Category: Finished Series: Comedy

As appropriate with Chio’s below-average personality, Chio-chan ends not with a bang but with two entertaining-but-unremarkable sketches. Many if the side-cast don’t make the cut in this finale (I kinda miss Andou and Momo), but we have Yuki at her most brilliant and Chio at her own worst enemy. Also, the way Chio-chan handles its fan-service moments is overall quite good. We still have panty shots here and there but most of the time they have ‘purpose’ (which I will get to that later). This show ends on the brief preview on future contents, and because we know all the characters by now, we can somewhat have a hood idea the details behind it. Also heads up for the “takes” that don’t make the final cut. It’s just another confirmation that Chio-chan doesn’t take itself very seriously, and in this context it’s for the show’s benefit.

The first half deals with the new pair Chio and Chiharu. As the “mad dog” tries to figure if Chio is indeed Andou’s love interest, Chio sees this as the perfect opportunity to raise her status to her kouhan. Of course things don’t turn out the way she expected, with all her “big talks” backfire on her at every turn. Chio, so in-character, throws off all her dignity and cries like a baby. Manana’s involvement during the skit’s final moment further makes it clear how lame Chio’s plan is and how “lowly” her personality goes. It’s overall a good segment, but then again it feels like Chio-chan is more comfortable staying within its zone than going all-out for this final episode.

The second half (which is effectively its last skit), thankfully ends the show on a high note. It’s Yuki who takes the spotlight with her urge to go nude. Her totally lack of reservation when it comes to showing her skin has been suggested before, and this time Chio-chan does just about enough to sell us her desire “to be with nature” without turning her into a pervert. It helps that Yuki shows her more serious, even intimating side when it comes to the issue, which is a nice contrast to her usual cheerful personality. What more, what she makes herself and Manana to do: going commando is a nice stretch of escalation. Then Chio’s involvement to this, with a nice addition from Madoka make this segment amusing from start to finish.

Overall, Chio-chan is an enjoyable little comedy show. It has rock-solid amusing interactions to the cast, and it always understands the mindset of Chio and Manana.At the same time, it’s a bit too modest for its own good. It could’ve been a better show if they can manage to escalate Chio’s commute to school into something totally crazy, but instead what we have is more a slice-of-life Chio’s road to school where sniffing at each other’s armpit or dressing up to school can take up half of the episode. Full review will come in a few days.

Well, no surprises here. Chio-chan flips back to its usual self. Chio-chan has always been a minimalist-set show, with mundane set up in which only a handful of characters carry the gag. It rings especially true this week, as Chio’s antic makes up the first half and Manana’s wild imagination drives the second. As per usual with the show, it has some amusing little moments but it can’t help but drag out a fair bit, plus the fact that the punching lines are underwhelming in both segments.

The first bit can totally be summed up as Chio-chan has a late-game night. I must say I pretty enjoy Chio’s game persona. The fact that she would betray her comrades for the cash is totally in character. And her supreme instinct when it comes to… get away from her mom is certainly funny and relatable (I swear I used to be very good at that, so do all of us I believe). She gets so excited that she can’t get back to sleep again, and that waking up at 4am thinking that she was late certainly doesn’t help. So now our Chio has two options: sleep again and risk being late at school; or game away and feeling like shit in the morning. With our Chio, the answer is obvious, but she makes sure to have an insurance: calling Manana up to wake her up and hide her face in a bag so that no one can find out it’s her. While the whole thing goes pleasantly enough, it lacks the necessary punchline to make this segment memorable.

In the second half, Chio and Manana rehearse on what Asobi Asobase did few weeks ago: sniffing at each other’s armpit to find out if they smell. The saving grace in this segment is how Manana goes from pity to blaming Chio for many completely unrelated failures in her life. We witness how that train of thought goes (well, her thought-process makes sense to me) and how she reacts “crazily” to the eyes of people who can’t follow her thoughts. So she brings Yuki in, as a “Death Scythe Hosokawa” who brings the cold truth (more like a splash of water) to the victim. She did, not to Chio’s “Wild Game” odor (as soon we learn that it’s because of the dog) but to the truth about the boy Manana has a crush on: he just likes pretty girls. With only one episode, I just hope Chio-chan goes all out for once.

We seem to have a routine of one below-average Chio-chan’s episode, follow up by one above-average as of late. This week is amongst Chio-chan’s better ones as it fleshes out two side characters with great effect. As you might remember, Momo wasn’t that memorable when she first appeared. Her uptight attitude is a nice foil for our Chio and Manana, but taken as an individual, her character is damn plain. Adding her having a weak spot for sweet, however, is awesome. Seeing her just go loose and dandy while eating sweets make this segment sooo worth it. Appropriately Chio and Manana step back out of spotlight for Momo’s wild and adorable reactions (“I’m in Hokkaidoooo”). It also helps that her obsession towards Gotou-sensei allows her to do something out of character: going to the sweet shop to get the taste of why students eating candy. This segment also benefits from its escalation to hyper-Momo doing an acceptance speech for mixing candy ingredient into soda. It’s a good gag through and through

The second segment also benefits from giving the side cast some more texture than first appeared. I should’ve seen this coming that Chiharu is Andou’s imouto (I mean… with hair colors and stuffs) and extra point for her contrasting appearance (she wears rich-girl school uniform) with her personality (disappointed that her brother comes clean… or in her own words: “uncool”). That set up quickly escalates to Chio admits that it was her who changed Andou (in a hilarious but believable way). Kudos for Andou and Chio’s combined silliness that things can’t go like planned. And Mamana late arrival gives the whole situation an interesting mix. The only issue I take with this segment is… why boob groping, Chio-chan? Sigh

Speaking of how Chio-chan trying new things, the epilogue comes out as a nice surprise for its change of pace. Completely void of any dialogue, with watercolor simple designs, it still manages to tell a quirky, lovely tale of Andou and the cat. Chio-chan accomplishes what it does best this week: fleshing out side-characters and building up this simple premise to a right degree. Here’s hoping next week Chio-chan will break its own routine.

So… the sequence which I’m waiting the most from the PV made its to the screen this week, and it underlines both the strengths and the weaknesses I found in Chio-chan so far. The sequence in question is Chio pole dances by herself. On a dark side, since that arresting dance sequence was basically the first thing I watched in Chio-chan, I expected it more outrageously over the top. Imagine how awesome Chio-chan would have been if it embraces its wild nature more. I mean, I would love to see Chio actually has to do real pole dancing in some pub. As it stands, this version we have in Chio-chan is a slice-of-life show with Chio – a slightly more eccentric and acrobatic than normal girl. Both two fragments this week are mundane in its concept, which occasionally elevated by some amusing gags and rock-solid chemistry from Chio and Manana. Chio-chan might turn out NOT that special than I’d love to be, but as a slice-of-life comedy with mild situation-based gags it does its jobs nicely.

For the first segment, the main joke lies in how bland Chio looks without the glass (“it’s like your entire personality is on the glass” Nicely put, Manana), so Manana and Master Kushitori has a chance to out multiple crazy wigs onto Chio. Apart from multiple references that range from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure to GTO to Gabriel Dropout, I find its most amusing when she resembling Marilyn Monroe (and nice callback to that hairstyle in the second half). As Chio innocently thinks her image has improved (it’s not. To the frustration of Manana and Master), she pole-dances at a freaking shrine flawlessly with that Showa-era wig. Despite as I said earlier I felt a bit underwhelming as I wanted her to do it for real in a club, this sequence is still the episode’s high point because A) everything about her appearance doesn’t match at all with the pole-dance. She does it at a shrine. She has traditional outdated hairstyles AND she wears a freaking school uniforms. Just the thought of her doing it like that brings a smile on my face and B) she manages to do it effortlessly (I tried it one time and it’s insanely difficult). It’s the more amazing when later on we learn that she picks up naturally after watching it on her games repeatedly. She a natural acrobatic girl for sure.

Although as silly as the premise sounds, I pretty much enjoy all Andou’s wayyy too on-the-nose plan to get Chio’s attention. The jokes boost up nicely when we get all those in the point of view of Manana, whose head isn’t as thick as our Chio, and whose taste is “normal” enough so that she can see something absurdly wrong (or put it better, niche appeal) in Aidou’s plan. Her dream sequence is absolutely the segment’s best gag. Imagine Chio in her convertible car with that outrageous wig and annoying accent is so much fun to ignore. In addition, the way Manana tries to sabotage that not neccesarily because of Chio’s wellbeing (Chio’s quite happy in the dream, the one who is miserable is Manana), but from her “jealousy”. It also helps that Aidou does all that with a straight face, and Chio’s fascinating reactions are on point. He seems to have a good grasp of what Chio likes (boys who smoke, for example), but one thing he does wrong is Chio’s love for BL. It closes up with some of the best closing pun of Chio-chan in awhile, that both Manana and Aidou’s underlying behave like some yuri/yaoi characters (well, our girls did kiss before, right? RIGHT?)

To sum it up, what is the moral of this story this week? Be extremely be careful when you make an homage. It’s a double-edged sword.

At the very first moment of this episode, we have a glaring fanservice shot of Chio changing clothes and I thought to myself: “Chio-chan just can’t stop itself from having so much fun”. But it later reveals THAT is what this first segment is about. Yuki’s wearing her “revealing” track suit to school, concerning both our Chio and Manana. This week is a return to form for Chio-chan: these segments are laid out just about enough, both Chio and Manana have heaps of material to shine, and in the end the show tries something new with the little story involving Momo. It’s a welcome return of Yuki, who reveals another side of her this week to the surprise of both Chio and Manana. She wears a short tracksuit to school and she doesn’t care. She notices people glaring of her but to her it’s just like when she’s running in the big stadium. She’s fine with all the attention but it’s shattering for our girls who don’t prepare mentally for such a showcase.

So how the two girls “cope” with that? In different ways but jus so themselves. Look at how Chio decides to blend in: she wears her tennis suit so that her friend Yuki don’t stand out with her suit, but her “below-average” mindset means that she rather prefers to hide behind Yuki. I mean, it’s just a very Chio way to do. Manana, being herself, does things as indirectly as possible. She takes Yuki to the nearby supermarket so that Yuki can finally get it. The plan backfires quickly. She then teases her best friend by tempting Yuki to run, leaving behind Chio and her standout tennis suit. Even if the main joke of this segment to be: what does people react when see a girl wearing tracksuit to school, Chio-chan makes it exciting and never runs out of its welcome.

The second segment recalls the first episode’s shenanigan for all the right reasons. It does enough to not become a gimmick though. It starts innocently enough: Chio’s babbling about her games to an uninterested Manana before her game-mode takes a better of her again (Chio’s hyper for sure). Crawling up towards narrow alley is fun enough, we then have the reappearance of that bald guy (in a pretty much same situation) who still somehow misses Chio in a split second. Having Manana in this segment is an improvement from the first episode, when she just had it with Chio and storms through the roof to catch Chio. As it stands, there are many ways to reach a rooftop, and both Manana and Chio’s journey to that place prove to be entertaining and warm at the same time. “The rare item of friendship” indeed.

Lastly, we get to see the reasons why Momo doesn’t have any friend and why she joins the school committee in the first place. While she wasn’t that remarkable the first time we saw her, this little segment does a good job to give her a personality and presents her point of view. That poor girl has all the good intentions, she just need someone who listen to her. Chio-chan walks a right path this week. Segments play out just at the right length and there’s some genuine moments here. Like Chio, I feel like I’ve collected something rare watching it. Hopefully they keep it up for the remaining half of its run.

This episode of Chio-chan sure brings back my memory. I was one of those stupid boys who played that zapping butt game (among other stupid games, like stick a pen where my friends would sit) and let me tell ya, it hurts like hell. To the point whenever I listen to this song I would remember that dreadful game. That is to say that I understand completely the life-or-death stake these girls find themselves to. In a more serious note, I feel like the last couple weeks Chio-chan loses its steam as keeping things amusing. I don’t mind the mundane nature of Chio’s misadventures (although I watched the PV of Chio-chan back the other day, it did advertise for a more wide ride. #falseadvertising), but if they want to keep the segment long (as in 10 minutes), Chio’s issue needs to escalate to something completely out-there. That juggling butt out from the public bathroom did the job, this first segment doesn’t.

It’s sad because it starts out strong: Chio goes to her usual store looking for her game’s magazine, instead she’s hooked to the BL magazine and decides to buy it out. OMG that BL segment was so hilarious, I like both the ridiculous lines those characters say, and Chio’s reaction to it (#yaoifortherun). Encountering Aidou-san as a store clerk is a solid gag, but Chio-chan doesn’t properly build up from that and unfortunate drags out towards the end. To be fair, I find the gags where she tries to hide the “suggestive image” and accidently makes it even more erotic funny, but the resolve leaves a lot to be desire. First, playing Aidou as a straight man deflates the comedic tone it was building up – because if he acts normal like everyone else then what’s the fun behind catching Chio busted? I imagine it would be much more hilarious if Chio just runs for her life and cause Aidou to leave the store unguarded. The resolve is just… uneventful.

I could say the same for the second segment as I also feel the gag drags out for too long. That blonde girl (I don’t believe we know her name) who despite coming from a rich school still use that butt-zapping game as A DUEL? Poor Manana who gets zapped twice instead of Chio. This whole duel plays like a juvenile segments out of shows like Squid Girl or Mitsubishi Colors than it does in a Chio-chan episode, but the appearance of Madoka again ruins the show. If I have to point out a single character that could ruin the whole show it would be her, since she leaves bad taste to the mouth all the time. Whatever the reason why the blonde girl has such a grudge for Chio and Manana, we will eventually learn afterward. The last segment for me stands out for what these previous two lack, it’s short, sweet and to the point. It lets the big gag unfolds and finishes before things get pale. It’s one of the few moments where Chio and Manana share some empathy to other character (with a romantic, touching subplot to boost), and the old woman turns out to be an old cranky woman who is both addicted to game, foul-mouth and tech-savvy enough to pour cold shower on our naive Chio and Manana. Life is not what you expect indeed.