Category: Finished Series: Comedy

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 12 [Merry Christmas, Mr. Bookstore/It’s Time to Close]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

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.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 10 & 11 [An Outstanding Bookseller/Swapping Section Heads & The Alternate Honda-San/You Can Quit Your Job Whenever You Want]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Hello one and all, perhaps the most confusing production I am covering this season. This time Honda-San teaches us about publishes and dives into a world of demons and fantasy. Let’s dive in!

So to start off, I want to apologize for the lateness and doubling up of this post. Simply put, Honda-San isn’t very interesting to me anime. Not being a comedy sort of man, I was impressed when Honda-San got genuine chuckles out of me in the first few episodes. It was a very fresh, sort of blase comedy. The subject was soe mundane that anyone could relate to the situations. Simply put, Honda-San was unique in the beginning, and I think I was taken in by that. But this late in the season, the enthusiasm just isn’t there anymore. Episode 11 definitely brought some of that back, I quite enjoyed the unique premise. It really broke up the otherwise dull past few episodes. But was it enough to close out the season? I suppose we will have to see next week how it pans out. For now, onto the episodes.

Continue reading “Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 10 & 11 [An Outstanding Bookseller/Swapping Section Heads & The Alternate Honda-San/You Can Quit Your Job Whenever You Want]” →

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 9 [A Book about Life, Death, and Rebirth]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

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.

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Zombieland Saga – 07-09[But It’s Zombiemental SAGA/Go Go Neverland SAGA/Though My Life May Have Ended Once by Some Twist of Fate I Have Risen, and If Song and Dance Are to Be My Fate, Then Carrying the Memories of My Comrades in My Heart as I Sally Forth Shall Be My SAGA]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Zombieland Saga

Zombieland Saga is a confusing show to me. It’s been on a decline since episode 3 which it chucked out it’s rather unpredictable but beautifully chaotic nature for what seems to be a formula closer and more sincere of an idol show. It’s jumping between modes wherein the show can be wacky and surreal yet wants you to take it seriously. Mizuno was struck by lightning while performing, which is absurd yet the story treats her trauma regarding lightning very seriously. Miyu is a trap who died from shock after finding a chin hair, yet the anime treats his death with absolute genuine heartbreak with it even hinting that while his/her death may be silly the circumstances of overwork and mental stress leading up to it most certainly were not. Meanwhile Saki died from playing a game of chicken and driving off a cliff yet the effect on her best friend appears to be a deep rooted trauma. These elements cannot coexist as they just clash too much for it’s hard to truly feel the sadness of the situation when the nercomanager can just pop in and Hououin Kyouma it up to high heaven.

I miss the freestyle performances and while the lightning giving them magic autotune was rather novel, I just find these idol performances to be poor replacements for the creativity of the first two episodes. The only saving grace is that they have appeared to abandon CGI for 2D performances which may be less animated but at least don’t detract from the experience. I am disappointed that Zombieland ultimately went the route of glorifying the idol industry while ignoring it’s dirty underbelly of exploitation. They made one joke about how the girls being undead meant that they can literally be worked to death without worry but other than that it’s been the usual piel of idols giving people hopes and dreams with all the sugar coated nonsense. I thought the girls encountering old relations would bring some new interest to the series but sadly they have decided to have the girls keep things secret and pretend to be unrelated. I still advocate that the show isn’t bad but if the beginning episodes were a 9/10 then we have dropped down to a 6/10.

At this point the zombie thing has become a bit of a gimmick while the show has more or less begun to follow idol show formula of having an individual episode on each girl coupled with a character song. Sure in this case the girls episodes generally have to due with their untimely passing but overall the episodic nature has made the show more predictable. We know that manager is going to have a scene where he pep talks the team, we know there’s going to be an idol song, we know that each episode is going to focus on a specific girl. At this point the only things keeping this show going is the small jokes it nails and the mystery regarding just what Tatsumi’s goal or motives are in all this. And I have to say that I am not quite interested enough in those things to be heavily invested here.

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 8 [Bookstores are so Wonderful!/The Shelves with and without Restrictions]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Hello everyone, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! This week Honda-San is back in form, as we refocus on the customers. We see a cavalcade of book lovers, the terror of children, and a peek into the publishing life of Honda. Let’s dive in!

As I sad in the intro, Honda-San is back at it with the customer stories this week. Once again, it shows that these eccentric personalities are the strength of the show. I can’t say it was hilarious, I didn’t laugh out loud at any point in the episode. But it was consistently entertaining. I giggled from time to time and the stories were, if nothing else, interesting. I think a short series like Honda-San benefits from a rotating/perpetually new cast of side characters. This way our set leads can bounce off them and show something new each week, occasionally bouncing off of each other. Both segments had numerous new customers with their own quirks, and with how short the segments are, none overstayed their welcome. With how short the are on screen, they don’t have to be more than interesting caricatures.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 7 [Tell Me! Wholesaler-san/A Networking Drinking Party for Booksellers]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Hello and welcome to another week of Honda-San! A quick note before we jump in. Since this is Thanksgiving week, no doubt most of my posts are going to be delayed. I am flying to Texas for a few days and will write when I can. I will try my best, but wanted to let you know. That done, let’s jump in!

This week, Honda-San was rather dull I found. The topics were generally un-interesting, and while the gags were decent, I was already partially checked out before it even really began. I understand the series is meant to partially educate, but these industry episodes are simply nowhere near as amusing. Our two topics this week were of course Wholesalers, unique to the book industry and already partially covered by Wizard Man last week, and networking. Wizard Man is fun, but no one likes Networking. The only people who like Networking have business degrees, it is literally their job. For everyone else, Networking is a necessary evil I have found. Interesting enough, Networking actually had the better jokes, but I think that is mostly down to Japanese culture vs Western culture myself. Still, they are worth looking at.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 6 [The Man with a Secret Power/Our Fair-Day War]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Welcome fellow book lovers, to another dip into Honda-San! This week was a bit dull as we learn about the difficulties of stocking, but the second half manages to pick it back up. Lets jump in!

So overall this week of Honda-San was pretty disappointing for me. Like usual it had some good gags in there, but nothing has yet to match up to the first episode. Take the first segment of this week for example. It was interesting for a bit. We learned about stocking books, and the magic of the Distribution department. But the jokes simply weren’t funny. It conveyed more technical knowledge than it did humor. The best part of it was the segment with the older customer and their love of a now deceased author. It was sweet, and something I am sure happens. But Honda-San is a sketch comedy series, and the comedy this week was simply not there.

The second segment was better. Once again the festival aspect, since we don’t have book store festivals in the West really, fell flat. However the turnabouts with the book-marks was humorous. Customer’s doing a complete 180 once they find out there was no problem at all. Then Honda basically being dead on his feet. There was some great visual comedy going on. I have said it time and again, but Honda-San is at it’s strongest when dealing with customers. I enjoy the rest of the cast, but every time we focus on them or the back, it’s more technical than anything else. The one time we focused on the back that was funny was the sketch about BL and porn. The reason that one worked was because the focus wasn’t on the technical aspect either.

All in all, while I still don’t think Honda-San wasted my time, it could be a lot better. It makes me very glad that the series is only an 11 minute short, as it would fall apart in larger formats. As is, Honda-San was just short enough that I managed to stick it through until it got amusing this week.

But what do you think? Is Honda-San losing steam, or is my taste in comedy abysmal? Let me know below, and I will see you next week!

Zombieland Saga – 04-06[Warming Dead SAGA/The Nice Bird SAGA in Your Heart/Because It’s Sentimental SAGA]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Zombieland Saga

Forgive me for my lack of coverage on this series but you may have guessed that my enthusiasm for it has died down considerably. I always felt that Zombieland Saga was in danger of losing what made it great in its first two episodes and sadly that has come to pass. This show has ultimately become that which it wished to parody. I will preface this by saying that at least the show hasn’t become bad for it’s still pretty watchable and decently enjoyable. But the spark that was in the first two episodes has sadly died out with this show is not having any more surprises under its sleeve. We have a bit of a formula created with each episode starting with Miyano the necroducer doing his jam and introducing the episodes gimmick. Sadly the freestyle performances are gone and we have gone straight idol much to my dismay. With the comedy generally being hijinks related to them nearly being found out to be zombies.

So far the group dynamic seems to have saved the show as it is somewhat interesting to see how they individually interact with whatever they face. Yugiri i find the most fascinating as she is essentially from a completely different time period and has more or less decided to just roll with whatever is going on. She has no real idea how to approach anything so she just goes with whatever she knows and hopes for the best. The latest episode does bring up an interesting point between the conflicting nature of old and new idol culture represented by Junko and Ai’s conflicting views. With Junko representing the old style of keeping an idol at a distance where Ai is more on the modern end with a Idol interacting with her fans on a more personal level. While the show looks like it’s going to push Junko towards Ai’s perspective but I gotta say that she’s got a pretty good point. The barrier between idol and fanbase is important as it’s a reminder of the positions of the two but with the advent of the internet and social media, idols are encouraged to close that gap between the two. Ultimately what AI is talking about is fostering parasocial relationships which isn’t a good thing because it’s predatory to the fanbase and absolutely life ruining for the idol.

There does seem to be more intrigue into the circumstances as well for despite the comedic nature of the show there are some oddly dark aspects here. In particular the means which the nercoducer keeps the girls there seems oddly restrictive with them not allowed access to the internet or otherwise. How he managed to get all this girls corpses as well is certainly a point of question as they all seem to have died in a variety of ways. With it revealed that Junko died in a plane accident while Ai went out in the most metal way possible by being struck by lightning while performing. If she was in a rock band instead of an idol group that would be the most legendary way to die. The next episode holds the cliffhanger of her possibly meeting her old idol group which is certainly a reaction I want to see. i mean dying by lightning and then returning from the dead to perform again? Seriously if Ai wasn’t an idol singer this would be one legendary badass comeback. I really do miss the spontaneous nature of the show as it looks like I won’t be getting the Thriller performance and the narrative does look to be going in a more sincere and serious direction than I would have liked. It’s my hope that at least it doesn’t downgrade itself further or maybe brings back a moment of the potential it had in the beginning before it reaches it’s end.

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 5 [It’s a Book Signing!! Everyone Gather Up / A Fascinating Erotic Story]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Another week, another 10 minutes well spent with Honda-San. This time we have Golden Kamuy references, a Brazilian and lots, ridiculous amounts really, of gay Erotica. Lets jump in!

To be honest, Honda-San started off worrying me this week. It wasn’t until maybe the 3 minute mark that it seemed to pick up. I think it is a clear example of Honda-San’s strengths being the customers and situations, instead of the business side. But it pulled it back fast. Honda-San was great once it got started. Not only does it have a much larger cultural representation than I was expecting, but none of them are offensive stereotypes. To me, at least. We have had French, American, Brazilian and multiple examples of each, up to this point. Not to mention his “Lets Bullshit English Time!”, which was just fantastic. Honda-San is just so… upfront with its actions and jokes. A great example of grounded absurdist comedy. Now I just need to avoid being that Brazilian guy when I go to Japan in February.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 4 [Mission: An Outside Work-ish Job]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Ah, another week another short relaxing dip into Honda-San. This week we have mandatory employee training, cults and a step in the right direction. Lets jump in!

So luckily, it looks like Honda-San took my advice and stepped back on the educational bits. This week it focused on taking a basic facet of a service position and magnified aspects of it. Most people in a service position have probably been through something like this. A mandatory, extremely awkward and boring, training seminar. Honda-San took this seminar this week and exaggerated all the worst, or weirdest parts. The teachers became cult leaders, with their masks. The apathetic employee’s forced to be there became humerus caricatures, and the tasks at hand were executed with gumption. Personally I thought it all worked quite well. Honda-San truly is at its best using grounded absurdist humor, instead of educational humor.

As far as the actual jokes, they still came at a slower pace than I would have liked, but largely worked. It setup my expectations with the first terrible smile, which I have seen at these kind of events. But then completely surprised me with the ridiculousness of the pretty ladies actions. The damn “oo ee oo ee” sound murdered me. It came from nowhere and was just unique. Honda-San also nailed some of the visual humor this week, with the “perfect” employee as seen in the image above. I do think it spent a bit to much time actually explaining the seminar though. This is something most people can grasp immediately I imagine, I don’t think the viewer needs to hear it spelled out. Hopefully Honda-San continues to move in this direction though.

So all in all, Honda-San was better this week. It was still just a bit to much on the educational side, and the 2nd Skit of the episode might as well not of been there it was so short. But for a 9 minute a week short comedy sketch, I still think Honda-San is worth your time. Watch it on the bus, or during lunch or something for a quick chuckle, and I would say its time well spent.

Apologies for the shortness of the post here this week, but there really isn’t much to talk about with a comedy skit like this. I would rather be succinct and to the point than waste your time with a 1000 word essay. Hope you enjoy, and see you next week!