Story (6.22/10): Our protagonist Yuta is could in a rather...peculiar situation. For one thing, he was just in a bus crash. For another thing, he's a ghost who is now away from his physical body. And third, according to the ghost cat that he finds himself hanging around, if he sees a girl's underwear twice in a row, his excitement level will cause the world to end, thus creating the apocalypse. Well, uh...that's...that's quite a predicament.
On the surface, Punch Line seems to be nothing more than a slice of ecchi, as the main grab from the show is apparently this ghost guy now trying to be careful in his dorm filled with girls to not try and see their underwear twice in a row. But when you really get into it, not everything is as it seems. The plot for Punch Line is one that I feel is one that is one that requires a lot of attention. You see, the show itself has very different first and second halves, basically saying that depending on which part of the show you're on, you'll be watching something that differs greatly from what you would be seeing previously. You see, there really is no consistency in Punch Line itself on account of every episode being something different, both answering and asking new questions at the same time as the plot unfolds for this show.
Personally, I feel like the show is actually a Punchline for itself, seeing as how for the first six episodes, it's basically all setup giving a rather...unsavory viewing experience because it raises a lot more questions that answers before everything kinda makes sense in episode 7. The fact that you have to sit through half the show focusing on something that seems like it doesn't actually pertain to the show's premise at all is something that I feel like makes the show a lot less appealing than it actually may be. Simply put, the first half of the show makes almost zero sense. The second half ties everything together so that whatever we're watching we can understand to some degree. As the viewer, you have to tie everything together yourself, using the information, events, and characters that you're presented in order to create a neat plot line that you can follow as you go on and finish the show. In theory, this is quite ingenious, but in practice, it was shaky at best.
The biggest issue I have with Punch Line was with the way it presented itself. A lot of the points that we get don't actually feel like complete information, a lot of things still actually don't make a whole lot of sense, and the show goes into the realm of confusing so often that at times, even the show's characters get confused. As a result, having to wait around for the second half might not happen with a lot of people because the show doesn't provide a cohesive plot line where things happen in a straight line. (There's a lot of wibbly wobbly timey-wimey things in this anime.)
As far as personal complaints go, I'm not a big fan of the plot period. There were a lot of things within the actual story that really I felt like needed more explanation, and I'm also not a big fan of having to pay attention to every little thing that happens just in case something important shows up later on, cause that does actually happen in this show. Overall, I didn't personally find the show's story to be all that pleasurable. It has a nice touch of having you piece the events yourself like the show itself is a little puzzle, but because it relied so heavily on the viewer, if you didn't know that ahead of time, the show would make little to no sense unless the show connected the dots for you. Plus, I felt like a few things were thrown in there just because, so that soured my experience a little.
Overview:
+ Decent second half
+/- Interesting storytelling format (a negative as well because the format isn't for everyone)
- Somewhat poor/confusing first half
- A lot of things felt very unexplained and/or just thrown in
- First half was a bit of a time waster (sadly, it is necessary to watch
Characters (6.33/10): To be fair, while the story of Punchline can arguably be a great way of storytelling or a poor way of storytelling depending on who you're asking, the characters themselves really don't stand up all too much.
First we have Yuta, our main ghostly protagonist. Much like I have said before, the first half of the show doesn't really focus on our protagonist all that much, but rather the lives of the four other girls that live in their dorm house in the middle of nowhere. This brings me to another point of confusion and why people may drop this show early. Yuta as the main character, doesn't show up all that much. In fact, he's for the most part an observer till later on in the series which really hampers the show a bit early on because when it comes to first impressions, Punchline doesn't really make any good ones. His character does get explanation later on in the series, but the first six episodes of what is essentially exposition really doesn't make him shine or seem important.
Then we have the girls of the dorm hourse, Korai house. Narugino, Meika, Rabura, and Ito. Each girl represents a different kind of anime troupe (idol, braniac, the lonely one, gamer) and each has their own functionality within our story. (I grouped them all together to try and avoid spoilers on each one of them) While they all do play an important part to the story later on, each one of them feels like they were thrown random character traits to make them seem a little bit more wacky/a little bit more interesting to watch early on, which admittedly, feels a bit forced.
In terms of side characters, PunchLine has quite a number of them all with varying uses and importance, those uses and importances being basically, plot devices. Pretty much every character is used to drive that plot and explain a little bit more in the world of PunchLine, and the secrets that it holds. Overall though, I felt as if the characters really didn't make all that much sense. The protagonist is essentially non-existent for the majority of the show, and all of the girls just don't really seem that interesting to me personally. The side characters don't really have much going for them since they're mainly used to explain things, so their use is quite limited.
Overview:
- Almost non-existent protagonist
- Female heroines felt bland
- Side characters are mostly just plot devices
Art and Sound (8.00/10 and 6.01/10): The art for Punchline was made by Mappa, a relatively new animation studio that's been up and coming as of late at the time of this review. Punchline's animation is a style that relies mostly on a neon colored scheme, using a lot of bright colors on its palette. Honestly, the art for the series is relatively nice looking. It definitely has a unique feel to it.
In terms of sound, there's really not much to say. Aside from the OP being somehow really addicting with its repeating word "Punchline" at the beginning, there's not really much to say as all of it is pretty forgettable and not really memorable.
Overview:
+ Good art
- Forgettable music
Personal Enjoyment (3.00/10): Admittedly...I don't really like Punchline. While many people have seen it as a great experimentation of a new kind of story, really....I don't actually see it. Instead, I see a very broken story with only being fed little bits of information that really don't constitute much of anything because we're given such minute amounts that while it does have an impact, doesn't really impact me as a viewer in a grave way as to how I view the story and all that.
Did I enjoy this anime?
Not...really. I found it more to be confusing than anything.
What didn't I like about this anime?
The first half really felt completely pointless to me. Until you get to the latter half, then things start to make actual sense. But until then, confusion just took ahold of my head because I had absolutely no idea what was going on. There was all sorts of plot convenience, pigeon heads... To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what I watched because it didn't really make sense to me.
Would I recommend this anime?
Personally, I didn't like it. But because it has such a varying opinion, I feel like it's worth a shot. It's very similar to FLCL in the sense that both shows have that sense of randomness and they're both shows that can have varying opinions depending on who's watching them. There's slight ecchi, but there's not a whole lot to honestly worry about.
Overall Score: 6.43/10
