Punch Line

Have you ever been at a modern art exhibit and felt like the artist just threw paint at the canvas? Many around you proclaim that it's "original," " bold," or "expressive," while they point at the rectangle of incomprehensible shapes and sloppy paint. While they might see something praiseworthy, from where you're standing, it looks like a kindergarten arts and crafts project, where the kids ate a little too much Elmer's paste.
Punch Line gives me that feeling, but instead of paint being thrown randomly at a canvas, we have themes and concepts instead. It felt like the creators just threw a bunch of ideas into ... a hat after one too many drinks and began selecting random slips of paper from it to form the finished product. A string of loose thoughts, unsupported themes and underutilized concepts that somehow made it past the rough draft stage of some drunken editor's desk, where it was prematurely approved to become a final script. It's a tumultuous mess that tried to contain as many elements as possible and ended up imploding as a result.

Organized chaos isn't impossible to obtain, there has been countless of shows that have proven itself in accomplishing that. As long as the 'chaos' is guided by some kind of subtext or uniformity in each aspect's inclusion, it should turn out fine. However, if there's little in the way of connective tissue to hold the madness together, it doesn't take long before onlookers notice the shortcomings. With elements that do little to nothing to mesh together, it's hard to feel like there's any semblance of being behind Punch Line's existence. It's a project that confuses quirkiness with creative merit. There's no coherency between any of the show's plethora of flavoring, just a bunch of "whys" that are never properly explained. Why cinnamon? Why a bear for a pet? Why super saiyan? Why ghost cats? Why super sentai? Why panties? Why do panty-shots cause the world to explode outside of an obvious innuendo? Why body swaps? Why paradoxical time-travel? Why witchcraft? Why moe robot girl? Why anything? All these needless aspects that the show continuously tosses in felt like it was only there to distract from what little plot it was working with. A dribble of ideas thrown together, hoping a few would stick. And for the occasional instances where the show attempted to answer some of it, thematically it was as conclusive as the writers saying "just because." Punch Line brings up more questions than it answers, a trend that finds itself bleeding over into the main story-line.

For the most part, the show tries to tell a straightforward story about our protagonist, Yuuta Iridatsu, who has to travel through time to stop the impending destruction of Earth by ways of a meteorite strike. While it seems simple enough, it's the inclusion of the aforementioned elements that makes a fairly ordinary tale into a muddled mess. With plot twists and reveals that do absolutely nothing for the show's overall story or the characters involved, these tacked on tidbits ended up being questionable content instead of tasteful flavoring. Flavoring isn't bad by itself, but it needs to be used in moderation, or at least add something to the overall dish. A little dressing on a salad will enhance the taste, but adding too much would just make it into a repulsive swampy soup. Punch Line became that swampy soup, by effectively drowning out its content with too many unwarranted aspects.

Many of the plot points introduced during the show's run-time ended up not mattering in the long run since it was all negated by the "save the world" storyline that was introduced later on. The pointless elements discussed did nothing but further the issue, by taking time away from the narrative to travel down several detours that had no conclusion. It felt like a bait-and-switch from an over-the-top comedy/parody of super sentai, to an angst filled character drama along the lines of The Butterfly Effect. This was made even more jarring from the show's constant tonal shifts. Serious moments were often followed up by comedic gags, that not only downplayed the situation but also negated any tension that was supposed to arise from it. It destroyed any substantial weight behind incidents before it had time to sink in. There are times where serious moments that endangered the characters' lives were built up, only to be resolved by a flash of a girl's panties. It's not funny and it certainly isn't dramatic. The show's constant tonal shifts just kept on butting heads with each other. It made any conflict the show was trying to sell to feel pointless since it was easily washed away by the next scenario. When there's no consequence for life-threatening events, it's hard to get invested in a show's outcome.

But perhaps the biggest misstep of Punch Line was its use of time-travel. Time-travel is something that needs proper measure taken in order to stay relevantly coherent but the time-travel in Punch Line was beyond contrived and paradoxical. Every half-assed attempt to make sense of it only backfired. Since the theory of time-travel is riddled with paradoxes, to begin with, it's hard to put all the blame on the show. There are always loopholes whenever it is used in stories but there are some things that any iteration of time-travel tends to follow. Cardinal rules if you will. May that be the "butterfly effect" commonly found with linear travel or the "grandfather" paradox that's commonly shared with most iterations. Punch Line doesn't follow any of them, which causes it to make little sense when viewed as a whole. The closest thing to the type of time-travel Punch Line used would be parallel world jumping similar to what's used in TV shows like Sliders. But here's the problem, the protagonist already exist in this universe and even interacts with the other version of 'himself'. This should cause a rift in time or an anomaly to form but that never happens... and why you may ask? Well "just because", since it's something the writers seem to have no explanation for as usual. This lack of common sense was perfectly summed up with what I can only describe as the writer's not so subtle explanation via expository dialogue during the show's final moments. Our protagonist tries to explain and tie up the Gundam size plot holes by addressing the audience through the conversation 'he' had with the rest of the side characters. This laughable attempt to bring everything full-circle only shined a light on how improperly put together it was. All the explanation did was bring up more questions that would never get resolved.

If the show had anything going for it, it'll be the art and animation. It was vibrant and energetic. Similar to 2015 Winter season's Rolling Girls, it looked like a child's imagination brought to life. If you weren't watching this with any set standards it would be passable as visual entertainment. Being brought together by the relatively new studio MAPPA, Punch Line is yet another example of their visual prowess. The character designs were all very pleasant and felt well incorporated with the show's art choices. While they weren't all unique, it did have a trademark look about it that help to differentiate itself from other titles.
While it was well presented, for the most part, there were still times where the animation was stilted and stiff. This was more evident towards the middle portion of the show and the earlier slice-of-life episodes. The inconsistency from episode to episode can't be overlooked and hindered it from being better. But thankfully it made up for it by the 3/4 mark where the episodes maintained proper form and MAPPA strutted their stuff.

The soundtrack for Punch Line is your typical J-pop/rock musical selection, with the added bonus of a few keyboard synthesizers and electronic instruments tossed in for good measure. This gave the music a vibe similar to the Euro House music scene, which worked in unison with the visual flare presented throughout the show. While nice for what it was, most of it wasn't used to its fullest potential and could have been incorporated better. Some standout tracks included "Concentration", "Crisis" and "MUHI." It's nothing new and undoubtedly the kind of OST you would have heard many times over, but still did the job nonetheless. The opening theme "PUNCH LINE!" by Shokotan ♥ Denpa Gumi was a very catchy idol-heavy musical number. Like the OST, it worked well with the show's visual presentation. Again, nothing new but still a nice toe-tapping ear-worm.

Overall, the presentation of Punch Line was good and helped to make the nonsensical script more bearable than it would have been without it.

Now, what little appraisal I could offer Punch Line presentation-wise, the same can't be done when addressing the character lineup. With no memorable characteristics or features to speak of, each character was given a basic archetypal role and simple personality quirk to substitute for actual personality. They're no better than the cast of children shows like The Care Bears or Teletubbies, where it seems like their color palette and character design directly corresponded to their simplistic portrayal. They're more like caricatures than actual people.
Yuuta Iridatsu being our protagonist was the only one that was somewhat easy to relate to. Notice I said "somewhat," as there was not much done to flesh out 'his' character. 'He' would most likely be remembered for a plot twist that I dear not spoil here than for 'him' as a person.
Also, the ghost cat was probably the show's way of flipping the bird to the audience. For the entire run-time, he was presented as a guide for our protagonist that seemed to have an ulterior motive. There was no direct focus on the cat's actions but it always felt like it was meddling in the shadows. But it just turned out that the cat was just an expository mouthpiece for giving the audience painfully obvious info dumps, as well as serving as a plot-device for whenever the show(writers) needed to move the story along.
The antagonists for the series was also a let down since, like the rest of the cast, they had no proper characterization or personality to speak of. They were simply bad because the show demanded it and again was another pointless plot twist that didn't matter in the end.

Also, expect A LOT of troll character "death flag" scenes.

As a whole, the cast was a disappointment and forgettable almost immediately after completion. And while the show had some memorable moments, as a whole, it was a title that left me with more of a headache than anything satisfying.

Enjoyment: 5/10

With an inviting 1st episode, I thought I was getting ready to watch a fun super sentai journey with batshit insane presentation and over-the-top altercations but what I got instead was a show that quickly lost steam, a comedic gag that lost its novelty and a plot that went up its own ass. Visually, it was fine but the tonal shifts and misuse of concepts brought my enjoyment down.

Overall: 4/10

The presentation ultimately saved this anime from being completely unwatchable. Where it could have worked as a satirical outlook on fanservice and super sentai flicks, it ended up going a more serious route, while not having the appropriate tone or pedigree of writing needed to back it up. It was an ambitious undertaking that fell short of the mark and squandered its chances of being better by trying to do too much at once. An idea was there but unfortunately, it was poorly realized.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Punchline is a fascinating and ambitious, but ultimately failed experiment by Studio MAPPA to tell unique, non-chronological, wacky, plot-twist filled story much in the same vain as Haruhi Suzumiya. What went wrong? To make a long story short: incompetent writing. This anime introduces a plethora of confusing and poorly explained plot devices that turn out to be completely pointless, totally nonsensical, and/or dead ends, making the show a ridiculous comedy at best and an incomprehensible mess at worse. But let’s talk about that:

Synopsis: Whenever out protagonist, Yuuta Iradatsu, sees a girl’s underwear, the world explodes. How? I don’t know. Why? Not important apparently. ... Does this ever become a necessary plot point? No. Just roll with it. Anyway, Yuuta’s soul has become separated from his body, and his goal is to save the world, his friends, and himself by observing a particular series of events over and over again in spirit-form, with each iteration ending in a time reset.

Explaining exactly why a show doesn’t make any sense is not an easy thing to do to somebody who hasn’t seen it, especially without spoilers, but I’ll do my best. If I had to sum up the reason Punchline’s plot is absolutely awful in a single sentence, it would be this: Everything is pulled out of their ass. There is NO logical consistency or flow to the events of the show. Things that have no good explanations behind them just appear out of nowhere at random intervals as if the viewer is supposed to understand what is going on when nothing is being explained. I guess they were hoping that people would overlook the lack of explanation in favor of the fun factor, but that did not end up being the case because it’s TOO vague and TOO “out-there”. Most anime fans are willing to overlook minor or even major discrepancies if the rest of the show makes sense, but very few were willing to tolerate the sheer amount of incompetence that Punchline vomited onto our screens. If ever there was an example of throwing shit to the wall to see what sticks, this anime is now the quintessential case. To reiterate once more, since I can’t stress it enough, this show makes NO sense, and the very limited amount of mindless fun that it occasionally provides is not nearly enough to compensate for that.

Perhaps the main reason Puchline fails to connect with the audience is because its characters are so flat and one-dimensional. Any semblance of a backstory or motivations that a character receives are always the barest of barebones, not to mention that they don’t even make sense more often than not (have you spotted a pattern?). In fact, every time this show attempts to answer a question about one of its characters, it just raises three more. The show really banks on the fact that the viewers get attached to these basic archetypes and feel the chemistry/friendship that they have with each other, but they simply never give us a reason to. I didn’t care about these characters because I had no idea who any of them were, and that includes the protagonist, who is on screen over 90% of the time. That’s a major, MAJOR issue. Oh, and the pointless plot devices that have no reason to exist that I mentioned earlier? The characters have a ton of those. All I can guess is that they are an attempt to make the show seem more “crazy” and “fun”, when really they just serve to make it even more incomprehensible. I don’t remember any of their names; that’s how truly unmemorable and uninteresting they are. Oh, and I’m still pretty confused about who the villain was supposed to be and what his motivations were. This show is just one big giant clusterfuck of disorientation.

Being animated by Studio MAPPA, Punchline is not totally without its strong points. The art, art direction, cinematography, and animation in general are easily the highlights of the show. Actions scenes are made more fun with unique and experimental angles as well as over-the top choreography that can be pretty entertaining at times. MAPPA continues distinguish themselves with their stellar visuals. As for the use of sound, it’s pretty standard. The OP and ED themes are catchy, but I’ll forget them in a month. The OST is also pretty run of the mill and sound design was pretty hit or miss for me. To sum it up, Punchline has above average animation and average sound.

If you’re looking for an over-the-top, mindless-fun sort of show, Punchline tries too hard to have a plot. If you are looking for a complex, Suzumiya-eque, intertwining story, Punchline is too confusing and nonsensical. As a result, this anime gets caught somewhere in the middle to these two target audiences, satisfies neither of them, and fails to establish any positive identity of its own. All things considered though, I must applaud the attempt at creating an original, multifaceted show. I truly hate the fact that I have to bash this anime because I really wanted to like it, but writing was simply too awful to tolerate. I do not recommend Punchline to anyone.

The written Review to my Video Review.

How serious can you be when your super power activates when you see panties? Well not too serious I would presume, but this anime may take itself too seriously for it’s concept.

Story - 3/10

The story of Punch Line is kind of a complex one. It may sound simple, but not at all. Punch Line follows the story of Yuuta Iridatsu as he tries to save the world. How does he do that one may ask, well we don’t really figure that out till episode 6. But the premise of the story is that Yuuta has been transformed into ... a ghost and there is a big gigantic meteor coming down to destroy the world, and the key to stopping the meteor is apparently spending time in an apartment lot and figuring out how to stop the meteor? However the world can also be destroyed if Yuuta sees panties as well, twice that is in a short amount of time. So he’s got to figure out how to save the world while keeping himself away from panties. The story is rather confusing until episode 6 when it all starts making sense. But the premise of the plot is time traveling, because Yuuta must gather as much information as he can from the present in order to travel back to the past to prevent the meteor from hitting, thus looking for a better future.

The whole idea about spending time as an onlooker to figuring out how to change time is a confusing concept indeed. It is hard to understand the story, when everything just looks so normal with little plot happening in them. And the story is kind of boring pre episode 6, because you don’t know exactly what is happening and even after episode 6, it kind of repeats itself and you still don’t know the full extent on what is going on. The backstory in Punch Line is vaguely touched upon, sure we see it, but we don’t know how and why it’s happening. And the plot takes itself way too seriously, it gets very dramatic for a show that was supposed to be a comedy, and it doesn’t work well because it’s all very hard to take in. And honestly I don’t think the payoff was that worth it. Even the twist at episode 6 felt very predictable.

Characters - 3/10

Yuuta Iridatsu is the main protagonist, he’s goal is save the world while trying to avoid from looking up panties as well. From what we can see he’s just as confuse as we are, he doesn’t understand why he has superpowers when he looks up girls panties, he doesn’t know why he’s a ghost and he doesn’t understand what is going on. It’s like the writer did that on purpose to symbolise us in him, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. We came for the ecchi, but we’re confused with the story. There is also rather little character development for him as we just see him having the same attitude throughout the rest of show, where he is a guy living with a bunch of girls trying to avoid them, while being nice and also trying to be the hero, with the will to save everyone as best as he can.

Other characters that make up residents of the apartment lot are, Mikatan Narugino who also has superhero persona and has little development as she pretty portrays the happy girl. Ito Hikiotani, a NEET spends most of her time on the computer, however has more development over the course of the series than the other mains as she starts to get more involved with the people around her. Meika Daihatsu who is a mechanic and the landlord serves as the guardian to pretty much everyone. And lastly there is Rabura Chichibu, who despite her incompetency is shown to be a very reliable spiritual medium as the series progress.

Unfortunately I don’t the main cast was all that good, as I was so caught up in trying to understand the situations to get a clearer picture of the characters. By the end of the series they felt like they were just used to show their individual talents in the last battle, because honestly their interactions with each other was kind of boring. And I would go on to the some of the other supporting characters if one of the characters didn’t really annoy the hell out of me. Seriously SCREW THE CAT.

Animation and Sound - 6/10. 7/10

The art style I can’t complain too much, because although it doesn’t look bad, it doesn’t look anything great as well. The shape of the characters feel a lot more rounded than other animes and the colour palette felt very simple, although some of the scenes looked very childish in a good way as it reflects on the characters rather well, and it shows the show is not a serious show to begin with. However the action scenes although that last one is completely fine, everything else before it is nothing special at all. And it does suffer have some frame rate problems, but none to breaking. As a personal opinion, I’m not a huge fan on this kind of anime art style, as it just looks very simplistic and a bit messy for me with the more rounded nature in the designs of the characters. I mean if their supposed to be adults and teenagers, how come they look like pre-teen kids.

I actually kind of enjoy the soundtrack of Punch Line. Although the opening and ending songs are nothing to write home about they’re find perfectly accept. The opening theme maybe a bit catchy, in a bad way. However it’s not too annoying. The OST for the show is a mixture of J-pop and rock. Which I find quite enjoyable to listen to. I especially like it even more when they have their many variety of electro music kicking in. I like how they have almost a different OST for each situation, which gives it a huge variety and it usually does the job in fitting in with the scene. As for the voice acting, it’s fine and acceptable. But seriously SCREW THE CAT.

Enjoyment - 3/10

I did not enjoy watching Punch Line because I could not get my head around the story. Not only was it a hard story to follow, it was quite a boring one at the same time. The show does get a tad better after episode 6, but that felt too long before anything interesting starts happening and even then, it felt like it repeated right after. Also the fact the story takes itself way too seriously, when the concept is stupid to begin with. The comedy in the show has very little impact, as some of the jokes weren’t really all that funny and gets kind of repetive. The last fight scene wasn’t bad and the soundtrack was enjoyable, but I don’t t feel that’s enough to make it enjoyable. Especially if the characters are lacking and aren’t as interesting. And seriously SCREW THE CAT.

Verdict - 4.5/10

For the story I give it a 3, as the story is confusing and uninteresting to begin with. It takes way too long to go anywhere and the payoff wasn’t really worth it. Also the fact that the story takes itself way too seriously for such a stupid concept. The story sort of got better at the half way, but that was still too long.

For animation and sound I give them a 6 and 7 respectively. Although the animation is good, but not great. Some of the scenes look good and some of them don’t. I’m not a huge fan of the art style, but it shouldn’t affect you all that badly. The soundtrack is actually quite enjoyable and it good to hear there is a variety of different tracks being played throughout the show, and they’re pretty good ones at that.

The characters get a 3 from me. As I found little interest in them, and felt like they were just there to fill out a certain role. There is little development in them and the interactions just felt awkward between them. There are a few exceptions for some of the characters such as Ito, and other supports. The characters a bearable and not too annoying. However for the last time seriously, SCREW THE CAT.

For my personal enjoyment I give it a 3. Because it was very hard following this show, plus I’m not a huge fan of the art style. It looked quite simplistic and the story didn’t feel like it fitted well with the art style. Some of the fight scenes and music are enjoyable, but that’s it, I couldn’t delve very deep into the characters as I didn’t find them all too interesting. And the jokes weren’t all that funny to begin with as well.

So for the final score after rounding it all I up, I give Punch Line a 4.5/10. It feels like a below average anime was being made, which is reflected upon the art style, although it’s perfectly fine if the plot wasn’t so serious and dramatic and should’ve been more silly like the concept. If you want to watch Punch Line go ahead, but if you’re looking for the ecchi there’s not that much and if you’re looking for something weird, there are plenty of better options out there.

Alright, let's start this off by saying that this is my first review for an anime. Typically, whether I love, like, dislike, or hate an anime, I just rate it and keep it in mind for future use, (as recommendations or warnings). This anime is so bad that I COULDN'T ignore this when I saw the high rating this bucket of fish scraps proposing to be a work of art has.

So, good things first. The art is pretty good, and the designs of characters is pretty decent. These elements aren't the absolute best I've ever seen, but they're nowhere near the worst. I never noticed ... any issues with the sound design and choices within, but that's possibly due to the fact that those elements are the least of my worries.

Now, onto the real purpose for this review...

Oh. My. Goodness. How can you even screw up a story so hard? How can you simultaneously be so incredibly boring and yet make absolutely no sense whatsoever? How can a piece of art feel like nothing more than a dead fish trapped in the body of a super model? How can you possibly inspire frustration when almost every single element dulls one's experience so far that staring at twenty minutes of a featureless gray circle for twelve episodes would somehow be more enjoyable?

Another review I happened to notice compared this piece to the standard modern art piece. Sure, there's pretty colors. Yes, it's compared to masterpieces by certain people. There's definitely many people that consider it to be refreshing, powerful, and expressive.

In reality, it's a canvas that's been covered in twenty flavors of gray paint the artist bought at discount price when he tripped and spilled his watercolors. You can talk about the deep meanings and bold choices all you want, but haphazardly throwing random things of the same low quality without any true thought will never be worth the elements individually. That's what this anime is. It an astonishingly thoughtless waste of potential.

Art's nice, though. Would recommend if you're deaf, can't read subtitles, and aren't intuitive enough piece more than a single bit of the story together. Trust me, those two pieces will not fit together, so it's better to not have more than one. I just hope it's one of the decent ones.

ugh what a tedious ending, i hate when characters have to sacrifice themselves on the altar of humanity, regardless of all the effort up till then

seriously whats with the sudden unjustified character changes, change of hearts, instant ability to pilot advanced technology because "vidya gayms", etc talk about poor establishment

and the inadequate english voice acting doesn't help either

nothing has been resolved, this simple victory doesn't mean anything to the meta narrative

all i am now is jaded by the whole story, feels like a total waste of time

and it doesn't matter how many premises you have as long as you tie it together, i liked all ... the premises here, but the narrative just didn't cut it

the only thing i really got out of this was the enjoyment of the opening music

*THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS*
The only good thing I can say about this anime is that the art and sounds aren't half bad. The story is all over the place, and can't decide what it wants to be. We start off with what looks like a Shounen action anime, but then in the next few episodes becomes a slice of life comedy. Don't get me wrong, I think those two can work well together if done right; however, this anime does it anything but right.
Not to mention that in only the first few episodes we are introduced to many plotholes and random plot conveniences. For ... example: why does cinnamon increase spiritual power? Who knows. How could the MC turn back time the first time if he didn't have enough spiritual power? Who knows. Those are just a few of many.
Episode 6 is when I finally decided that this show was just dreadful to watch, and a complete waste of my time. In episode 6, there is no explanation of why or how, but the meteor changes course and comes towards Earth. We also learn of probably the most obvious plot twist of all time, the dude in the superhero outfit is actually our MC's real body. We also learn that the MC is a girl, which I thought was pretty strange and was just pulled out of their asses to cater to the LGBT community. This also goes directly against one of the main plot points, because why would a biological girl get so flustered seeing panties, even if they identify as a male.
After episode 6 I skipped to episode 12, just to see what happens, and I couldn't even finish the episode before becoming bored. I don't understand how in the 6 episodes I skipped they managed to attract the attention of a small army, all able to use the same power they could. It also made no sense how they still managed to defeat said army, despite being outnumbered like 100-1.
In the end, I would not wish the pain of watching through the entirety of this anime on my worst enemy. I felt so disappointed and upset that I wasted 2 hours of my day watching this pile of shit.