Asobi Asobase

During recess, Olivia, a foreign transfer student who doesn't know English, plays a game of "look-the-other-way" with Hanako Honda, a loud-mouthed airhead. Their rowdy behavior spurs the ire of Kasumi Nomura, a deadpan loner constantly teased by her older sister for her tendency to lose games. Not willing to compete, Kasumi declines Olivia's offer to join the fun, but eventually gets involved anyway and dispenses her own brand of mischief. Soon, a strange friendship blossoms between the peculiar trio, and they decide to form the "Pastime Club," where they are free to resume their daily hijinks.

Whether it be failing to learn English, trying desperately to become popular, or getting caught by teachers at the wrong time, school life will never be boring when the girls of Asobi Asobase are up to their hilarious antics.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Honda, Hanako Main

Kino, Hina Japanese

Olivia Main

Nagae, Rika Japanese

Nomura, Kasumi Main

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Maeda Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Aozora, Tsugumi Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Fujiwara Supporting

Uchida, Shuu Japanese

Oka, Ruu Supporting

Kanazawa, Mai Japanese

Baby Supporting

Iwata, Mitsuo Japanese

Olivia's Brother Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Sharekoube, Tokuko Supporting

Kanazawa, Mai Japanese

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Higa, Yuuji Producer

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro Producer

Reviews

Sep 23, 2018

KANLen09

Recommended

Move over, Grand Blue (despite the MAL score) and Hinamatsuri (Spring 2018's best comedy)!

Asobi Asobase is here to take your place not just as AOTS for Summer 2018's super weak BUT strong comedic presence, but also AOTY for the overall yearly comedy genre, and I have the full experience to tell you why this series is damn underrated, and hidden behind it is pure insane high school gag-comedy...AT ITS BEST AND FINEST!

If there was a rating above 10, I would give this series a multiplier 100/10, because this is more than just some mindless AF comedic masterpiece. It's comedic execution will creep you with its ... insane amount of gag comedies, obscene figures, face expressions and all-so-you-desire thoughts straight in your face that make you question much! Oh, and the endless amount of references that got us SO DAMN GOOD and satisfying!

Not every episode is perfect, but I'm willing to forgive the little boring moments it has for the never-ending amount of laughs and tears combined freckle down my face as I wait upon every Sunday night for this series to start my week into, and I was never once disappointed, not one bit.

Oh, what is Asobi Asobase about? Sorry, I'm still laughing and crying at the metajokes it contains...I can't breathe...which series SUCCEEDINGLY sells your soul away in a good way in just 3 minutes, that makes you feel like this is something special?

Asobi Asobase not a story in itself, but rather the characters themselves who form the core of the series with their distinct personalities:
Hanako Honda (CV: Hina Kino, Toji no Miko's Sayaka), she is that kind of friend where she wants to desire fame and recognition and the likes by hanging out around normies, just with many screws loose, and her constant insanity striking out as always. Oh, and her weird fashion sense. Together with her assistant butler Maeda, he is the ultimate of ultimates, always helping her out with his shogi butt-beam, super-weird stuff ensues.

Kasumi Nomura (CV: Konomi Kohara, Tsuki ga Kirei's Akane), she gives off the vibe that feels like the outcasted member of the class, and with her serious but scary punk-ass attitude, along with being a study nerd, she is the least of the 3 girls who would stand out, but damn, she's noticeable once we come into her senses, immediately realize she is not all the others would say: calm and elusive on the outside, but determined to follow-through on the inside. Oh, and her illterate struggle of English and her constant bad luck in games.

Olivia (CV: Rika Nagae, Frame Arms Girl's Baselard), she is the oh-so-typical white girl which makes her look like the natural-born foreign exchange student, until you realize that all that is a trick, a demeanor to surprise you: She CANNOT speak a literate word of English, was born in Japan, but the best part about her is that despite her shortcomings, she tries to blend in with no F's given whatsoever. Oh, and her insane otaku of a brother, that despite his appearances, blue eyes blue in similarity, and he's the culmination of gross, smelling high school girls' scents.
"Praise be to raw middle schoolers." - Olivia's fatso Onii-chan

Oh, and not forgetting the side cast:
- The female teacher responsible for the Pastimers Club,
- The general-purpose teacher who confines along with the 3 girls, like licking lied-pee (but is water) and their game antics (with the insane Sailor Moon and DBZ references),
- The Student Council Prez and vice-prez, who literally has no holds barred,
- The Occult Club, who knows what the 2 girls are doing in there, anything they concoct up is always up to no good.

Honestly, the best part about them is the relatively new Seiyuus that take up the roles of the 3 girls, because they are amazing, showcase their talents well and you can tell that they had absolute fun doing this, especially Hanako's VA with her constant screaming and whatnot. Simply nothing short of fantastic from all the characters here.

Lerche is back at it once again for this series, and "Who ya gonna call"? Seiji Kishi, director for Angel Beats!, Tsuki ga Kirei, Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero, that's who! And wow oh wow, just like the big hitters he has, this sleeper, underrated series truly adds to his marvelous directing talent. And I really hands-down applaud studio Lerche this time because of how much insanity is done to propel this series forward, from the key visual PVs and the actual anime adaptation of the manga, it's like "no time and talents were wasted here, not even the slightest"! In my initial review, I've called out the moe-CGDCT aethestics because of the resemblance, but look how far we have come: Only the watercolour art style followed through with the oh-so-funny facial scenes of the characters.

Another area where I will NOT expect to be turned-on so nicely is the music, particularly the OST, which is the main joker aesthetic.
"Anime is saved (YET again)!" - Pipimi, Pop Team Epic. Why the reference thou? Because every episode starts out with the cute and sweet moe OP, letting you know the characters and how they are like on the surface. THAT IS HEAVEN, expectations run wild. By the time the episode starts, and you've been through the insane absurdity, you're NOT spared yet! The God-tier Pop Team Epic reminiscent ED rocks on you the reality, the harshness of it all with the full metalcore vibe. Now THAT IS HELL! Couldn't have asked for a better OST, and one that has surpassed expectations this season, and tuned in from the beginning to the end, never skipping both the OP and ED gives you the full mindf-ing experience.

Asobi Asobase is a wholesome experience not to be missed, its God-tier levels of trickery will mock you hard and bad if you're not prepared for what lies ahead. I'm really glad that I didn't skimp myself out on this masterpiece of a comedy, how shallow the series is, was never once a complaint when you've been damaged this much. Easily the biggest surprise of Summer 2018, and it will confront you all-out on its full comedic-gag force!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 20, 2021

mimimilk

Mixed Feelings

[No spoilers review] Make sure to watch Asobi Asobase alone and if using earbuds, keep volume lowered. This show is outrageous and hilarious! Multiple times I found myself having to pause to recuperate myself after dying from the crazy obnoxious screaming and over the top facial expressions. Asobi Asobase: Workshop of Fun is not your slife of life girl's doing cute things anime despite what cover picture and opening shows. Anyone watching would realize quickly after the first episode, no just a few minutes into the first episode.

Art -
The animation is the weakest point for this show. After multiple ... uses of the similar surprise scenes they lose their touch. Besides that, other scene to scene animations parts are mediocre at most, nothing to get excited for. Nonetheless this does not take away from the comedy yet also does not add anything.

Sound -
The OP and ED surprised me. Inkya Impulse feat. Ikepy & KSKN was the perfect song to mirror the op Three-Piece. The singers Hanako Honda, Olivia, Kasumi Nomura did a amazing job doing a 180 from the calm gentle summer breeze op into the death metal ed. If Three-Piece was the clickbait of a youtube thumbnail then Inkya Impulse would be the thumbnail for a suggested video edging viewers to watch the next episode.

Again, props to the voice actors for bringing the characters alive on screen. Asobi Asobase wouldn't be the same without them. Hanako Honda's voice actor
Hina Kino's streaking, screaming and yelling was very annoying as they should be, bringing the Hanako alive.

Characters -
Our three main characters Hanako Honda, Kasumi Nomura, and Olivia if described in one world, it would be, stupid. But that works in favor for a gag comedy show. Their stupidity added together causes a exponential explosion that causes their overall stupidity to triple, no quadruple, allowing the trio to find themself in random questionable events that make their day to day high school life unexpecting but hilarious.

Enjoyment -
Asobi Asobase is a really fun to watch, but not all in one sitting. As a gag comedy it lacks any sort of real plot making it more enjoyable if watched over a long period of time instead of all in one day. The characters get annoying after watching episodes back to back, and no matter how funny Honda screaming is, she gets annoying after one too many times. The mediocre art doesn't help in this department much ether. The jokes are funny but character reaction should also play a important part of the comedy, so when the reaction is the same thing over and over it gets dull.

Overall I would give Asobi Asobase a 6 out of 10. I genuinely enjoyed it, and if a sequel or spin off shows up I would probably watch it and enjoy it as well. I would not recommend this how to friends who just started watching anime as a comedy show recommendation because of how obnoxious the characters are.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 23, 2019

literaturenerd

Not Recommended

Overview:

Hoo boy, this review might be a little controversial with some of my MAL friends. We all know how subjective comedy is and how we all find different things funny. I heard glowing reviews about this anime, but the jokes just really weren't working for me.

Humor Style:

Do you have young kids in your family? Have you ever watched Teen Titans Go? Asobi Asobase uses a very similar approach to its humor and episodes, only in my opinion its slightly less funny. For example, characters will constantly make stupid faces and that's the joke. Characters will reference popular things, and that's the entire joke. There's ... an episode devoted to bad online yaoi fanfics and that's probably the best episode. The rich girl's butler is probably the best character just from his line delivery. His character's quirk is that alien's gave him an anal probe and now he fires lasers out of his ass. That's the level of intellectual humor we're working with. Another episode involves the girls getting into a contest to smell each other's armpits. The foreign girl wins because East Asians have less apocrine sweat glands and produce less body odor. You see kids, that's because East Asians usually have the AA allele of the ABCC11 gene that produces apocrine sweatglands. The AA allele is a mutation that makes the gene non-fuctional, so not as many apocrine sweat glands form. Most humans have the GA or GG alleles, so they produce more body odor. Those alleles were selected for in most of the world because body odor acts as an aphrodisiac for primates like us. Scientists believe the smelly alleles were not selected for in East Asians and Native Americans likely due to the cold climate of 20,000-10,000 years ago nullifying the advantage of smelling bad. The whole joke is that the episode is wasting your time teaching you about something you probably don't care about. It's the mortgage and real estate episode of Teen Titans Go!!! Same joke, same technique.

Characters:

There are 3 main girls that make up the pastime club. The first is Hanako, who is rich and stupid. That's her character. The second is Kasumi, who is a geek girl that dislikes games because her older sister always beat her at games. The final girl is Olivia, who was born in Japan to American parents. She pretends to speak English and acts like she can't speak Japanese, but she actually can only speak Japanese. That's the ENTIRE joke with her character. Every episode basically just uses variations of that joke.

Plot:

It's a show about nothing happening except 3 shallow characters hang out and do dumb gags. Occasionally they troll the audience and waste our time. Once again, kind of reminds me of this other cartoon I know.

Animation:

Studio Lerch used all their budget on Assassination Classroom, so this was made with whatever spare change they had left over.

Overall:

If you thought this show was hilarious, that's totally cool. I have shit taste in comedy and I'm in no position to cast judgment on anyone. I recently watched an anime called "Miss Bernard Said", which as of this review is rated at 6.02 here on MAL. Everyone here on MAL hates that series and thinks it's less funny than a brain tumor. I personally thought Miss Bernard was utterly hilarious. It's a simple show about a girl named Sawako who wants to impress people with how intelligent and cultured she is, but she's too lazy to actually read novels or watch art films. She just constantly brags about stuff she didn't actually read and is a pseudo-intellectual snob. I found it funny because I used to be a Sawako in Middle School. I think most people at some point have gone through a Sawako phase and that familiarity makes it funny. At least to me. If you're in the mood for a particular brand of VERY goofy humor, I can see why this show would be appealing. Personally though, I can't really recommend it easily.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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