The whole series is an episodic one and takes place inside the Christmas week or so. Because it's episodic and it's the same week every episode, the series also is a little achronological. Sometimes during the episodes we see other weird things happening in the background and then later on we realize those scenes will be cases of their own in future episodes, which I thought was very cool and it let the keen viewers pick up on all kinds of small details littered throughout. It gave me a big *The Tatami Galaxy* vibe which is another series I greatly enjoyed in the past.
Normally I prefer plot driven content over episodic series but Kuuchuu Buranko managed to strike a very nice balance of an overarching plot with mostly entertaining single episode stories. It did feel a bit repetitive at times but I think the runtime also helped a lot with this issue. 11 episodes felt perfect for something like this and it didn't overstay its welcome.
The theme of having different patients with varying psychological illnesses every episode was nice. I'm not going to say every resolution was great but for the most part, I thought the conclusions to the story arcs of the patients were done in a satisfying way. We even had some genuinely decent heartfelt moments mixed in which surprised me.
The series is quoted as very trippy but I think it's very easy for anyone to get into. I had some mixed feelings initially with them mixing the standard 2d anime artstyle with live action humans but I got used to it very fast and I think it elevated the comedy of the series.
And speaking of the comedy, it's good! I'm someone that sadly doesn't like anime style comedy much and I much prefer actual TV series for my comedy doses but something about the absurdity and whackiness of this show had me chuckling on every episode.
Most importantly, I think the series is just fun. It's whacky, absurd, funny, serious and unique all at the same time. I would have binged the whole thing in one day if real life didn't prevent that. Kuuchuu Buranko to me is a great way to spend a day if you are feeling down and want something different from the usual formula.
"No one is perfect!" -Dr. Irabu
