天下制覇

  

Less hilarious than you might think.

Impressions:

That was kind of an odd opening sequence. The whole calligraphy thing is already cultural, but even NBA players generally need at least a beer thrown in their face before their snap and start attacking hecklers. Also, calligraphy hecklers? Really?

Anyway, that’s just the thin excuse for the very, very, very tired cliche of “city guy moves to country, makes faces about all the country things they do, and learns about life from gentle country folks.” This one has an extra helping of obnoxious screaming children running around out of control, sticking their hands up people’s butts. Again, this is a cultural gap that I, someone who has written an anime blog and translated strange Japanese pornography for half a decade, do not feel like I can let pass with a simple “Oh those silly Japanese kids.”

Production’s fine. Not terribly impressive beyond the weirdly overanimated punch to the chops, but aside from the direction espousing Captain Calligraphy’s crazy ink flinging at the start and end, there’s nothing really interesting about it. Same with the content which is pretty much just “He moves to countryside, obnoxious kid spends day bothering him.” You don’t need an epic storyline, but good god, put in at least some structure and purpose to the episode, even if it’s just Uncle Jessie learning a valuable lesson about reckless neutering. Instead, there’s all the same standard looking out over the valleys and ocean to bask in nature nonsense while soothing violins play, and then making shocked faces when Things Are Different! Maybe there’s a little more slapstick/physical comedy, but as I’m not a dyed in the wool fan of these kinds of shows, I couldn’t really say much more beyond that. Without any strong comedy, it has to carry itself on how much you feel for the characters, and they’re about as generic as it comes too.  

Maybe I just don’t see the inherant wonderment of simple country people. Maybe I have no romantic dreams of living without technology. Maybe I just haven’t eaten enough panko-crusted rice today. Who knows?