Koroshiya-san: The Hired Gun

Koroshiya-san: The Hired Gun is one of the strangest examples of an anime I've seen in a few years. Normally, the strange appeals to me, but in this case, it's simply dreadful. Koroshiya is an adaption of a 4-koma manga of the same name, but when it comes down to it, this form of anime is not suited to adapting a four panel manga.

In all honesty, I'm sure the creators of this anime don't take this show that seriously. Each episode is three minutes long, and a minute of that is dedicated to the opening, which is one of the worst animated openings I've ever ... seen. Apparently,this show is supposed to be a comedy, but in the end, all I find myself laughing at is the absolute pointlessness of it all.

I don't even think it's fair for me to go on about the art or sound. It's bottom tier (maybe even below that) quality, and the voice acting is stilted, and boring, and the dialogue is pathetically devoid of humor.

The characters are the highlight of this 'anime'. That is not a compliment. Koroshiya seems to be some sort of screwed up hybrid of Gintoki Sakata from Gintama and Agent 47 from the Hitman series. Any other character are completely and utterly pointless.

I sincerly hope that this anime was not made with any serious intent, because this is arguably one of the worst anime I've seen in a very long time. It's entirely likely that the original 4-koma manga is very funny, but the main issue with this piece of crap is that it's style does not translate to the screen. At all. Ever.

This anime is a great change of pace, if you're looking for nothing serious with a bit of comedy. The anime is short not much is going on in the anime. It just randoms stuff happening. I enjoyed it a lot, got a few chuckles, actual footage is 2 min because of the opening. I truly do recommend this anime.

Do you ever want to not try things? Is forming a structuralist perspective on reality too boring? Why does my pee pee come out yellow? This anime is like if Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei went on a lunch break. Very digestable series at 3 minutes an episode, 50 seconds of which can be skipped because I could sing and draw a better opening if you gave me 50 minutes. The entire opening has 8 lyrics which convey less than no meaning, and it trumps up the literally non-existent action "element" of the series. So anyway the 2 minutes and 10 seconds that is left are surrealist ... commentaries on the already ridiculously portrayed premise, much of the time through non-sequitur and all in a way that shows little respect for the idea that the show is supposed to be a comedy. The show doesn't waste it's own time, it's not down for anything, but neither does it waste your time. Basically the key to enjoying this is deciding the stupidity and the surrealism mix and if they don't that's good for you

Once again we get a badass looking cover that doesn't accurately present the source. Koroshiya-san: The Hired Gun can be considered a comedy, but one would really have to go out of their way to label it an "action" series. This isn't an action series. What this is, is basically like the parody extras in more popular shows after they've been completed. That style of humor is related to a "4 Koma" style, which is basically a four-picture comic that would be found on newspapers. They can be funny, and the jokes can vary, but are usually parodies of something or the other. Koroshiya-san: The ... Hired Gun is an original work, however, so the jokes are inherently based on nothing.

The art isn't impressive, but there is motion to an extent. The backgrounds are basically photos of real life places that have been modified, or possibly traced, with art software. A lot of the motion of the characters are similar to many YouTube animations in that they will be tilted to save on creating more frames, but there is still a moderate amount of work put into the art here. The style is definitely similar to other "4 Koma Theatre" programs in that everything is laid out in a basic way that makes sure the viewer isn't getting too invested in the material (which likely wouldn't happen anyways with the short length). The music is average, and there actually is an opening. The opening takes up about a third of the episode and cuts the actual content length to around 20 minutes. The opening wasn't that worth watching more than once, and I found myself skipping it after two times. The music wasn't very creative and it was clear that it wasn't too thought out.

There isn't really a story as this is more about a bunch of random situations featuring the same main character, but there are some underlying developments. The humor is basically around the main character being a hit-man, but not always taking his job seriously and about him being very harmless in his pass-time. The issue with that is that a comic strip usually carries the goal of ending on a punch-line, but for Koroshiya-san: The Hired Gun this is always what takes up the nonexistent punch-line. Only one or two jokes were entertaining, but basically all of them were pretty bad. Anyone could make jokes like this, and I bet there are characters in actual series who do some of the leading jokes here in their pass-time as-well - the main difference being that those series actually have other things at play to keep interest. The saving grace for The Hired Gun is that it's short and easy to eat like junk food. I didn't feel like I got much out of viewing it, but it was so short that I don't feel like I wasted my time with it either. That doesn't mean I would recommend watching it, but if you're in the mood for a bit of dry humor and yaoi (which is actually the funniest parts), then The Hired Gun is here for you.