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Desperate to find something to describe how I feel about My Deer Friend Nokotan, I searched up something that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. All you need to know is I discovered a psychological term dubbed “Cognitive Dissonance.” Now, if you know what it is, you can skip this paragraph. If you don’t, it’s the phenomenon of your thoughts and actions both contradicting each other. It isn’t a perfect term to describe my feelings for this show, but it’s most likely the closest I’ll ever get to describing how I feel.

Talking about psychology in a Nokotan review was the last thing I ... expected

This show is meant to be a comedy. When you do a comedy anime, the jokes are meant to be funny(Wow, no shit). There’s recurring gags in Nokotan, but you also need to add some spice to them. If it’s the same gags constantly for 12 episodes straight, it wouldn’t be the most entertaining anime, would it? My Deer Friend Nokotan has fallen into this rabbit hole. The comedy in this show is obnoxiously repetitive, and Nokotan is the only one who’s funny in the slightest. Have you ever laughed at any of the other characters? It’s hard to laugh at any other character besides Nokotan, because, even if she’s the main focus of the anime, giving every funny joke to her makes every other character feel worthless.

Well, on the topic of worthless characters, we have everyone. Nobody really gets any significant screen time except for Nokotan and Torako. Anko has an episode focused on her, and that’s it. Bashame on the other hand is a damn waste. She’s the only character in the show who manages to have the same repeated jokes over and over while still managing to be somewhat entertaining. Maybe I’m a sucker for stupid characters like Bashame, but if I had to look at it critically, it’s that she also doesn’t get screen time, if at all some episodes.

Every other character besides Nokotan, Anko, Bashame, and Torako get zero genuine gags. Not every character needs to be funny to me. Some characters can be a dud, it’s a given. You sometimes won’t land a character and their comedy, and that’s completely okay. However, when every single one of your supporting characters aren’t funny in the least, you’re just waiting for them to focus on the Deer Club. Yes, this is directed towards the other Student Council members. None of them are memorable for me besides Nekoyamada Neko, and that’s because her name is the funniest thing about her. If you tried showing me a picture of Tanukikoji, I’d probably respond with something along the lines of “Oh, I remember that character! Can’t remember her name though.” Hell, I had to search her name up while writing this to find an example.

Back to the Deer Club, I want to rag each of them one by one. Each of them have their own positives and negatives(Except for Bashame.), but for most of them, the negatives far outweigh the positives.

Nokotan is the funniest character to watch, and that’s only because, as I mentioned before, she’s the main funny man almost every time. She’s the one you’re meant to primarily laugh at, and that would usually be okay. However, she takes it away from all the other members, and is therefore the only one I have ever even chuckled at during this entire show. She’s the brightest star in a show where everyone else has already died out. If she was funny throughout the entire show, I’d be semi-okay with this change. However, after 3-4 episodes, her jokes are mostly repeated. All that you really need to know after a certain point is that she’s a deer with antlers that are really weird, and they do weird things. She can also open up her head. Her jokes aren’t laughable in the least at a certain point.

Torako would be the least funny out of all of the Deer Club members, and she isn’t only because Anko exists. Torako is, at least to me, an example of how overusing a joke can make it unfunny REALLY fast. Nokotan is already a victim of this, but Torako is the easiest example to point at. Her only jokes are that she was a delinquent and she’s practically living a double life, and to look at Nokotan and say “How the fuck does that work? That’s not supposed to happen!! OH, NOW THERE’S MORE STUFF GOING ON! WHAAAT?! I give up.” I wish I was exaggerating how this goes, and to a certain extent, I am. However, it’s pretty close to how she generally acts, and is not an interesting character. I don’t expect characters in this show to have the funniest of jokes, and if a character is unfunny, then they’re unfunny. If you try to shove that unfunny joke down my face though, it’s going to be annoying. Because of that, Torako herself is annoying and not fun to see when she’s on screen.

Hoo boy, now I can rip Anko apart, thank goodness. Anko is the worst character in this show, and absolutely nothing would change if she was completely removed from the story entirely. She’s the most pointless character I think I’ve ever seen in a comedy show. Her entire joke is that she loves her sister a little too much, oh scary! It’s not funny in the least, and the only thing she accomplishes in doing is making me appreciate the other three more. Their jokes were unfunny and then shoved down my throat, but Anko’s gag consistently shows up, and it annoys the absolute hell out of me every time she even utters a single word. Everything she does isn’t funny, it’s just borderline creepy and makes me want to close the tab and stop watching altogether. She only has one good moment in the show, which I’ll also get to later. Also, I know Anko is meant to be Torako’s sister, but she really just feels like a purple version of her in terms of design. She looks like an alternate costume in Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Bashame is probably my favorite of the four, and that’s because I’m into characters like her. Her jokes aren’t funny, but she’s so stupid that she’s still giving me a smile every time she’s on screen. If you don’t find her funny, then I’d perfectly understand you. Her jokes are pretty repetitive, and she might not be charming to anyone else. To me, she’s dumb, and I just simply like dumb. She doesn’t need to be anything else. I don’t really have too many comments on her, because there isn’t anything negative I have to say about her.

I’m a sucker for slice of life shows, and I am a huge sucker for moments where characters are simply living their lives. Why am I bringing this up now? It leads me to a moment in Episode 10.

It’s the segment of Bashame and that stupid little ball thing planting rice and having a competition over it, while Anko refuses. At the end of everything, Anko comes out making Onigiri and eats it with Bashame. It’s such a soothing moment for me, and probably my favorite moment in the series. Anko even suggests something else for Bashame to plant and she happily agrees. It’s a small moment that I really love. It’s not something that fits Nokotan, it’s practically the opposite of what the show embodies: Chaos.

Which brings me to my main point: How can the show be better at doing the exact opposite of what it is? A show being better at doing the exact opposite than their actual premise is not a good show to me.

…And after all that I’ve described, I can’t hate it. I genuinely can’t.

I have all these criticisms for this show. I have everything in the book. I would be perfectly valid in hating this show. Hell, even a 2/10 would perfectly close this review. I can make a conclusion like “Nokotan sucks, and it’s an awful anime” and leave it at that. But I won’t hate this show. I can’t find it in me to hate it. Trying to hate the show is impossible for me. After ripping and tearing this show apart, it’s still charming. It still has its own odd but endearing identity. It’s where the first paragraph comes into play. I find myself hating it, but my actions don’t show it. It’s because I can’t find it in me to truly hate Nokotan.

The show has managed to make itself have its own distinction, and a way to make itself stand out. Even after everything I’ve hated about it for, I won’t give the show a severely bad rating. It wouldn’t feel right to place it so low. It’s a weirdly respectable show that manages to perfectly stick with itself until the end. It never really strayed from what it wanted, and it gave me exactly what I expected. In my thread for it, even though it’s 5 replies, if you showed this to someone, you’d expect them to like the series. Hell, you’d maybe expect them to give it an extremely high rating. But for me, that’s not the case. I can find the show garbage, and I don’t find it to be a good comedy, but it’s still a show that is entirely unique to itself. It fits the comedy type that’s completely absurd and balls-to-the-walls ridiculous, but even with that, it makes itself known. And even with all its flaws, I can respect it for that alone.

Thanks for reading.

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There're also small occasional stories in-between chapters where there'll be 2-parters, and those are the most enjoyable semblance of a story in the manga. Progression really is made somewhere and while some may not be the progression people seem it to be, it's still a laughable and enjoyable and cute experience all throughout the manga.

Might make you tear up, just might.

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If you want a sad story, you've come to the right place. I'd definitely recommend this manga for a short yet tear dropping read if that's what you're searching for. This could've honestly been a set up for a masterpiece of a manga, but I won't say I hate what I got.