Funny Anime

Takaba is Hilarious, and you Can’t Change my Mind!

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews, Crunchyroll , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jujutsu Kaisen S3 Ep 10 Review

Okay, guys. I know I said that the last episode of JJK was my second favorite of the entire season. But Iโ€™m already calling it: this episode is my third favorite! While Yuji managed to get Higuruma to change the rules to help their plan, Megumi wound up getting jumped by a group of hostile sorcerers. And now, we get to see our sullen sorcerer in action. More importantly, though, we get to see my favorite character in the entire series in action. The god of comedy himself, Takaba!

Megumi is a Stone-Cold MOFO!

When we last saw Megumi Fushiguro, he was in the process of getting jumped by a bunch of Culling Game players, led by this guy named Regie Star whose outfit is the biggest amount of receipts Iโ€™ve ever seen. Iโ€™m not sure if itโ€™s mentioned here, but heโ€™s one of those reincarnated sorcerers and thinks that Kenjaku has some secret plan to the Culling Game beyond merging with Tengen. So heโ€™s trying to recruit people to help when the time comes. Naturally, Megumi doesnโ€™t care beyond stopping Kenjaku and saving his sister, so he says no. And then we witness Megumi getting jumped by this entire posse.

And this is one of the moments where I think JJKโ€™s power system really has a chance to show off.

I know that a few episodes ago I was complaining how about strange some of the powers in JJK can be, like Kiraraโ€™s was. But as long as it looks cool and can kick butt, I’m willing to roll with things. And Megumiโ€™s fight with Regieโ€™s group shows how dangerous sorcerers can be in the modern day. Like this one guy who can turn his body parts into explosives and regenerate them. Itโ€™s like a grosser version of what Bakugo from MHA can do! But the scariest threat is Regie himself. By burning those receipts he has, he can summon whatever they were used to buy. Like gasoline, a Vespa, or even an 8-wheeler truck. He can basically summon stuff and throw it at Megumi like weaponized garbage! That may sound dumb, but then you remember what would happen if one of those receipts was for something like an assault rifle.

Thankfully, Megumi is a badass with a bunch of shikigami to back him up. And unlike Yuji, heโ€™s fully willing to kill opponents if that will help his goals, as shown when he actually kills one of Regieโ€™s mooks. He almost gets overwhelmed early into the fight until someone unexpected shows up to interfere: Fumihiko Takaba, my favorite character.

TAKABA IS HILARIOUS AND YOU IMITATE EVERYTHING HE DOES

We already met Takaba before. He was that struggling comedian we saw at the end of a few episodes back, and now heโ€™s participating in the Culling Game. And heโ€™s doing it in a costume straight out of a tokusatsu thatโ€™s split right down the middle, leaving half his body exposed. And I do mean exposed. There are a few moments where the anime has to obscure his nether region from hanging out. And keep in mind that heโ€™s a 35-year-old man whose running dressed like this. And if you thought that is cringey, then you hear his jokes! They are so bad that they lead to this hilariously overdrawn awkward beat that goes right into the eyecatcher that marks the halfway point of the episode.

I cannot lie to you guys: I love Takaba. I donโ€™t know if itโ€™s because I like goofy characters who act free and uninhibited. Or if itโ€™s because his jokes are so bad, theyโ€™re good. But I just love Takaba so dang much. He was the character I was looking forward to seeing the most this season, and for good reason. After all, heโ€™s one of the strongest characters in the entire series.

Don’t. Underestimate. The Fool

No, I am not joking. He may look like a fool, and he is, but donโ€™t let that deceive you. Heโ€™s got one of the most broken, overpowered cursed techniques in the entire series. The kind that could potentially bring down the likes of Gojo! What is it, you may ask? In a nutshell, the jujutsu version of the rule of funny.

Have you ever seen the Looney Tunes or gag manga and anime? In those stories, the characters are able to regularly defy the laws of the universe, allowing to survive things that should kill them. Why? Because of the rule of funny: something is allowed to break the laws of reality if people find it funny. And Takabaโ€™s technique, Comedian, allows him to do anything he wants so long as he thinks itโ€™s funny.

I was not exaggerating when I said that Takaba could go toe-to-toe with Gojo. That man has the cursed energy equivalent of toon force, allowing him to survive fatal injuries and turn the tables on that guy with exploding body parts. And I donโ€™t care if heโ€™s meant to be cringey or not. I find him to be hilarious. Then again, I grew up on a diet of cartoons, so I might be biased. I just hope he appears again soon.

Sadly, our time with Takaba is short, as the main focus is the fight between Megumi and Regie. And Megumi is actually on the backfoot due to being unable to gain an advantage over his opponent due to how unpredictable his powers are. So Megumi has to pull out the big guns: his domain expansion. The bad news is that he hasnโ€™t fully mastered it yet, forcing him to take the fight to an enclosed space where he can actually use it. But the good news? Weโ€™re gonna get to see Megumiโ€™s domain expansion.

This was such a fun episode for me. I love characters that can make me laugh, and I want more of Takaba!

I Give โ€œTokyo Colony No. 1 โ€“ Part 4โ€ a 4.5/5

‘Zom 100’ is a Hilarious Jab at How Corporate Jobs Can be Hell!

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews , , , , , , , ,

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Review

Once upon a time, working an office job for a big corporation seemed like the ideal life. To get paid working in a safe place that required minimal physical labor sounded like a dream come true. Then people realized the truth: office jobs suck! You face annoying commutes to work, do something that, in the grand scheme of things, has no value, and potentially deal with bosses that are either jerks or idiots. And when a person deals with that day in and day out, every day, can you even call that living? It’s less like you’re living and more like being a zombie. 

Then again, being a zombie might be an even better alternative. That seems to be the philosophy that this new, hilariously comedic horror anime called Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead seems to live by. When everyone living through a zombie apocalypse is the equivalent of hell, this show looks at us and asks, “Was life before any better?” 

Akira Tendo, the Corporate Slave Zombie…

The first episode opens with one of the most depressingly realistic introductions to a character I’ve seen in a while. Meet Akira Tendo, who, at the young age of 24, already lives like he was dead. Three years ago, he got a job at a production company fresh out of college. At a glance, it looked like his dream job. He’d be doing what he loved, his co-workers seemed nice, and he even had a crush on this cute one named Saori Ohtori.

It took less than a day for him to start hating it. 

If people in America think corporate jobs are bad, then that’s nothing. In Japan, there’s the concept of a “black company.” In essence, it’s everything negative about working in a big business office job. Everyone’s expected to work overtime without pay; the bosses are more like slave drivers and concern for mental and physical health is nonexistent. It gets to the point where some people would rather die than live like that. I’m being serious.

As depressing as this is, Zom 100 plays up Akira’s horrible life for the sake of black comedy. We hear his coworkers bragging about how much overtime they’re putting in; his boss is an abusive demon, and that girl he likes? She’s the boss’ mistress! He can hear them making out from inside the man’s office. By the time we’re introduced to him, he’s more a zombie than a person.

Again, it’s exaggerated for comedy’s sake, but it’s still a big jab at how corporate work sucks.

Wait, a Zombie Apocalypse? I NEVER HAVE TO WORK AGAIN!!

One day, as Akira’s reluctantly headed to his terrible job, the thing so many people dread happens. The zombie apocalypse begins, and Akira starts freaking out. Then, as he’s busy running for his life, he realizes something. Something that will offer him salvation from his hellish life: he never has to work again. 

Then suddenly, the formerly monochrome world Akira’s in lights up in an explosion of colors. It’s a big, neon-colored expression of how Akira’s happy for the first time in years. Everyone else is reacting to this like it’s Highschool of the Dead, while Akira’s treating it like the best day of his life. It’s a brilliant moment of black comedy that left me grinning at the sheer audacity. The show’s saying that it would be better to face down zombies rather than sit in an office and do a job that gives you no fulfillment. 

So, now alive for the first time in years, Akira does what he should’ve done years ago. He heads to Ohtori’s place to confess his love but finds she’s already a zombie, along with his fat boss. So, killing three birds with one stone, he quits his job, throws his boss out the window, and then confesses to Ohtori before running for it. And he’s still happier than ever.

Get Busy Living Before you Get Busy Dying.

Afterward, Akira realizes that odds are, he’s going to die and become a zombie himself. Before that happens, though, he wants to live his life to the fullest. So, he grabs a notebook from a convenience store and comes up with his bucket list of 100 things to do before he dies. And that is where the first episode is.

There have been many zombie apocalypse stories told over the year, including anime like Highschool of the Dead. But this might be the first time in living memory where the idea of a zombie apocalypse doesnโ€™t look that bad. Yes, society collapses, and people have to fight to stay alive. But when you contrast that to how horrible Akitaโ€™s life was before this, could you even call it living? Life is meant to be more than just slaving away at a job you only do to pay the bills. Itโ€™s enjoying yourself. Maybe Akira has the right idea about what heโ€™s doing. Regardless, Iโ€™m going to enjoy watching this series.

Thereโ€™s more, though. The dub comes out on August 6th on Crunchyroll and Netflix (and has Zeno Robinson as Akira), and the latter is making a live-action version of this. Clearly, the anime distributors seem to have a lot of faith in this, so that should encourage you to watch it. Even if we canโ€™t all quit our dead-end jobs, seeing someone like us do that makes our world a little brighter?

I Give “Akira of the Dead” a 4.5/5