Welcome one and all to the final episode of Honda-San! It was a… well it was a rather short road to get here all things considered, so lets skip the preamble and jump right in!
I have to say, that Honda-San managed to drop its Christmas episode basically on Christmas, impresses me. It was impeccably timed and the content made all the better for it. Not only that, but the theme of closing naturally fits perfectly for the end of the season, year and holidays. All around, a good play by Honda-San here. It also managed to get a good number of laughs out of me, with the over the top reactions and good usage of foreigners. Simply put, it is an all around good episode to close on. That Honda-San managed to have its best episodes be its first and last confuses me to no end. But its better to go out with a bang than a whimper I suppose.
For the first segment, every retail worker knows the horrors of the holiday season. Black Friday, late Christmas shoppers and general madness. The deadpan take on it by Honda-San really worked for me, as I felt their pain of being forced to wear all the goofy hats. This plus the noises, my goodness some of the noises. So much of Honda-San’s humor comes from the ridiculous noises that fit the scenes so perfectly. Take the scene of the customer asking for a wrapped gift and Honda cracking from existential terror. His noise when the customer picks a wrapping still makes me chuckle thinking about it, and its been literal days since I actually watched the episode. Thats what good comedy will do for you.
The second skit was also hilarious, but also poignant in a way, with this being the last episode. Closing up the doors, until the next work day roles around. It still managed to get some great laughs though, such as their reactions to counting up the registers at the end of the day. Easily my favorite part of the whole episode however, was the foreigner. The foreigners in Honda-San are often the funniest parts, and that is once again the case here. His genuine reaction to Honda’s English gets me every time, and I love how its not played up for stereotypes or “look at this asshole foreigner”. Honda-San treats all of its characters with respect, going for humor at the situation, and not humor at the expense of a nation or individual. Simply lovely.
So all in all, a good way to end the season for Honda-San I feel. It was certainly a rocky cour, with each week having an inconsistent quality to the last. There were definitely some episodes that, even at 10 minutes, I didn’t want to bother watching. Maybe that’s because comedy is difficult for me, its not really my genre. But I can say I don’t regret watching Honda-San. It was a nice change of pace compared to what I normally watch (and blog). Still, thanks for sticking with me through this little experiment of mine! The final review will be up soon and I hope you had a Merry Christmas!
This was definitely one of the strongest episodes. I’m gonna miss Honda’s freakout moments, especially the ones where his head turns into a cute little egg. Here’s hoping 2019 has a couple fun shorts to offer, as well.