Back to Dangerous_Boy's Profile Dangerous_Boy's Profile

Hokuto no Ken II, Post-Varia Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Post-Arima Makibao make for a better read than Jujutsu post-Shibuya, creating the king of all "this manga should have ended ages ago," truly a feat to be remembered.

It's hard to believe the same author that did Mahito and Junpei spent 2 years having the characters explain their powers in (non-chronological order sometimes) in a slugfest of "actually I'm behind you now" "actually two weeks ago I made a pact that whenever someone is behind me, I get to be behind them now, so I'm behind you now." If Gege is asked their favorite character, they'll probably ... answer with a domain, as the characters completely were overshadowed by what powers they had and how they could use it.

A case study in what can go wrong with battle shonen about silly magical powers when the writer cares more about powers than characters and story.

Possibly the worst PA Works has produced so far?

Excusing the story being about nothing and going nowhere, as there is another review that talked about it much better than I could, I think what is unexcusable is that the cast wasn't devoid of radiance, but could not shine at all in how the show was executed, and they had no chemistry. There are countless scenes where they're just hanging out, doing homework and eating yokan, but it never sells the friendship, their conversations are mostly plot progression, exposition or a gag that develops nothing.

What brings them together and keeps them together isn't tangible, it ... honestly feels like they're together because the plot demands them to be, then when the drama requires them to split apart, it doesn't make you feel anything. Their entire "bond" is being told, not shown, so the most essential part of a show like this is absent. The two-parter format could possibly be to blame, an issue is presented just to be solved in the next episode, so there is no weight or meaning to anything that happens (but then again, Boukyaku Battery has a two-parter about overcoming yips that outdoes everything NareNare did in 12 episodes, so it's probably the writing that is at falut, not the execution). An issue that wasn't there appears, and then is gone. If the show was good, I think episode 8-9 and 12 could have been good, as there was an emotional core there, but they delivered payoffs that weren't setup, so all of it fell flat.

These characters had in common the fact they had underlying issues they struggled with, yips, rehab to walk again, being a foreigner and having anger issues, being autistic, being shy/anxious and... being bad at singing? Shion's role in this show is a mystery to me, I'm sorry. From the character concepts, it seems like it was supposed to be more psychological than how it ended up being, with stupid shallow plots being solved like nothing, instead of problems passing through each of the characters' mental issues and coming out with different answers and approaches towards its solution. Instead of there being anything personal to any of them, the answer to everything is "cheering", which makes the show stale and furthers the lack of meaning to any and every drama presented. Instead of being treated as sports often are in sports anime, cheering is a Deus ex Machina to not have to engage seriously with the very drama the series creates; the series raison d'etre is what kills it, making one wonder if the cheering was added afterwards to answer the questions presented, or if cheering was the only thing conceptualized and they winged everything else, resulting in this flavorless mess.

It's not terribly unfunny and unwatchable, it just doesn't know how to do comedy or a comedy series cast.
I can compare it to two anime, Bocchi the Rock and Cromartie Koukou. Bocchi has great visual comedy, an emotional core and a colorful interesting cast, that adds variety to the gags. Shikanoko would most likely profit from being only Koshi and Noko, as the rest of the cast is just white noise, they don't add anything, they don't have any interesting routines or gimmicks to the add to the comedy. They have a singular line (joke) and repeat it whenever they are on screen. However, even ... if the rest of the pointless cast was removed, there'd be one issue remaining: Koshi is a terrible tsukkomi. The straight man only being able to explain the joke is where comedy goes to die. There were very few gags in which Koshi's commentary added to it, instead of dragging it down. When Koshi is the boke and there's no tsukkomi's is when the gags flow the best, and the creator not being able to realize that and invest more in it probably shows how they're just doing whatever, instead of trying to learn and improve at their art.

As for Cromartie, it also has more characters than the author can write gags for, and sometimes it also has a series of gags that just don't land. BUT 1) Kamiyama isn't the one ruining the jokes, and the series learned that having him join in can be more interesting than just freaking out at the outlandish events surrounding him. 2) Even when the joke isn't a killer, you can be engaged in the overall story or situation, or a character gimmick that wasn't very funny on their first gag does better on their return. Shikanoko has no love for its characters, so the viewer also won't be invested on what can happen to them, and neither for the gags, as they never evolve.

The first two episodes are the best the show can offer, and while there were some gags between 3 and 11 that were smirkable, the overall rate of bombing makes the show one that can't be recommended to anyone looking to have a good time with a funny anime. If the last episode was funny, I'd be willing to say it was an okay show, at least, because it'd at least end on a high note, but it was 70% as unfunny as any episode. "It's the final episode, so this HAS to happen" isn't so funny a joke you get to do it 5 times, and the events that took place weren't interesting enough to forgive using genre staples as an excuse to write a bad finale. It's still shitposting even if you're just pretending.

If you need to experience the deer, watch the first two episodes and the finale, then go on with your day. It won't add anything to your life, but losing an hour of your day with a tentative bland comedy won't kill you either.