I’m not blogging this series, but this episode was too interesting to pass up. I’m quite behind on a lot of series, so unfortunately it might take a while before I’m caught up with everything again, so I’m just going to continue the Kaleidoscope in whichever way is the most handy.
Noucome is definitely my guilty pleasure of the season. There is a lot wrong with it. For starters: remove the dog girl and this series would already be lots and lots better. Every major character in this series is a clever play on stereotypes, but she’s just there for dumb moron-jokes and fanservice that we’ve seen way too many times before. This series also has some moments at which it’s just random for the sake of being random. That also could have been toned down.
But yeah, this episode in particular had some pretty sharp parodies. It was actually a breath of fresh air to finally have a series address the stupidity of some overused cliches and bad plot devices that plague the romance and harem scene. I mean, I’ve said before that a good parody is one that really pokes fun at its subject material, instead of just copying things.
The Shaft and the Sister parodies worked surprisingly well. This probably is the first time that I’ve seen a Shaft parody work so well, pointing out how silly it is to just watch a bunch of dialogue while the camera focuses on random details in the background that make no sense. Very clever. And on the other side of the coin, it was so satisfying to finally have someone call out on the bloody sister-cliche! I cringed when the sister first appeared, but the entire character is a very successful parody who just calls everyone her sibling. The best part was that one member of the student council who finally showed a bit of a realistic reaction of having younger siblings as a teenager.
Beyond that, there actually is a romance series that distinguishes between liking someone and loving someone. Yukihira meanwhile continues to take the piss out of the typical character who has a crush on the male lead by getting into his way in quite some creative ways.
Overall this was a very inspired episode. It’s not perfect obviously, for example that Maria-Sama ga Miteru bit was just a random reference that had no purpose of being there, and the rich posh girl with huge boobs was just another rich posh girl with huge boobs, but for a comedy to be consistently funny for five episodes, with such a questionable subject material. I consider that quite a job well done.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
Even as someone how doesn’t review anime and therefor doesn’t look as much into as you do (which is why I like reading your posts), the show is at the very least very, very funny. That’s not something I say quite often about anime. I know I’m not the kind of view anime is catering to (I’m American and haven’t seen much anime as of yet, so most jokes would pass me by), but even with that this show manages to be funny for more while being funny and clever for a more experienced anime watcher like yourself.
I’d love to be able to edit my mistakes in these posts as its really hard to type from the website on my phone. Anyway, but of corrections:
Line 1 “who” not “how”
Line 3 “Viewer” not “view”
Line 5 “me” not “more”
NouKome is a miracle. It’s pretty great considering how bad the ingredients are.
I think I like it because it feels like all the characters are in on the joke, or at least trying to act like the tropes they embody rather than BEING the tropes themselves. Like you said, psgels, it’s certainly not perfect. But then, few series make me chuckle just from their use of music, and even fewer call out their own stupidity successfully.
Yeah I agree with everyone. This show has amazingly managed to be one of the most entertaining shows of the season. It’s got a lot of issues but it still manages to be a lot of fun.
The show feels like a sit com with live audiences.
Like SNL on acid or something.
Actually that’s the kind of show I watch Japanese animes for : over the top comedy without Western gender correctness/blandness.
There is a huge difference between being plain stupid and being voluntarily stupid. Here it is masterfully nonsensical.
By I have yet to witness the return of something equal to the most regretted FLCL.
This anime is very true to its purpose… trolling… or as known to some very select few who don’t mind it even when victims of it… SARCASM.
It’s a shame we don’t get to read your opinion weekly, since in its case you were able to get over feminine undergarments and male objectification 😉
As for the episode, it was brilliant, deconstructing my favorite studio and its troupes :p