OP Sequence

OP: 「Here We Go!」 by Hashimoto Shouhei, Ishii Takahide, Ootsuka Takeo, Zaiki Takuma

「Brain-Blasting Genius 」

Of the Winter 2019 anime to have premiered so far, Dimension High School is the zaniest yet. Rather than trying to masquerade as high art, it revels in its low brow aesthetics as over-the-top live-action segments and mediocre CGI animation are brought together to tell the story of four high school students and a teacher who are routinely sucked into an animated battle of wits against a massive soul-eating sphynx by a talking rock named Spudio the 22nd. If you came in expecting the goofiest experience, you’ve come to the right place.

Our cast isn’t the most sophisticated as they are embodied by the tropes they carry. Shiroyama is the everyman who first spots Spudio and takes charge by using the teacher’s lesson to solve the sphynx’s puzzle. Kikawa is the athletic bro-type who finds themselves amazed yet perplexed by the circumstances he finds himself in after getting warped into the anime universe. Minakami is the curious bishie type who hasn’t had time to shine just yet. Midorigaoka is the most abrasive one as a nerd who finds himself hating everyone save for his massive crush on Mr. Momotani and possibly Shiroyama. The funniest character ended up being Mr. Momotani, whose revival after getting his soul eaten revealed that the one true love that the anime universe stole from him, as a result, is all the hard-earned money he gathered from a phone game, sending him in an uncontrollable rage.

The main attraction, as it turns out, is the overall absurdity of the series itself. Spudio the 22nd ordains these five as the heroes of the universe, but in order to fulfill their destiny, they have to get regularly trapped in animation as they have their souls at risk of being enjoyed as an umami meal by a massive talking sphynx who challenges them to complete impossible trivia questions. On top of all of this, there are also some humorous gags tied to the cheapness of the animation like having the characters clip through each other and deliberately shove their hands into their character models. There’s admiration to be had in the audacity of creating such a series, where making something that’s as surreal as this took effort and creativity. For a series with cheap animation and corny acting, it’s hard to deny the charm that Dimension High School has in creating something original and outrageous out of the idea of making a live-action/anime hybrid.

Preview

9 Comments

  1. When I read the synopsis I didn’t get why you said the animation was crap. The drawings looked fine in the poster! …. then these screencaps came and I finally realize.

    …. it’s animated in CGI.

    God… DAMMIT! WHY!? WHY DO THIS?? I KNEW hand-drawing them against live-action actors on 1’s all the time sounded too good to be true!!

    starss
  2. “Shiriyama”

    The character’s name is Shiroyama.

    “The funniest character ended up being Mr. Momotani, whose revival after getting his soul eaten revealed that the one true love that the anime universe stole from him, as a result, is all the hard-earned money he gathered from a phone game, sending him in an uncontrollable rage.”

    The translations messed up on this — he’s actually a day trader and it was mistranslated to “date raid.” So he actually lost money IRL.

    Anonymous
  3. We sampled this episode…and immediately had to wash our eyes out by watching “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.

    Seriously, animation and live action can definitely work, it just needs better concepts and execution than … THIS.

    Jerry

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