First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「B Chiku Sentai SOX (B地区戦隊SOX)」 by SOX

“Whom Does Public Order and Morality Serve?”


「公序良俗は誰が為に」 (Koujoryouzoku wa Daregatame ni)

J.C Staff’s Lunacy – Fun and Dumb:

Well, well well. Where to begin with this one. For whatever reason, I thought this might be worth checking out. I read the synopsis, glanced over the source material, and kept up to date with the promos. And somehow, despite it feeling so wrong, I decided I would give this a shot, because I thought “it might turn out to be pretty good”. But also “this is horribly offensive trash that exemplifies the pitfalls of the anime industry”. As it turns out, my initial reaction was correct: this was really, really good. Don’t get me wrong, the whole premise is ridiculous, but if a comedy makes you laugh, it’s doing its job right. And Shimoneta made me laugh throughout its first episode.

Fun fact: J.C Staff were one of my least favourite studios when I started watching anime by the season back in 2011. I thought most of the content they produced was the same thing over and over, and lacked any excitement in terms of production. Things have changed over the years – whether that be due to J.C Staff’s approach or my own opinions changing, I don’t quite know – but I find myself strangely reliant on the studio to produce solid anime nowadays. They always seem to ‘get’ their source material, and provide the viewers with something enjoyable, even if not revolutionary. And Shimoneta is certainly that breed of J.C Staff anime.

A Terrifying Near-Future without Dick Jokes:

The premise is as follows: 16 years have gone by since the “Law for Public Order and Morals in Healthy Child-Raising” was passed, which has banned vulgar language and indecent acts. It’s a near-future where everyone has to conform to ridiculous rules, else the devices around their necks signal their behaviour, and they face criminal prosecution. In this absurd world, our two main characters are forming SOX (Anti-Societal Organisation) in order to wreck sexual, explicit havoc. It’s… so dumb. I haven’t been this baffled by a premise for quite a while. Still, somehow, it works. The whole thing comes off as a parody, totally aware of its own absurdity and the tropes it embraces to lovingly. I should hate Shimoneta, but I can’t lie – it made me laugh.

Sex Jokes, Terrorism, The Mystery of Pregnancy & Procreation:

Okuma Tanukichi (Kobayashi Yuusuke) is a run-of-the-mill protagonist who doesn’t make much of an impression – he’s merely a vehicle for this whole story to take shape. However, the female lead, Kajou Ayame (Ishigami Shizuka) is anything but ordinary. She has two identities: the seemingly stuck-up Vice President by day, and by night, she’s the sex terrorist, Blue Snow. Throw in Tanukichi’s obsession, the famed President Nishikinomiya Anna (Matsuki Miyu), and Fuwa Hyouka (Gotou Saori), a girl obsessed with the mysteries of pregnancy, you’ve got a strange, tropey, but somehow atypical batch of characters.

Shimoneta is basically Sex Jokes: The Anime, but it doesn’t shy away from its intention. Whether it be Ayame shouting “C*ck-a-doodle-p*ssy!!!” from a rooftop with frilly underwear over her head, or the shocking revelation that woman in fact have four holes (thanks for clarifying that one, Enzo), nothing is held back. I suspect that you could react one of two ways to the comedy here: either being offended or turned off by how vulgar and stupid the whole thing is, or accepting what type of series Shimoneta it is, and revelling in the gratuitous gags. Or maybe you could just find it boring? Personally, I don’t think there’s anything boring about a bunch of highschoolers learning about sexual intercourse through a projection of two flies “melding” with one another, followed by them proceeding to have orgasms over the sexiness of it all. Boring is not the first word that comes to mind.

Overview – What’s Next?:

I thought this could be a stupid kind of fun, and it was exactly that. I guess I’ll have to stick with this one and see where it goes. Comedy is subjective, and Shimoneta did it for me. The actual censorships put in place on help make it funnier. There’s also the possibility to consider that this is a satire of Japan’s Bill 156; it’s essentially poking fun at what Japan could become (in some weird alternative universe) if it took those sorts of things to the extreme. But regardless of whether it’s a mere parody or satire of something greater, it made me laugh, so I have to give it credit where it’s due.

Note: There are currently no plans to blog Shimoneta to Iu Gaiden ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai on a weekly basis.

End Card

50 Comments

  1. You know, there is another possible reaction to the comedy here: the one where you find the jokes uninspired and simply not fun.

    But again, comedy is indeed subjective. I have nothing against the material, heck I even found the premise interesting, but to me, the comedic execution in the premiere felt really, really bad.

    Steelman
    Reply

    1. well lets see. Until now it is “fresh”, but slowly the jokes begins to feels like overused. Perhaps we will get to see more embarrassment situations, or they move to “mind jokes”.

      WorldwideDepp
      Reply

    1. Tribute to the classic crazy perv comedy- that manga is hilarious! Shimoneta’s allegorical style of perverted comedy contrasted against Prison School’s in-your-face super crass style of comedy proves my point, perverted jokes can make things funnier, but even so it need not be so crass that it shocks the conscience, which is usually nothing but a net liability- unless you as the author want it to be that way for attention, which is fine, but you’ll have to step up your game to overcome the offensiveness factor…

      Zen
      Reply

      1. I totally second that Zen, i was thinking about how much Prison School fails at comedy while watching Shimoneta, the sexual innuendos, word plays and even the self-censorship all work brilliantly, you laugh “with” the show more than “at” it because it makes you feel you are in on the “joke” and respects your intelligence despite the ribicliousness of it all, unlike Prison School which is like a 5 years old trying to scare (make laugh?) girls by flashing his penis .. it’s just too crass and stupid and it doesn’t even realize that, it revels in it, i didn’t laugh that much watching Prison School as much as i was shocked and feeling discomfort, while with Shimoneta i was laughing all the way to the “climax” of the episode with the flies (freaking hilarious XD), i will drop Prison School and stick with Shimoneta for now.

        Hunter-Wolf
        Reply

  3. lol this is crazy AF.. in a good way.

    the end scene of insect pr0n with added sound effects by blue snow is one of the few anime scenes that actually made me laugh out loud in recent memory.

    a ‘turn off your brain and enjoy’-kind of guilty pleasure anime this season for sure.

    grayne
    Reply

  4. It’s really creative how the author of the LN or Manga or whatever this was adapted from came up with these silly. silly allegories/euphemisms for sex. Any genetics grad student can tell you watching Drosophila sp. getting it on is one of the least exciting things that you can do with your day- let alone titillating. But add in some dirty pics and sexual moans for context and suddenly it isn’t so mundane anymore. If this show can keep this sort of stuff up, it may just turn out to be my comedy of the season

    Zen
    Reply

  5. Honestly this one was just plain weird. I guess a lot of the jokes are lost in translation given that they tend to seem like puns but still overall I honestly don’t know what to make of this given that the setting is weird as well. I’m sticking with the 3 ep rule on this but right now it’s more likely to be dropped for me.

    Juan
    Reply

      2. That’s it?

        I wasted all those sleepless nights just for a peehole?

        Meh… I thought it was some sort of extremely perverted organ that I had no idea existed…. How boring T.T

        Ginobi47
        Reply

  9. Forbidden words:

    So it is like: “confederate”, “right wing”, “feminazi”, “/pol/”, “gamergate”, “Hunie Pop”, “ugly woman”, “the cops were right…” and so on?

    Grahav
    Reply

    1. Exactly what I was thinking. I can really relate to this.

      With the advent of PC, just about everything damned thing I say ends up offending someone.

      As a racial minority who had to deal with all the bullshit before PC came into practice, I say- suck it up you fucking pansies.

      Stranger
      Reply

  10. You know, the opening scene where the punks were arrested for breaking the law and the officers burned the ero-material reminded me of one of Christian Bale’s pre-Batman films called “Equilibrium” (where it is illegal to feel emotions); in that movie’s opening scene the officers burned contraband artwork instead.

    Also, Blue Snow’s “OH-HO-HO-HO!”-laugh is just love

    SOX
    Reply

  12. Feels good to have an anime I can just shut off my brain to entirely and have a good laugh. Ayame has already become another favorite girl to me XD.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

  15. Surprising to most people, since its not obvious like its neighbor, thanks to the size, the 4th opening is actually able to be used for those kind of purpose on some cases…

    kittyraider
    Reply

    1. For science!!!

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Raiu
      Reply

  18. My first reaction: what a stupid idea! My second reaction: wait a minute… In my country, several decades ago, you could go to jail for telling a political joke. Fun fact: you could also go to jail for smuggling pornography, because healthy socialistic people should not be exposed to rotten Western perversions. So I agree the premise of this anime is absurd… But perhaps not as absurd as you may think.

    Knautia
    Reply

  21. Oh ow, my sides! This show is ONLY funny in context…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Metropolitan_Ordinance_Regarding_the_Healthy_Development_of_Youths

    That’s what politicians get for trying to censor manga FICTION… the anime industry goes and makes a whole comedy about their misguided efforts! (It’s also a send-up of every conservative faction that can’t tell the difference between biological information and incest.)

    If it wasn’t for CONTEXT, this series would just be painfully stupid and crude! 🙂

    Madarame
    Reply

  24. There is more to the show than it appears at the first glance. The world building is done very solid. The characters are fleshed-out, their actions are exaggerated (mildly spoken), but their motives are understandable, setting the stage for interesting conflicts. I wouldn’t be too surprised, if the plot gains some depth later on. The show has the material for it. It’s like Aku no Hana written by an author with a happy youth.

    Enan84
    Reply

  25. Ep 02:

    This Episode made it clear, what they hide it under all these Ecchi and Hentai Jokes. the Right of Freedom. This anime pick up the point of surveillance of all Citizens under the pretending of “be the good guys”

    But seriously, they hide no the nearly buried it under these Jokes

    WorldwideDepp
    Reply

  26. I literally love this show. It’s ridiculous and hilarious. The censorship is brilliantly stupid and it’s part of what makes it fun. Originally I wasn’t gonna watch this cos it looked odd, BUT I re-read the synopsis and decided to give it ago. And then watched it again cos LOL

    Meimi132
    Reply

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