Hello and welcome to perhaps the best week of Honda-San yet. This time we get one long skit, clever writing and well mixed in education. All in a 10 minute package! Lets jump in.
To me, this was the best episode of Honda-San since the first. The gags were clever and the single topic allowed for them to build on each other. For instance the topic of the week was the Life Cycle of a Book. Had this been a normal 5 minute segment, we would have gotten maybe a single joke on each part of the cycle. Surface level at best. Instead, this longer time span let Honda-San hit each from both the comedy and educational sides. For instance I had no idea about “dead books”, that got eventually removed from the shelves. I just assumed they sat there are got sent to the back, until they sold. But that it is actually a struggle, and someone is in charge of making that decisions? And that it was presented in such a funny way? Fantastic.
Lets take a look at some of the better gags this week. Though with how many good ones there were, picking the best was a difficult task. To me, two stood out. The first was the “Be Gentle” book placement. Admittedly it is bit of a crass, obvious gag. But I found when paired with the complete and total lack of emotion from Honda, it worked quite well. Honda-San also went into… humorous levels of detail with the gag, going to far as exaggerating the crinkling and ripping of a plastic covering. There is something to be said for taking a joke, and doubling down on it. Personally I find that to result in some of the best forms of comedy.
The other gag I enjoyed was the continued riffing on “dead books” and how that hits Honda himself. Since Honda-San is an actual series he is writing, hearing his co-worker riff on poor selling books was funny. Then the visuals of getting riddled with bullets, then with Best Girl Pest Mask coming in like a religious figure? I thought the way it all continued to build on the previous gags for this one moment in a books life cycle worked quite well. It also managed to be educational in regards to the struggle of shelf stockers at book stores, which is no mean feat. Education in Honda-San up to this point has been a mixed bag. Often taking away from the humor. Not so this week, at least.
Honda-San even managed to bring in modern events, which is not something I was prepared for. Anime normally avoids real world events like the plague. Going so far as replacing countries in WW2 anime with fantasy equivalents. Avoid actual events or people as well as they can. There are a few exceptions to this, like Grappler Baki actually including current US Presidents, but those are few and far between. So when the Ebola Outbreak of 2014 was referenced as causing a book book, I was surprised. I also thought it interesting how such an event could effect and industry so far removed from the actual subject. It makes sense of course, but it wasn’t something I was expecting an anime like Honda-San to delve into.
All in all, I was impressed with this week. Honda-San tried something new with its format, a single long skit instead of multiple shorter ones, and it worked. The education was tied in well and the comedy was center stage. And that’s the big thing, that the comedy took precedence. To often Honda-San has forgone comedy in favor of its education, forgetting what it is. This episode though at least shows that the series isn’t done yet. It’s just willing to try new things and fail instead of sitting on one convention until everyone gets tired of it. And for that, I applaud Honda-San.
What about you though? Enjoy this week, or is it still dull? How shit is my sense of humor? Let me know below and I will see you next week!
