Maesetsu!

In 2007 a new era of CGDCT (Cute girls doing cute things) began with “Lucky☆Star”. One of the best studios of all time was involved in this work: Kyoto Animation. 13 years later, Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ try to create something similar with "Maesetsu! Opening Act", but unfortunately this work does not quite create the "WOW" effect. Why am I comparing these two? You will see more about this below.

Have you ever heard of the Japanese word “Owarai”? Before I came into contact with this anime, this term didn't mean anything to me either. Owarai is a traditional Japanese comedy duo who perform in front of a live audience. It’s quite similar to stand-up comedy but they always appear as a duo. Their goal is clear: With various gags making people laugh. But this path is also hard and requires a lot of work. Our four main character (2 duos) are trying their best to make a breakthrough in this entertainment industry. Their ambitions are high, they aim to perform at the Nanba Grand Kagetsu Hall in Osaka which is very famous for comedy acts. But every beginning is difficult, our girls have to be content with small gigs in addition to their part-time work. We experience how they slowly become better and better despite ups and downs. It's a typical slice of life anime where we experience their everyday lives.

Our first comedy duo “Tokonatsu” consists of Fubuki and Mafuyu. Fubuki is known for being insightful and level-headed, she tends to be slow on some comedic uptakes like doing a proper pause. Mafuyu on the other hand is cheerful and high-spirited, she has high aspirations of being a proclaimed comedian. However, she easily gets distraught when her acts fail which happened at the beginning quite a few times. Nonetheless, they didn’t give up and you can feel how much they enjoy it.
Natuya and Rin are the other duo that goes by the name “RDeco”. Natuya is soft-spoken and carefree, she presents herself as a calm and pleasant person, always looking for the positives of the most negative situations. Her partner Rin is taking the logical part. She thinks rationally and is never afraid to opine her thoughts to others.
In addition to our two main duos, we can see a few other comedy duos like “JK Cool”, “Freak!” or the duo around Mafuyu's sister Manatsu “Tsundora”. The anime also explains well why all the groups chose that explicit name.

My first thought after seeing "Maesetsu!” was like: This is “Lucky☆Star”, just a little bit different in term of the plot. It is not exactly the same style but if gives you that vibe. The girls are portrayed in a similar cute form. The animation is not something that would catch your eye, but it is still fun to watch.

In addition to the many comedy appearances, we also hear OP and ED singing by our four main characters. It's not music that gives you a catchy tune, but you can hear the comedy part from it somehow.

After the first few of episodes I was a little bit skeptical to be honest. The jokes, what is the most important thing of the anime, were not convincing and also not that funny. But you could clearly feel the increase from episode to episode. Our girls worked really hard to get better and better. It is good to see that their efforts have not been in vain. Another interesting aspect is getting to know this comedy scene.
Believe in your dream and work hard on it, one day it may come true!

Finally, I would like to say that “Maesetsu!” is certainly not a masterpiece and there are surely parts that could be designed better. Nevertheless, for every CGDCT fan this anime is worth a try, it contains all the typical elements from this genre.
May we one day see our girls at the top of a big comedy stage!

Helpful

read more

Comedy is subjective.

What does stand-up comedy mean? According to Britannica: It is comedy that generally is delivered by a solo performer speaking directly to the audience in some semblance of a spontaneous manner.

However, this business practice is very different in Japan. Owarai geinin, or two-man comedians as they are referred to, is a very lucrative business, and by no doubt very popular in its own homeland. I remember having used to watch Owarai geinin in many variety shows through Japanese-imported programs over the years, and the insanity of referencing as much content as they can really helps add to the hilarity vibe, not to mention the already magnificent calibre of prolific Japanese comedians that never ceases to amaze me growing up with them in the past.

To no one's surprise that such a show was conceived to teach newcomers about Owarai geinin, I'd think that: "Hey, this unknown show can be somewhat niche, but at least unique." And to no one's dismay, this anime quickly bombed by the 3-episode rule for being very tedious and boring, not to mention the flat comedy that almost can be akin to a sound producer having to edit the "audience laughing SFX" track to repeat multiple times from start to finish.

If you want to know what's noteworthy of this show, it's Lucky Star's author Kagami Yoshimizu character designs, and mind you, that source material is more than 10+ years old (and currently on hiatus). Oh, and director Yuu Nobuta, having to direct 2 shows this season: Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, and this (I'd presume he didn't really care about this the entire time).

At this point, I really feel sorry for the various female Seiyuus that did the VA jobs for the entire character cast, because you can't match "success is the mother of all failures" with inconsistencies. Yes, the point of this whole show is to see the main quad-duo Owarai geinin of Mafuyu-Fubuki (Tokonatsu) and Nayuta-Rin (RDeco) to "struggle valiantly" and pick up on their own paces of succeeding step-by-step with help from some real-life Owarai geinin (e.g. Freak!'s Junki Tomita and Ubu no Hatsuna), that's really good to have mentors following up their learning journeys.

But this is 2020, not 2007. What works in the past doesn't translate well into the current times, and to be honest, Lucky Star back then was kinda the same thing (as told by Joey The Anime Man): "It was batshit full of references that anyone outside of Japan won't understand." and that rhythm applies to this show as well. So unless you live in Japan, you're probably very lost to answer what is going on, and even as an Asian myself, little jokes I can get, and many others I don't.

No surprise yet again of the Studio Gokumi X AXsiZ collab, that's always a thing for the bright coloured, child-like shows. Just fine. Same with the OST, nothing really special to say about it.

Again, I don't blame you if you entered into this show thinking that you'd have a relaxing comedic time. Nope, it's as entertaining as the worst performances you've ever heard in your life. Nice try, but you're better off watching Lucky Star instead, that I can recommend as a classic.

Helpful

read more

I'll keep this shorter than I usually would (partly because I didn't actually plan to write a review for this) and just get to the point. The premise of this show is girls doing comedy, and trying to make it to the big stage. With that being said, you may be expecting absolute comedy gold to come out of this, but unfortunately, that won't come. I assume that would disappoint many, so it's best that you know that you would be as well if that's what you were expecting. In reality, this is more of a slice of life (the cute girls doing cute things type I suppose) where the stand-up comedy acts as a supplement. In reality, most of the funnier moments just come from the day to day lives of the main characters (which compose two 2-person stand-up comedy pairs). They have their own specific personalities, and do have some bit of development, at least when it came to overcoming a few of the conflicts that come up in the story. But again, with the comedy aspect, it is one of those where you either like it, or you find it boring (or hate it I guess). You should be able to tell rather quickly where you fall under, though if you're unsure whether you want to watch it, I would say to not bother. I personally enjoyed this show as something I could just casually watch, but in reality, it's probably a bit niche in the type of people that may enjoy it. If nothing in what I wrote sounded interesting, then chances are you aren't part of this niche.

Helpful

read more

The proposal of this anime is interesting, but something quite foreign to us, since I doubt that there are many people who enjoy Japanese humor/Japanese comedians in this part of the world, and this is the main argument of this anime. While it's not a work on the same level as Lucky Star, it's not a bad anime, since Yoshimizu Kagami doesn't create bad works. Also I noted that the director in charge of this anime is the same as Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, High School Fleet and who has worked for other anime such as Endro~ and Toji no Miko, in fact he directed Mini Toji's anime, a plus for me.
I laughed, although not much of the routines, but there was a Freak!'s routine that I did like a lot, that of the husbandos in the second round, I mean, the one in the final episode, even though they didn't show us the entire routine. This anime, if you don't know much about Japanese humor or you don't like as much as they do, you'll not enjoy this anime so much, and in fact, at first, it was difficult for me to see this anime and if I had seen it weekly, most likely I would have stopped watching this anime. But luckily I was right, I remembered what happened to me in Last Period, jokes more inclined to the Japanese audience, which is not the same comedy used in other anime like Maoujou de Oyasumi that you laugh because they cut a giant ghostly sheet in half, for example. Seeing it all at once made me appreciate that this anime is going up, start a bit slow and difficult, but it softens and you enjoy it as it progresses, I can give certainty that you already find the grace to the fourth chapter and go on.
I liked the cast of protagonists, one more than others, I will not say which, the secondary ones are really nice, like Mafuyu's sister and Tomita. Good designs in general, not much more to add, ost pretty good, the color palette used it's ok. And the seiyuu's cast? I was happy to hear Aoba again, in a kawaii character.
Anime underrated? Yes. Anime show that any kind of people would like it? Hardly. But it's not a bad anime.

Helpful

read more