Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「2学期デビュー大作戦!!」 (2 Gakki Debut Daisakusen!!) by 乙女新党 (Otome Shinto)
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「帰宅部入部希望／命短し帰れよ乙女／萩月流出没注意／浪費した青春…プライスレス」 (Kitaku-bu Nyuubu Kibou / Inochi Mijikashi Kaereyo Otome / Hagidzuki-ryuu Shutsubotsu Chuui / Rouhi Shita Seishun…Puraisu Resu)
“Goinging Home Club Applicants / Life is Short; Go Home, Young Lady / Beware of Hagizuki-ryuu Practitioners / Extravagant Youth…Priceless”
If you like tsukkomis, you might like this show.
The Comedy
According to Stilts’ Unified Theory of Slice-of-Life (I totally should have named it that), the facet by which this show runs is comedy. The girls aren’t that cute – save for the buchou, but that’s mainly my twintails & thigh-highs fetish talking – there’s not much of an atmosphere, and the characters are all very derivative. So if comedy is all it has, is it funny?
Well, that depends on how much you enjoy tsukkomis. Andou Natsuki (Kido Ibuki) is your typical straight man (trope!) main character, and there’s nary a scene where she doesn’t throw out a tsukkomi or seven. Personally, I warmed up to it by the end of the episode. Kido Ibuki does a good job, and while she isn’t up to the level of Shimono Hiro in Senyu. or Matsuoka Yoshitsugu in Sakurasou – who can get laughs off their tsukkomis with pure voice acting prowess – Ibuki-chan is showing the potential to get there someday (maybe). A good sign, tentatively at least.
The Characters
As I mentioned earlier, all the characters in Kitakubu are pretty derivative. There’s the genki buchou, the cool martial arts girl, the lacking-in-common-sense ojou-sama, the innocent friend, and the comedic foil main character. Nothing excites so far – but it didn’t with Yuyushiki or GJ-bu either, and those ended up being very well done. Here? I’m afraid it doesn’t look like these characters have the seiyuu or animation backing to work so well. Ibuki-chan is definitely the best seiyuu of the bunch, whereas everyone else is…well, they’re okay. Unlike the newbies of Aiura, none of these new seiyuu are giving me great hopes for the future. The martial arts girl didn’t sound that cool, the ojou-sama didn’t sound that refined, the innocent friend didn’t sound that innocent, and the buchou didn’t sound that genki. Combined with animation that is only alright – not bad, but not great either – and I’m not holding my breath on this one.
The Point
With a slice-of-life comedy, the point should be to laugh, and if it doesn’t do that then it has failed. Humor is subjective, so I can’t tell you whether you’ll find this one funny, though I can tell you that it got some chuckles from me, so, time willing, I’m going to keep watching this series. I’m already thinking of it as a pseudo-short…with four “chapters” an episode (ala Seitokai Yakuindomo), this will be an easy one to pick up and watch, even if I only have a few minutes to spare. It won’t be high on my priority list, though. Go ahead and give it a shot – it’s light and not too filling, and you should be able to tell whether you’ll like it by the end of the first episode.
Reminder: This has been an introduction to this series only, and I will not be blogging it further. I’ll probably toss any impressions I have of further episodes up on twitter though, so feel free to follow me there.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Tsukkomis everywhere! A respectable comedy with decent art & okay seiyuu. And seals! For some reason #kitakubu
Random thoughts:
- Whatever you do, don’t refer to this show by its initials. Just…don’t.
- Related: Am I the only one who saw this show’s title and thought “Katsudoom!”? If so, fail. You all faaaail!
- Some random comedic bits I enjoyed: when Natsuki was mean to Furuhashi, when Natsuki was flustered, when they kept trying to play the ending too early, and when the ojou-sama used up all of their animation budget. Ohandalso, the random seals, because it’s never too soon to give me Aiura flashbacks. Kani kani kani!
- I think Natsuki is an ahoge about as often as Tomoki is super deformed. Three posts so far this week, and I’ve referenced Tomoki in every one! Can I keep it up? No, probably not.
ED Sequence
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Preview
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For more from yours truly, check out my blog on writing, art, and the book I’m working on at stiltsoutloud.com.
I lol’d hard at Over-animated Ojou into Storyboard mode. There’s breaking the 4th Wall, then there is taking a chain saw to it. I hope this keeps up, as ep 1 was fun.
I was hooked when the martial arts girl asked if they wanted to go fight some bears? This 1st episode was full of randomness and I LOLed quite a few times.
why? I don’t see anything wrong with referring to the show as KK- oh…nvm.
Shall we call it KitKat Kiroku?
K-Cubed?
I don’t see a problem either.
The show just has the same initials as Krusty Komedy Klassics.
This deserver a *seal* of approval… badum tss
“I think Natsuki is an ahoge about as often as Tomoki is super deformed.”
Not sure if you meant to use ahoge there, Stilts. 😛
If you did, then I think I need to watch this show. Was planning to give it a shot anyway.
Check that, I misread. @_@
But I stand by what I said. I’m going to check the show out if she’s just an ahoge. Reminds me of “Suzu head” a bit. xD
Hah, it’s not like she’s only an ahoge, but they frequently had scenes where that’s the only part of her they show, so it’s like she is!
Stilts, I do like manzai routines (boke+tsukkomi) and I love Sket, Gintama, and the always-classic Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai. But even that won’t get me past 2-3 episodes, so I’ll see how this turns out in the next few weeks.
Actually, that’s a good point – this could easily go waaay too overboard with the “energetic tsukkomis” and end up burning people out. In manga it might work, but a full 20+ minutes every week? Sounds like a good way to get an overdose of tsukkomi.
I think you’re right. If they had made it a short it would work better. Too much of a “good” thing.
I actually felt they went overboard on this episode alone. Someone should tally up the number of tsukkomis that were thrown around. None the less, it was interesting enough to keep me around for a few more episodes 🙂
Even in manga it does not work out from my experience.
Fujimura-kun Mates is a good example for this as a harem comedy.
At the beginning it was great to see the protagonist tsukkomi to all of his friends and haremettes, but 50 chapters in the humor just lost a lot of the initial steam it had.
Too… much… tsukkomi…
This show looks generic. Is it a LN adaptaion? Because that would explain it’s genericness.
It’s a manga adaptation.
“Dont refer to this show by its initials.”
What do you mean? What’s wrong with liking KK-? (o.o) … (O_O)
It was pretty funny for the pilot episode, but it’s going to wear out its welcome fast if they keep having Natsuki throw out tsukkomis like this. (they are most definitely not Shimono status, but I don’t think there are many seiyuus that can throw them out as well as he does, but I think Hiroshi Kamiya comes close with his performances in Arakawa Under the Bridge and Bakemonogatari, but that’s neither here or there)
I liked the characters, but the delivery from the voice actresses felt kinda flat, which made some of the supposedly humorous moments not as funny as they should be. (but they are new and this is their first staring role, so I’ll let it slide)
That said, I enjoyed it, and will keep watching it. Slice-of-life comedies with cute girls are always entertaining to watch, here’s hoping it gets better! Also, does anyone know if the supporting cast have veteran seiyuus behind them?
PS: I thought the throwing out the ending song too early gag was pretty funny, glad they didn’t use it anymore than they did though.
For some reason, I didn’t find this pilot episode to be very funny. I think I will pass on this one.
Same here. There were a few jokes that made me chuckle (mostly the fourth-wall breaking ones) but a comedy show where 9 out of 10 jokes fall flat for me isn’t a very good one in my book.
And yes, too much tsukkomis.
Should we just call the seal Godwin and get over with it? 🙂
The first episode looks like just another “eccentric students hanging out in a do-nothing club” kind of story. It wasn’t bad, but didn’t stand out either.
Thought this episode was pretty funny, so I’ll probably watch the next few episodes. And LOL I can’t get over this whole basis around seals. XD
Four bear kings……. good one 🙂
How do you grow such a long middle hair, Natsuki??
Dunno why so many people don’t like it. I enjoyed the 4th wall breaking humor.
Boring Manzai (try-hard tsukkomi which for me it wasn’t even funny), newbie seiyuus but cute character designs.
I’d give this three-episode-rule before dropping. And do something about that ahoge, it’s ridiculous.
Is it just me or the Buchou is like an older Kokonoe Rin?
The Ice cream” scene killed me.
After actually watching the episode, I’m not too sure what my opinion is..
The constant tsukkomi reminded me a little of Kill Me Baby only a bit more tiring, and I was honestly having trouble to distinguish between the martial-arts girl and ojou-sama voices.
I was sorta expecting something like GJ-bu (minus the almighty Ore-man XD), and needless to say it’s not quite there yet. But I did get a few laughs (like the 4th wall gag) so I’ll continue watching for now.
Is that Yui
https://randomc.net/image/Kitakubu%20Katsudou%20Kiroku/Kitakubu%20Katsudou%20Kiroku%20-%2001%20-%2029.jpg
and Mugi? 🙂
https://randomc.net/image/Kitakubu%20Katsudou%20Kiroku/Kitakubu%20Katsudou%20Kiroku%20-%2001%20-%2031.jpg
Hmm…..The voices didn’t seem to match the characters…apart from Natsuki’s voice.
This was really , really funny though….except , why is there a seal? Who’s seal is it ? I am confused…..but it’s such a cute seal!
Tonight, I will make a drinking game out of this. Every time Natsuki throws a tsukkomi, I’m going to take a shot. Oh man, this is going to be fun… =D
Katsudon, you are a genius. I know how I’ll be watching the rest of this series!
So uh… That wasn’t the best decision I ever made. I woke up at noon and my head was killing me. I should have bought some other liquor instead of sticking with the Bombay Sapphire I had, gin shots in such quick succession are NOT a good idea. -_-
And take another shot everytime the seal pops up. XD
*gasp* People could die doing that! …I’m in 😀
Yay! I love tsukkomi’s too much…
Really like the art- at least, the character designs. They’re all uber cute to me.
The only problem might be the VA’s, which seems fairly standard when it comes to the job of throwing jokes. And honestly, I feel like the voice needs to be more crazier/fun.