Double-J

It hurts me to see how many people just outright dislike Double-J because it wasn´t what they wanted or were used to.
Double-J, for me, was exactly what I had expected and looked forward to.
Flash animation, atmospheric live-action pan shots and Cromartie-ish nonsense with sometimes not-so-typical High School girls.
The ED is fun, the characters are amusing and I don´t see why you shouldn´t give this a go, with its 22 minutes(minus the OPs and EDs).
This show was my weekly source of peace for 4 minutes and deserves a lot better IMO.

What exactly a comedy mini-series about a club that preserves traditional Japanese arts can offer? That's what draws me to watching Double-J.

I have a mix feeling with the story; the first couple of episodes are really funny as it is centered to the main theme of the series - a couple of girls who accidentally discovered this one unique club about preserving traditional arts. What are hilarious about it actually are the arts that the people of the club are trying to preserve and I laughed really hard when the characters together with their very unique arts are introduced one by one. The last few episodes though are a hit-or-miss in terms of comedic value seeing how the series headed into completely random topics that may or may not be connected with preserving traditional arts, I still have a couple of good laughs though. The series have no ending, I wouldn’t mind a new season if ever seeing how completely random the concept anyway.

The animation is a nice experimental concept (according to a blog I read, this is a flash-based animation), something that I have adjusted first before I get a hang on it. The background consists mostly of real-life still images in grayscale color of classrooms, schools, and landmarks which I thought is really a good idea. The characters basically stay in a stationary position, their movements are limited mostly to mouth movements for the vocals, eye blinking, robotic movements for the extremities, and some motion from the clothes the characters are wearing to give an effect that the wind is breezing by which I think really works as a good visual aid for the setup of the series. The character designs are also simple looking but have enough facial features that distinguished one character from the others.

Double-J has some fairly nice background music themes that are energetic and upbeat complementing the animation really well. The ending theme “Wani to Shampoo” is very catchy and lively, something that compensates for the simple music theme that is heard during the opening clip. Voice acting is fairly well done, very in-character; the quirky dialogues are enough reason to enjoy the series.

For a 4-minute per episode clip, Double-J has quite a huge number of characters that appeared in the span of 11 episodes. I say the main highlight of the series are the characters which did a very good job in entertaining the audience with their conversations, attitudes, personalities, reactions, and the traditional arts they are practicing much to the amusement of the audience and the very characters in the series whom they are explaining what their traditional arts are.

Overall, Double-J is a fairly good series that packs enough goods to entertain its viewers for 4 minutes every week. I for one have a good laugh on most of the episodes from the humor that comes from the characters. The comedy is a hit-or-miss just like what I describe above especially in the last few episodes, but not enough to say I didn’t enjoy those. The series as a whole can be recommend to all audience who just wants a good laugh and doesn’t mind the unusual style of the animation.

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I will clarify a few things.

I am a TERRIBLE reviewer and I have tried it before with my own hands.
Ever since I improved my English and grammar (Or claimed that I have) I realized looking back at them that just… Wow, how can you call those reviews?
I sounded like some kind of foreigner or caveman talking.
The writing and grammar were so bad that I practically gave myself several face-palms.
I’m freaking American and I can’t even master my own 1st language.
So this is going to be my first PROPER review that has been reviewed with time put into it.

*Note*

My grammar is still terrible despite fair improvements so there may be quite a few mistakes in my review. However, all I hope for is that any of you who are planning to read this review will find it helpful for even a minuscule amount.

*ahem* Anyways, enough of my worthless background; let’s dig into this deep review of an extremely short anime, shall we?
First off, there should be a few things that I think you should know about the creators of Double- J.
Eiji Nonaka, the creator of the story, is highly famous for his absolutely bizarre, yet amazingly hilarious manga series Cromartie High School. What made Cromartie High School so special was its interesting semi-realist art style and its focus around badass delinquents. At first I didn’t really think the series was that funny overall, but after re-watching it a few times I began to truly understand its absurd humor and how truly genius it was.
Most of Nonaka-sama’s works are all made by himself, accompanied by his interesting art style that fits very well into his stories.
What was so interesting about Double-J was that this time, instead of doing the artwork himself, he teams up with Maru Asakura who is known for his manga 090 Eko to Issho.
What makes Asakura-sama so special is that for his typical moe yet still somehow unique art style that you usually see in today’s anime, the humor in his manga is very light-hearted and will attract any casual manga fan’s heart.
I’m a fan of both creators and their separate works.
But seeing them work together was very hard for me to accept because those two have a completely different sense and style of humor.
I am a HUGE fan of Cromartie High and seeing that this was made by the same creator was very eye-catching. I mean, if it weren’t for the fact that Eiji Nonaka made this I would have avoided it or just overall planned not to watch it at all.

And what were my thoughts, you may ask?

I was very disappointed. Double- J is simply a very rushed, under budget looking anime that the studio seemingly did NOT put that much effort into. It’s a shame, too, because, the manga was actually fairly funny. This anime adaptation of the manga is very miniscule in humor, however. Now it’s time for my ratings for this show.

Story-6
I can’t really say the story is at all special, and really, there isn’t much of a story to begin with. It’s just about two girls joining a club called the “The Cultural Activity Preservation Club” in which there are all kinds of analog jobs and activities, such as handcrafting mats and toothpicks. Does it catch my interest? Not really. In general it’s a basic gag anime with fairly interesting elements that were poorly executed.

Art-7
I like the design of the characters, but that’s pretty much the only thing I truly like about this series. The colors in the anime are pretty bland and very unattractive, but then again, what can I expect from a studio that is known for making flash animation? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen plenty of other flash anime that have much livelier and more appealing colors. This one is just a very poor exception.

Sound-5
The sound is neither bad nor great. Just mediocre. I mean, the voice actors sound pretty good, but I feel like there just wasn’t enough effort put into it. With the exception of a few lines of dialogue, they all pretty much just sound the same when they’re talking.

Character-3
This is where the series fails to show memorable characters. Most of them are just very uninteresting and boring most of the time with the exception of two characters that actually do seem more memorable and human, who are the Drama and Manga Club presidents. Everyone else is just so bland that it would make anybody fall asleep. While I know they tried to make the characteristics seem different, they executed it poorly enough that they don’t even seem human enough for you to acknowledge them as characters. They just feel like B-grade actors or side characters that nobody will care about or even bother to remember. They’re just that BLAND.

Enjoyment-5
This is probably the most important part. Did I enjoy it? Very little, unfortunately.
I had a very hard time enjoying it. There were a few times where I got a mediocre chuckle or two, but that really isn’t saying much since there really isn’t anything to laugh at most of the time. Even when the anime had parts where you’re supposed to laugh, they were poorly executed. Even Nonaka-sama’s funny punch line jokes that he’s known for weren’t even that funny because they were ruined by the anime’s cast of boringness most of the time. And what epically prevented me from liking this (like I said on the top) were the absolutely BLAND characters. I disliked most of them because they absolutely failed to show what there is to like about them even as human beings. And what makes it even worse is the choppiness and lack of movement in the animation that makes the cast feel even more inhuman. All of them barely even move their bodies and just stay in some kind of 60-degree angle most of the time and even when they are in more complicated positions, they just stand still like they were statues. They feel like freaking robots. And what usually makes an anime good and memorable are the characters. They don’t change their emotions that much and usually just stick with one emotion most of the time as if they had a set-button on the back of their necks. I know this is supposed to be a lighthearted anime where you just sit back and laugh after a long day of stress, but even if the studio tried to make it lighthearted, how am I supposed to enjoy it when there is no or very little humor to laugh at? I just felt bored most of the time watching it. The only thing I really liked was the art design of the characters and the ending. They look pretty unique, but that is pretty much the only thing I enjoyed. The ending of the anime is actually the most eye-catching, as the animation is actually good and as lively as if it were a high-quality anime. But if the ending was this good, why didn’t they put this much effort into the show instead? The animation in a show is supposed to get your attention, not the freaking ending!
You’re probably asking me “why are you making such a long-winded review for such a short anime like this?” or “why are you taking this anime seriously when its intention is for you to laugh?”

Well for the 1st question is because I thought this flash animation was going to be special because of the two talented manga artists that created this and that it’s not some kind of low-budget studio that is barely surviving. And the answer for the 2nd question is that I always rate an anime pretty high if it had me laugh hysterically until the end and gave me a warm feeling inside. I barely got any giggles from this show.
I’m very disappointed at the studio for making this. Double-J, unfortunately, is their poorest work and I think that most people would agree if they took a look at the ratings. I’ve seen DLE’s (the name of the studio) work and while most of them are flash animations, some of them are actually pretty decent. I’ve watched a few of them and actually enjoyed them, and the majority of the crowd has as well. It’s a shame that the series actually had good potential which was wasted. The two creators deserve much more than this, but interestingly enough the manga is actually a lot better than this poor excuse of an anime. There was like what, only two chapters of the manga translated into English by a scanlation group? And yet I felt fairly good reading the miniscule amounts of the manga available. How can I say it’s better, you might ask? The artwork is very appealing to look at and the characters feel and look more human. They move more and they express their personalities like the original creators intended. While the first two episodes were based off the two chapters, the enjoyment factor and the production values were fairly different. It’s too bad that I actually wanted to read more of the manga, as the group that scanlated it just downright dropped translating it for such a long time. If you truly want to enjoy Double-J then go read the manga instead of wasting your time watching this. But if you did watch the series, just compare the two and tell me which is better!
If you want a much funnier, high quality and fairly short anime that came from the creator of the story in this show, then go watch or read Eiji Nonaka’s Cromartie High School! I can guarantee you will most likely enjoy it!
If you want to read a better manga with lighthearted humor and a cast of cute characters then go read Maru Asakura’s 090 Eko to Issho!
This is my first proper review. I thank all who read to the end. All I ask for is that I hope you found it helpful, and that even if you didn’t then that just motivates me a write a better review!

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Double-J is a comedic mini-series focusing on cultural heritages; it had an average/good art style and the ED was really catchy and fun, the jokes were hilarious and were superbly executed. The characters were very enjoyable and I really enjoyed the show. On the other hand it is still a mini series, and mini series lack story, though it can be overlooked as Double-J is meant to be funny and does not really require a story. Overall, it really was a good anime. I recommend you watch it if you don't mind wasting two episodes of that anime you're watching as the whole Double-J anime only runs for about 25 minutes(without OP and ED) or so.

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