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Apr 10, 2024
The show is basically what the title says it is: it's about the villain, but on his day off. We never even learn his actual name, he's just Mr. Villain or The General just to show you that this guy really is the top tier baddest of the bad, head of his evil organization (which itself is called "The Evil Organization), except he's actually a pretty nice guy who doesn't seem to get worked up about much of anything, unless you break his cardinal rule... never interrupt his day off. The fact that this came out in the same season as [i]Time for Torture, Princess[/i]
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could have easily made one show or the other feel redundant, since they both have a similar premise of "the villains are actually pretty chill", but the fact that this has such a different approach makes the two shows feel like an excellent complement to each other. Where [i]Time for Torture[/i] is very wacky and slapsticky, this show is more gently relaxing. The basic premise is very funny, sure, and there's a lot of good-natured humor, but the tone is more slow elegiac bliss, occasionally dipping into a bit of melancholy.
The usual episode sees Mr. Villain just going about his day, finding some aspect of earth culture that he ends up enjoying, and the message always seems to be the importance of finding joy in the little things. There aren't any huge driving questions or big plot twists, it's more like checking in with him each week and seeing what he's up to. While it's not quite as ensemble-focused as some Slice of Life type shows (in the sense that there's only one episode not specifically focused on Mr. Villain, whereas some shows usually bounce around their cast), the characters around him are all fun additions to the mix and they all generally have something deeper going on under the surface. They really know how to get you to care and of all the characters who aren't the protagonist a pair of trees ended up being the ones I got the most invested in, which should be a testament to how good the characterization is.
The animation is perhaps a bit stiffer and cheaper than some of the other SoL shows that I like, but the art style is still very pleasant and it's definitely helped along by good character designs. What it might lack in the technical departments, it definitely makes up for in terms of sheer relaxing appeal and the music and voice acting both contribute to that comfortable vibe. They've definitely hit on something good here, so hopefully it gets renewed for a second season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 7, 2024
I'm using this to review all the seasons and OVAs since I'm not about that "um actually the second season is a different show" BS because "um actually it's all the same show"
With that out of the way, I love this show and it's super entertaining, but also in the awkward spot of being a kind of janky adaptation of the manga, to the point where it works better as a compliment to it than a straight adaptation, so maybe read the source material first. Episode one is actually around chapter 58 or so of the manga and they skip almost every character introduction and
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even the inciting incident that kicks things off in the first place which means viewers who haven't read the manga will feel a bit lost. The basic premise is sort of "Ultra-violent Tom & Jerry crossed with Seinfeld but with demons and angels" and granted, it isn't really plot driven so you can kind of pick up the archetypes in media res, but even as far as the third season the effects of skipping so much are still felt to the point where they make meta jokes out of it and point out which volume of the manga the skipped plot-point is in.
That said though, it makes a fantastic companion piece to the manga if you have read it. Unlike a lot of shows that are 1 to 1 shot for shot retellings of the source material, but in a different medium, the Jashin-Chan anime is more like a remix. You'll get scenes, stories and gags from the original, but small gags from the manga will be expanded into their own little storylines and there's a lot of new glue holding things together. Sometimes when I read a manga or watch an anime after consuming the source, it kind of feels like going through the motions because I know what happens, but Jashin-Chan actually keeps things fresh even if you've read every page. My favorite character ended up being the Baphomet Devil Narrator who doesn't even have any lines in the manga, but fills in the scene transitions of the anime with all kinds of wacky gags and strange trivia. The voice actors are all perfect and almost exactly match how I imagined them reading the manga, the artwork is constantly gorgeous (especially for a gag series), and the characters are as lively and fun as ever.
The real charm of the Jashin-verse is how the more you consume it, the more it feels like a living world. It's not just Jashin-Chan and her battles with Yurine, but all the characters around her have their own lives that just happen to intersect with Jashin's antics, and even the smaller background characters like the three otakus who follow the angels everywhere or Pekora's part-time manager kind of have their own rhythms and gags that develop over time. There are some gags that just straight up wouldn't be doable in a manga (like Jashin-chan's impressive but insane song she works on over the course of the series) so they know how to take advantage of the medium. Most of all I think it's the tone that I really appreciate about this series. When doing a dark comedy it can be tempting to make everyone unrelentingly awful or just have cruel things happen for the sake of laughs, but while Jashin-Chan is a very violent series, it also has a ton of sincerity and knows when to let the characters be nice, have a good moment, or even grow as people without pulling the rug out from under it as a joke. Most of the cast is deranged, evil, or insane to some degree and there's maybe 4 characters total you could call "well-adjusted" but somehow they all generally get along at the end of the day and you want to tune in to see what else they're doing next.
While I do think this series is best-served after reading the original manga, the anime version still grows into something complex and beautiful with a lot of original material, and the fun thing about this type of comedy series is that anything extra isn't really "filler" so much as it's more hilarious chaos with characters you already love. I eagerly await whatever comes next.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 28, 2024
Between this and Do it Yourself, it's clear that Studio Pine Jam is the group to beat in the slice of life genre. This has a lot of the same aspects I liked about DIY, the fun, memorable characters, the clean vibrant animation (there's not as much sakuga in this one as in DIY but it's still gorgeous), and the genuinely soothing atmosphere. The show rides an incredibly fine line between sticking to a forumula and keeping things fresh. There's just enough structure and repetition to create the rhythms that allow running gags and character development to work, but every segment feels like a creative
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spin on the basiuc concept, and it's always fun to see what the activity will be or how they goad the Princess into giving up a secret (not that she needs much encouragement after a certain point). While the princess is the lead, it's really a good ensemble series and every character gets at least a little arc of their own, and sometimes the show takes a detour to show us a day in one of the demon's life and the kind of things they deal with. There's a great finesse to how the show doles out background information about the characters and world without really stopping for exposition. They just kind of let you infer things, like how the Demon World is on the tech level of modern Japan, but the Human World is medieval. Stuff like that is fun and rewards paying attention.
This is a great series and anyone who enjoys Slice of Life should make this one a priority, the fact that it got confirmed so quickly for a second season by the end of its first should be pretty telling that they've hit on gold and it's definitely one of my most anticipated shows now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 26, 2024
It was a decent enough show in a season that didn't have a ton going on, but I feel like it was a lot more divisive than it normally would have been due to the sometimes unconventional art style and structure of the episodes. A lot of people took issue that it was unrealistic that she forgets her glasses so frequently, but I feel like if you were reading this one story at a time as a gag manga, it would kind of have the feel that these are all different incidents spread out, whereas seeing 3 or 4 stories per episode in quick succession
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makes it seem like she's doing this constantly, so possibly something got lost in translation to the animated medium that has al onger set amount of content per episode.
If you can get past the format making it seem like she's got way more of a problem than she probably does, it's cute and while the first few episodes do go crazy with the camera angles and visual tricks, it eventually settles into looking pretty good. The plot and characters are pretty standard romcom stuff, but the gags are funny enough and I liked Mie's weird "hmm" noises whenever she tries to focus on something and Komura's awkward screams whenever he's nervous. The coloring and backgrounds are actually really pretty once they get done blowing the animation budget on the first episode.
I think I liked this more when it was coming out since there wasn't a ton of slice of life going on that season I was interested in, but it's still fine. I'd probably keep up with a second season since people say the manga gets better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 22, 2023
Probably my favorite "zany isekai premise" so far and hte execution well exceeds the goofiness you'd expect from such an absurd setup. Every episode uses hsi vending powers in creative ways and I enjoyed seeing how the new abilities he gest come into the mix. What I didn't expect was that the actual plotline and characters would be so enjoyable beyond the central gag. Hakkon is the star, but the people around him have really fun personalities and the plots are enjoyable as well. Even the side characters tend to have a decent little arc and the show is even a bit educational about the
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history and uses of some of the more esoteric types of vending machines that Japan has developed.
The animation quality is fairly standard, nothing amazing, but visually they make up for it with strong, memorable character designs and Hakkon himself has a number of interesting forms. There's a lot of great visual comedy from the things he dispenses and the world looks nice.
Thankfully the series has been renewed for a second season, which I eagerly look forward to. I feel like they left off in a good place and the final episode has an exciting battle, but still tantalizes you for a little more. Now to go score some of that sweet Hakkon merch I know Japan's holding out on us in the meantime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 2, 2023
An amusing but never quite gutbusting spin on the slice of life genre, Watamote is what you'd get if Dostoevsky's Underground Man was an anime high school girl. Tomokoi's awkward and constantly in her head, having weird fantasies and generally failing any social task. It's a far cry from most slice of life shows about friendship and simple enjoyement of everyday life, and taking a cringe humor to the genre is definitely fresh, but I think my biggest issue with the humor is that her cringe is pretty self contained and only rarely spills out on those around her.
I think the key to cringe humor
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is it really needs an audience. Michael Scott on The Office doing a Chris Rock routine he really shouldn't be is funny because he's surrounded by people who realize that it's inappropriate but does it infront of them with gusto. Most of Kuroki's fantasies stay in her head, and it's kind of a point of the show that she's so isolated nobody notices her, but the funniest bits are when somebody does notice she's doing something weird, and those moments are fairly rare. There's a bit where she makes herself out to be her idea of "pretty" and a couple kids are horrified and a couple bits where her mom walks in at the worst time and those tend to be the funniest, but otherwise it's mostly her weird thought and they are amusing, and she is a great character but there's never quite those moments that completely catch you off guard.
That said, it is still a fun watch. I watched the dub version which I tend to do with comedy and I thought the voices were great and fit the character. I loved her weird little noises she makes and the broader sound design was pretty good. I think the funniest recurring gag was actually some of the music tracks they play when certain things happen, there this one sort of mystical Indian chanting that sounds like something from Akira and it's really funny when it kicks in and she's having a moment.
Visually the show is somewhat average. Tomoko has an expressive and memorable design, but most of the background NPC's are your stock anime character template designs. There are some good cutaways that play with style and one really awesome shot in the finale, but I think it's more the weird design of the protagonist and her strange expressions that carry the show visually.
I think they could have pushed the concept more, but it was still a good time for me. I'd be interested in watching another season to see how it goes or picking up the manga but I feel like I wanted just a bit more from the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 20, 2023
I went in expecting something that would ride the Squid Game hype, but Tomodachi Game definitely takes a different turn, being far less about violence and more about psychology and strategy and the result is one of the most intensely compelling scripts I've seen in an anime. As you'd expect, the series is about a group of people playing children's games for decidedly morbid reasons, it's been done plenty of times, your Saw movies, your Squid Games, etc, but where Tomodachi Game really succeeds is how far it goes into the thought process of making each choice. I'm admittedly the kind of guy who talks
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through my though process when playing board games and if you're that kind of person you'll love watching the main character. The show is basically a crash course on Game Theory and Prisoner's dilemmas, and best of all it plays fair. This is the kind of show where if you rewind and watch again after a particular detail is revealed, they totally set it up beforehand and the planning and payoff is just so much fun and so satisfying to watch unfold.
The show's pacing is a bit of a blessing and a curse. On one hand, taking each of the game scenarios somewhat slowly gives you that juicy decision-making and strategizing that I crave so much and watching the protagonist DESTROY his enemies with FACTS and LOGIC is the appeal of the show, yet each game is so compelling I found myself wanting more of them. I imagine the effort it takes to plot out even a single game's worth of story must have been exhausting, but it does sometimes hurt that there are only three different games across the different episodes because I just love each one so much. The second game might drag a bit too much for some people's taste, the "analysis paralysis" phenomenon board gamers watching the show are probably familiar with certainly takes hold, but every strategy they agonized over was deeply compelling to me.. Really though the best shows leave you wanting more, and I want more of everything Tomodachi Game has to offer. More of the games, more of the logic, more of the mysteries, it's all just so good!
The visuals are fine, though probably the true week link. It doesn't look bad and there's a lot of fun stylization whenever the characters get really intense, but aside from the surprisingly good CGI integration of the mascot character nothing really stuck out as truly great visually, and occasionally the characters looked a bit off model, this really is a script driven work. I watched the dub and the cast did really well and all fit their characters.
I really hope there's a season 2, but even if there is I don't think I can restrain myself, I think I need to hunt down the manga ASAP.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 10, 2023
A gag-based slice of life that punches above it's weight. It would've been easy just to have a series of zany 4koma-esque gags and make a funny enough series of shorts, the premise of a nerdy elf who'd rather stay in and play video games certainly is funny enough for some solid comedy, but doing a full 24 minute episode you need a bit more and the show has plenty of connective tissue in between the gags to make it worthwhile.
Going one layer deeper than the basic gag is the characters themselves. The show is mostly centered on the elf and her keeper, and the
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two have a great give and take that not only works well in comedic scenes, but also plays into their deeper friendship beautifully. There are a handful of side characters who add some flavor, including other elves and their keepers who have great personalities, and some human friends who I wish we saw more of but all have their own interesting personalities. Similar to "And Yet the Town Moves", this is also a great show that does a nice job showing a tight-knit community and how those communal bonds can make a group stronger, even if nobody outside the shrine really seems to notice how strange their deity really is. The show never goes to full-on tearjerker mode, but there are these really nice subtle melancholy moments stemming from the fact that Elda is immortal but the friends around her aren't and it adds depth to her relationships with everyone.
Then even deeper you have what may be the true purpose of the show: stealth edutainment. Elda came into the "real world" in the Edo period, and frequently relates aspects of the culture of that time to the problem she's facing in the current day. You learn a surprising amount about the history of consumer products and services, along with social trends. My favorite thing I learned is the Emperor really liked outlawing things that were fun and then the citizens would basically find a way to cheese the law and get around it. Good job Edo-Period Japanese people for not letting the man get you down! The history bits are a ton of fun, they remind me of Wilson from Home Improvement telling Tim about some ancient thing, or Tito's "as the ancient Hawaiians used to say" bits on rocket power.
The production value is also excellent. You don't always get amazing visuals from Slice of Life shows barring stuff like DIY or Bocchi, and this show makes it's way into the pantheon of SoL's that are a cut above visually. There's clear effort put into the artwork and character designs and it's not just the standard copy-paste template you tend to see on cheaper productions. Close-ups and facial expressions have a ton of great detail, and the flashback history lessons have their own oldschool historical style that looks great. Beautiful colors and linework abound, and there's even some cool mixed-media stuff going on in the outro (both the intro and outro songs are also bangers). The VA's also nail it and Elda's airy, whispy, delivery is always comic gold.
This is just a good solid show that works at every level, the jokes land, the characters are great, and it gets you to care all while tricking you into learning something. Hopefully we get more in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 31, 2023
New Game is an amusing enough slice of life work-com that I'm admittedly a bit biased toward because I do 3D modeling ostensibly in the game industry for a living, so the accurate background details showing 3D modeling and texturing were right up my alley. There are some good game industry culture bits, like the airsoft guns in the office reminding me of many a nerf battle, but unless you're really invested in game development it's otherwise just a pretty okay slice of life gag series.
The characters are fun and I enjoyed their interactions, but truthfully not a lot actually happens. Most episodes are pretty
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firmly set the protagonist's cubicle and visually it does get a bit repetitive to look at. The artwork and character designs are good, but visually it never really goes above and beyond and while there are some scenes in and around town, it's kind of like watching The Office if the titular office was even smaller. The gags are cute, but nothing was really gut-bustingly funny, but at the same time I think it's meant to be more of a pleasant background noise kind of show and it succeeds at that. I certaainly don't regret binging the first season over the weekend and I never felt put off of it or bored, I just wish they dug a bit more into the actual work at times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 30, 2023
Coming this close after Taming the Last Boss, comparisons will no doubt be abundant. Compared to last boss it's a bid more grounded, less focused on zany schemes and more focus on subtle politicking, and I think the pacing is better here where Last Boss sometimes crammed what felt like an entire arc in an episode or two. Raeliana gets off to a great start with a great first episode that really has some great political intrigue and scheming and when the show does stick to the courtly power games it's a lot of fun, but sadly the interest just doesn't stay high the entire
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time. The romance aspect is well done, but the episodes that are basically just rom com hijinks feel like filler and aren't really that interesting compared to the broader political scheming, and Raeliana's cleverness she shows in the first episode never quite shows up as forcefully as it does in that first episode, though she is still a clever and resourceful character.
There's no getting around the fact that this is clearly low budget, but the choice of shots frequently gets around it in clever ways so you generally don't notice. The character designs are nice and the show looks good in stills, around episodes 3 or 4 you notice some very crusty JPEG's in the background, and the one or two times the show uses CGI are pretty jarring, but on the whole it's still visually more than the sum of it's parts. There are little tricks like having someone talk when you can't see their face, but they're subtle and it does what it needs to.
I think the show is good overall, but it never quite captures that fire it had in the first episiode and the final episode of the season a doesn't really leave you feeling much got accomplished plot-wise aside from Raeliana and the titular Duke becoming closer. I think I'd like this more if the scheming and 48 power laws kinda stuff was more at the forefront since that's what it does best, and I think I'd be interested in reading the source material since I'm intrigued enough by this world and it's characters, but the current season feels more like a season-length teaser for a more interesting story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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