Mayonaka Punch

Masaki's career on NewTube ends abruptly when the Harikiri Sisters decide to kick her out of their group during a livestream. With her bad reputation, Masaki has a slim chance of returning to popularity with a solo channel and she is plagued by comments of hate.

Masaki soon meets Live, a vampire who just woke up from her slumber in which she dreamed of Masaki and developed an obsession with her. Believing this discovery will be the next internet sensation, Masaki forms a pact with Live: in exchange for Masaki's blood, Live will help her reach the milestone of a million subscribers.

Now, with the other vampires in Live's house on board with Masaki's ambitious plan, she and Live work together to film videos and restore her to career glory.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sonoue, Masaki Main

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Live Main

Fairouz Ai Japanese

Yuki Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Fuu Supporting

Youmiya, Hina Japanese

Ichiko Supporting

Itou, Yuina Japanese

Tokage Supporting

Ueda, Hitomi Japanese

Sonoue, Sakura Supporting

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Lonely Ooedo Girl Supporting

Omigawa, Chiaki Japanese

Juwachan Supporting

Iwase, Shuuhei Japanese

Minister of Daifuku Supporting

Sasuke Japanese

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Tsuji, Mitsuhito Producer

Matsuda, Taiyou Producer

Reviews

Oct 12, 2024

PixelB

Recommended

Mayonaka Punch is a surprisingly well structured anime despite it seeming like it was trying to cram in too many characters into a 12 episode season.

First of all, I just love Masaki's character development. It's very thought out and as a result, Masaki is a beloved character. The first thing we get to know about Masaki is that she violently punched her fellow co-streamers when they were all livestreaming. And that's it. We don't see the buildup, and we only get a few vague reasons why it could have developed to that point. But, it's not shown. And I love that. Because ultimately, does it ... matter? The reason for Masaki punching her fellow Hype-Sisters doesn't matter. The thing that matters is that Masaki is thrown into internet drama, hate, and separates from Hype-Sisters as a result. She can't record herself due to her anxiety about online comments.

The next time we see Masaki talking about herself, it's not just about a random flashback to get the viewers to understand the main character. Instead, it's because she's frustrated with herself and self-aware about her attitude sometimes. With her dreams of making a big NewTube channel over, she's torn. But because Live wants to helps, loves her, and potentially because Masaki wanted to let it off her chest, she starts telling Live about herself. Her past. It's not just some omniscient viewpoint of the viewer learning about some random flashback, it narratively makes sense since Masaki is actually explaining her past to somebody else.

Ultimately, with help and support through the entire season, whether it be from her family, her former co-NewTubers Hype Sisters, and of course, the Mayonaka Punch crew, Masaki battles the urge to want to be on camera and the anxiety that comes with it. It's not just people saying "just stop thinking about it!" It's not just about Masaki "summoning the courage." But it's about Masaki slowly warming up to the idea with supporting friends while also being forced eventually confront herself and her own feelings about being on camera. This subplot about Masaki and relationship with NewTube, showing her face, and wanting to be accepted by the internet community is quite brilliant for an anime original, and it's all you need to know about the quality about the rest of the show.

It's above average in most things: the melodrama, the characters, the art, and the plot as well. One thing that was clearly lacking was some of the character development for side characters, especially the likes of Tokage, which felt like the story just didn't really focus on her at all due to the lack of episodes in the show. This definitely hampers the character interaction and cohesion, but with a good foundation with Masaki, Live, and Ichiko, the other side characters fit in fine. Thus, a solid 7/10. Worth a watch




Random Aside about Girls Band Cry -- feel free to ignore if you haven't watched that show:

I'll compare this with Girls Band Cry just because both are similar in having a low self-esteem MC, proactive second lead trying to help the MC out, and both trying to make it big in the entertainment world, but the execution can't be anymore different.
Nina comes from a similar spot with Masaki. Masaki runs away--gets pushed aside by the Hype Sisters and moves out. Nina's running away from home, going to school in Tokyo because she couldn't stand her family and living environment. With not so subtle flashbacks, we understand Nina was bullied and can't interact with others. Momaka, her idol, notices Nina and wants to form a band with her-- very similar to how Live is proactively pursuing Masaki and wants to create a NewTube channel with her. However, the similarities stop there.

What's even the reason for Nina to not want to form a band? Low anxiety or whatever. Umm, Nina then proceeds to have melodrama with her other bandmate and makes up within an episode. 3-4 episodes later she's encouraging other people, and somehow Nina basically fundamentally transforms as a character and all it takes is Momoka to give her pep talk for two episodes. It's so much more flat than the more realistic timeline and journey Masaki goes through. Plus, no matter how you slice it, shoving crappy flashbacks about Nina's past to supplement character development is just low effort. Despite Mayonaka punch being more lighthearted, less drama heavy, and about damned vampires, the character development regarding Masaki is much more prominent than Nina in a show that's more serious, melodramatic, and supposedly all about character development.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 14, 2024

Aechgal

Mixed Feelings

Overall, Mayonaka Punch is a fun watch, but it's nothing extraordinary. The story itself is pretty simple, and the real highlight lies in its comedic moments, which focus on the quirky personalities of the characters. While the drama doesn’t add much depth, it also doesn’t detract from the experience.

One of the standout elements is the opening, which is really catchy and sets a great tone. As for the ending, it wraps things up in a way that makes the journey worthwhile. Its a simple but kinda fun ride, a ride that is focused on this very troubled girl called Masaki, who now fear the simple ... act of showing up in the camera.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 23, 2024

ZeroMajor12

Not Recommended

Mayonaka Punch seems like a weak attempt at trying to portray content creators with their own spin on it. I don't mind a series that wants to be quirky or have eccentric characters take up the spotlight, but sometimes, it can be taken a bit too far when you don't attempt to keep your characters and script up in check, especially when the show is original work. I'm no stranger to P.A Works' blunders, but they have made some good original works in the past which I had fun watching. Unfortunately, this show feels so lackluster compared to the director's previous work on Paripi Koumei, ... proof you can make a show about getting fame in the entertainment industry ENTERTAINING to watch.

The show tries to sell you a story about making content in the nightlife with its vibrancy of colors, the animation and art are consistent and don't take any shortcuts, you get a solid cast with distinguishable characters that have different designs and easy to recognize. It has all of these in check and is usually a good mark to mark a good original show. But how reality often disappoints.

I think the show's problem probably starts from the characters, look at Masaki. A canceled member of a popular NewTube channel because she got caught in 4K punching her friend. How do you make someone who's prone to rude remarks or violence likable to watch? Just put her in a room filled with nutjobs who also happened to be vampires and have her manage that team to become the next sensation of the platform that once canceled her. It's a bold attempt at making someone who actually did something wrong the focus of the show, but making her being in an environment where nobody can really connect to Masaki without resorting to contrived storytelling or deus ex machinas is just a recipe for a bad show. It's difficult to find meaningful moments because of the disharmony between characters exist.

Continuing to the character's problem, I genuinely felt more disappointed because it had a couple of decent characters that I would love to see more, but held back by the series' subpar script and story. Let me focus on Yuki for a minute, she otherwise would appear as a strict vampire who tried to uphold the secrecy of their own existence, but her voice being Kayano Ai and the voice lines she had were pretty good! I would love to have more of her taking up screen time and being more focused other than the script's decision to haphazardly use her as a comic relief for the vampire nutjobs such as Live and her gang. I made an exception for Fuu because her role was just acceptable and didn't have any issues watching her. Live was a giant issue, it hurts for me to watch, because I love the voice actress, but her lines and character role just didn't sit well with me as I had to tolerate her antics in most of the episode. Tokage was genuinely difficult to watch because she's pretty much a gambling addict on paper and barely got development other than her reacting to the weird things the show propelled her in. Ichiko initially was annoying to bear with but got more tolerable as time went on.

Let's talk about the story, it's pretty bland, as if it couldn't be more obvious. Other than a few episodes where the endings change with the VAs singing (which stuff actually does happen on those rare occasions), it's mostly trying to show Masaki's new group producing content to garner views and subs to work on the 1 million milestone, but here I am, trying to ask you this, do NewTubers act like what was shown on Mayonaka Punch? I get other creators act differently than the usual creators we are exposed to like commentators, reaction channels, vlogs, challenges, or music covers, but anything that this show tries to copy, it feels mild at best and mediocre. The execution leaves so much to be desired and I can't help but groan when the only thing the show did right to portray was the comments you sometimes find on your videos or such.

I was hoping for a better portrayal of media creators. But I guess this is where their staff could only do at the end. There's really not much to say other than it being bland and forgettable. Your new run-of-the-mill product by P.A Works unfortunately ends here.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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