, which were all the rage in the late 2000s with their fruity language and high tempers. Meanwhile in Japan a lot of these bad games, or "kusoge", are actually quite celebrated for numerous reasons. The is that seeing people get angry over games is funny, but why would you wanna be the one behind the controller yourself? Playing bad games doesn't sound like fun, does it? Not necessarily in the traditional sense, however, there definitely is a level of passion behind getting the most out of the flawed. There's something other-worldly about getting that AAA experience out of a piece of media. Contrasting that on the other side of the coin, there's also something very human about the more niche and indie stuff. Watching Spelunker Sensei, I could tell that everybody who worked on it loved Spelunker and had a blast putting this OVA together. It's is a love letter to anybody who can feel that very human energy out of media. Maybe it doesn't have the greatest and most professional production out there, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Spelunker Sensei (or Spelunker is a Teacher) is a 30 minute comedy OVA following the misadventures of a teacher who is a Spelunker and those around him. The idea is based on the video game Spelunker which is a rogue-like game about exploring caves and obtaining treasure. A more modern game based on the same idea is Spelunky, which has some of the same features of cave exploration and easy death.

The OVA is made up of numerous short gags, mostly focused on the fact that Spelunker Sensei can die from seemingly minor events. Sometimes the same set up is used multiple times with a ... different outcome, which I found amusing because it was hard to predict exactly how the situation would play out each time. It seems really similar to a lot of shows with 3-minute episode length, except that all the material is in one episode.

The animation is done in Flash and very basic, but I don’t think that this is a detriment to the show. The characters aren’t especially mobile, and the backgrounds are simple, but the comedy mostly revolves around dialogue so the visuals are of secondary importance. Most of the show is in a simple traditional anime style, although there are also some 8-bit style visuals and a few scenes which have been shot in real settings.

I found the music very enjoyable. The opening song ‘Risk My Life’ is lyrics set to the tune of Spelunker BGM and it was exciting and to me evoked the feeling of the adventure and difficulty of Spelunker Sensei’s life. The ending theme 恋は探検 (Love is an Expedition) was very cheerful and perhaps didn’t suit the very dry humour of the show as well, but it was catchy and fun to listen to. The background music during the show featured mainly some simple synthesiser sounds which I think complemented the comedy in an unobtrusive way.

As the comedy of the show is based around dialogue, the voice acting is important and I think that the cast performs very well. Sugita Tomokazu, known for his roles playing cynical characters, is definitely worth a special mention as I think he does a great job showing Spelunker Sensei's resigned attitude to life.

I really, really liked this show! I would definitely recommend it for fans of dry humour or if you like seeing a nod to retro games.

OK, first of all, I could not help but to notice the number of people who actually finished this half hour OVA (500 and something). The 8 guys or chicks who scored this with a 10 must have never watch a single comedy show, anime or not, in their short pre-teen lifes.

Spelunker Sensei does not deserve such a note, neither a big review, so I'm gonna be short:


Spelunker Sensei is a failed OVA containing 30 minutes of short jokes in the traditional random anime style. The characters are poor, the budget surely did not help in the art and sound department, and the premise, which ... could have been entertaining if well developed, was poorly handled by the producers.

Some of the jokes were a little bit funny, but most were pretty dumb and not good enough to be called "good non-sense humour". It's hard to understand what did Spelunker Sensei try to say to its viewers, especially when the main character seems to be constantly dying with no aparent explanation. Sure, this is a reference to a game from 1983, in which dying was as easy as taking baby from a child. But there was no particular care in this OVA to let the viewer understand this. Would that be so hard? However, this show did not have a hard time turning 30 minutes of my life into a boring moment which I will never forget, right next to Pale Cocoon and Shiki.

So, I decided to score Spelunker Sensei with a 3. Don't like it? Me neither :D


RATING THE ANIME:
Story - 5
Art - 4
Sound - 4
Character - 1
Overall - 3