BY FAR the most underwatched and underrated series of the past winter-season was Gag Manga Biyori’s fourth season. There were no subs, the first season was already very much unknown, and its random and unimpressive promo-art that lacked any moe whatsoever lead to only few people to give it a chance. On top of that, it also didn’t help that half of this season was a recap: only the odd numbered episoded episodes were new, while the even ones were just episodes taken from previous seasons.
But here’s the thing: never since the best episodes of Gintama have I laughed as hard at an anime as with this series. This isn’t just a case of a series that’s ‘decent despite its popularity’, no. Gag Manga Biyori+ is one of the funniest things I’ve seen since ages. Besides that, it has nothing: there’s no plot, no characters, the graphics suck. But the new episodes were so awesome to watch that I just don’t care. Even the first season wasn’t as good as the episodes here.
Of course, its sense of humour is not for everyone. If you’re into moe humour then you don’t want to watch this series. However, if you’re looking for hyperactivity, then you really can’t get anything more hyperactive than this. This show elevates energetic to completely new levels, the pacing is absolutely through the roof. It never waits for its audience to catch a bit of breath, it just keeps bombarding it with joke after joke after joke, all of them over the top. With episodes of five minutes, it’s also no commitment at all to try and watch this season. My advice is that if you want something energetic to laugh at and happen to know some Japanese, then give this show a shot. If you don’t know Japanese, then you can at least check out the first season, which did come fully subbed.
| Storytelling: | 10/10 – Absolutely hilarious. I haven’t laughed this hard in ages. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Um, yeah. Random characters for every episodes. But they don’t really need to be anything more. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Smooth animation, but simple art style and a lot of still frames. But it doesn’t really need to be anything better. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Um, yeah. It’s knowledgeable about the things it parodies, I guess. |
(So yeah, this is pretty much an incredibly subjective review: I’m only rating it this high because I found it so incredibly funny ^^;)
– Excel Saga
– The other Gag Manga Biyori Seasons
– Kodomo no Omocha
– Sexy Commando Gaiden
A note-it looked like you may have tried to link to other Gag Manga Biyori seasons, but there’s no actual link.
Thanks for letting me know the first season is subbed…I’ll put it on my to watch list.
Was this series directed by Daichi Akitarou? ‘Cause whenever there’s tremendous hyperactivity to be found, he’s usually not far behind… (:
-Tom
Hold on, according to Kids Station, there are 15 episodes this season (including repeats), with episode 15 airing on April 24. So it’s not over!
http://www.kids-station.com/program/program.76202.html
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ギャグマンガ日和
Oh crap! So I wrote this review too early. I really thought that it would just last 13 episodes. Ah well, I doubt that episode 15 is going to make me change my opinion of this series, so I’ll just repost this review after it airs.
Wyrdwad: yeah, the entire franchise has been directed by Daichi Akitarou. I really must thank you for introducing him to me, because this guy truly is the best comedy director out there.
Speaking of Daichi Akitarou, despite I like Gag Manga Biyori series and all, I wish he could do something different… at least something has 20 minutes airing for per episode. He has been doing short random stuff for the last 4 years, you know. That’s not gonna satisfy a fan of him like me.
And don’t forget to add Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo!! Masaru-san to the list.
Agreed with Astrocurrent, Masaru-san is awesome – in fact, that screenshot you have of the guy stroking his mustache and giving a thumbs-up REALLY reminds me of Masaru-san. (:
Also agreed that Daichi needs to get back to doing full-length things. I really wish the story he co-wrote, “Makasete Iruka!” a.k.a. “Grrl Power,” would be licensed for a full-length show, rather than just a single episode OAV, as there was a LOT of potential there.
-Tom
Ooh, I stand corrected… Daichi didn’t co-write it, he just plain WROTE it, and produced it himself!
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3458
Makes me want a full-length series of it all the more. Too bad it didn’t really garner much attention.
-Tom
I’ve loved Gag Manga Biyori since I saw the Usami-chan episode on Youtube ages ago. I got around watching the first season recently, but too bad it’s “too Japanese” for me to understand without subs =(
I’m a big advocate of watching the shows you want even if you dont really understand it all…it will only help you increase your comprehension, and if subs ever come along you can totally watch it again. Avoiding native materials because they are too hard is a mistake i made for too long, and i kept waiting for my japanese to get “good enough”. Then I realized psgels started watching raws before he understood half of what was going on, and its exactly how he learned japanese. Then I found: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/all-japanese-all-the-time-ajatt-how-to-learn-japanese-on-your-own-having-fun-and-to-fluency and put it all together. In other words, if you liked season 1 of gag manga byori, watch season 4. All the wacky antics will be funny anyways, its short, and it will improve your japanese.