First quickly let's talk about the good aspects.
The main idea of the show, the story, is interesting.
But like a lot of shows, it was so wasted to the point where I might argue that it's one of the most wasted stories I've ever seen.
Another good thing about this anime is some of it's characters which we'll be talking about later.
Starting with the story and why I think it's wasted, let's retell the story first.
The anime follows the daily life of a group of adults (mainly Uramichi) whom all work in a kid's show drawing smiles on their faces, but are actually individuals with a lot of stress in life.
The story is like so interesting!
You can make like thousands of funny scenarios of this!
Not to mention also at the same time tackling the issues that the MCs struggle with.
Is it broken dreams? Is it the expectations of society? Is it personal failings?
But the show ditches all that and focuses only on the comedy, a not funny comedy by the way.
Now some might say that I should not criticize the way the anime goes with, as it presents itself from the start as a comedy show.
And for that I say no.
It's not me who came with these ideas, it's the anime itself.
If a show wants to be comedy only, it tells it's fans directly.
It does not offer characters (especially Uramichi) that have a somewhat seemingly sad past.
Again, I'm not the one who came up with this.
It's those particular scenes in the anime, when Uramichi is smoking or a character is being serious, and it's that ED.
And talking about the ED which was on of the best EDs I've listened to and one of the biggest lies I was told.
It has such a serious aura that screams at you telling you something's gonna happen.
And what was it for? Nothing.
Alright alright, maybe the anime failed this side but what about the comedy?
Well I'd like to say it was so mediocre, like the most mediocre thing you can imagine.
I do not deny that it managed to make me laugh at times, but it was a 13 episodes anime that maybe managed to make me laugh 10 times.
The reason for that which I don't understand, is how much a lot of jokes are repeated.
Imagine if you went to a comedy show where the comedian just keeps telling the same jokes, it'd be like Hella boring!
Not to mention that some of the jokes made the characters feel so unlikable.
Like that joke about Uramichi venting his anger on Usahara, it can be funny for the first or second time but then it becomes downright bullying!
Uramichi who's a character that we're supposed to feel for, feels so mean to another character for being a little stupid but clearly kind hearted and not ill-intentioned.
I'm pretty sure the author or whoever it was noticed how this joke was that bad that it was almost never used in the second half of the anime.
Some other examples of such jokes that were repeated to the point of being mood-killing at times are Ikiteru thinking of rice balls or having a crass sense of humor and Usahara trying to pursue the girls yet only getting Capellini (I swear to god I'm not going to describe this character because I'm not American and I don't know what dear Americans might do if they thought I was being offensive to someone).
And you know what's the worst?
It's the fact that the anime was able to do all of what I mentioned in a certain episode, episode 10.
It offered such nice and funny comedy but also ending the episode with a serious scene where Komatani talks about the incident where he punched his superior.
And I was like the f***!
You can do it if you try!
You can offer a nice story!
And this was the only episode that made wanna click the next episode button.
Another reason for this episode being the best is that it focused on the best character in this show which was Komatani.
And talking about the characters, oh boy, what a disaster.
Uramichi seems like an intersting character, but he was never fleshed out in the anime enough.
He has these moments where he feels genuine, and he also has moments where he feels unlikable.
Komatani is by far the best character in the show.
While seeming a little mean at times he actually may be the kindest of the crew.
It's clearly shown, as though he might show uninterest in Usahara he still is seen with him in every scene.
He clearly does not hate him.
He is smart to an extent and also a person who acts quickly when required, not to mention his caring for Ikiteru (?). Not sure.
And talking about Ikiteru, he is a really an unfunny and bland character, having the only characteristic of his be his silliness.
Yet there is a character that managed to be more bland that him which is Utano with the only thing making her memorable was being the only female in the cast.
The last character would be Usahara, which is the biggest disaster.
He is made only to be an idiot.
He has nothing going on with him, not even a single trait to make the audience engage with him.
He was fleshed out a little in ep 11 which where he really shines, but then he went back to being the same idiot.
Some might argue that he was intended to be written like this, and if so I congratulate the author for successfully making me not care ever about this character.
Whoo!
I think we almost finished.
I don't really have anything to say about the sound or art other than nothing special.
Now the last thing I wanna add is my theory for why the comedy in this show was that bad.
I've always had a problem with comedy anime and I thought they worked better as a manga.
That is because comedy is written not to tell you a story like other genres, but to give you a reaction (in this situation the reaction being you laughing) which goes the same for horror anime.
An action manga or romance manga being adapted to an anime is nothing much, it's just a story that is being told in different mediums.
Yet a comedy manga is different, when the author writes a certain joke they write in a way where you'd laugh while reading a manga, not thinking a lot about the anime.
Now of course that does not excuse much, there're plenty of elements that're bad in this show either way, but this is just my theory.
And that's it!
Thanks for reading, didn't intended for this to be that much but what can I say.
