Oct 4, 2017
I just watched all 13 episodes of the anime called "Bananya".
A few points I would like to raise (spoilers ahead):
Like pupating moths, the cats live inside these banana skins inside the house of the rarely seen human family. All the Bananyas supposedly have their own personalities: for example, Black Bananya has a bowtie.
What intrigued me early on was Bananya’s ambition to become a chocolate covered Bananya – one that was, to say the least, entirely perplexing. Does Bananya want to be eaten? Does he just enjoy it aesthetically? If, like me, you go into the show wanting an answer to this, you will
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be disappointed. In fact, for the rest of the series I found Bananya’s work ethic intolerable. Instead of pursuing his ambitions, he spends most of his time asleep and eating sweets. Why, at the supermarket, did he not find the isle with chocolate sauce? How much knowledge does Bananya have of the world and its workings anyway? I was left wanting for so much more.
Another aspect of Bananya’s character I found unpalatable was his betrayal in “Bananya and the Mouse Nya”. After breaking bread with Bananya, and sharing starkly honest and genuine moments of friendship and connection, Bananya turns on the mouse and tries to kill him. This is when his character arc, for me, went too far. For the people that believe he is redeemable after this, I wonder how much you truly value mouses’ life.
In "Bananya and the Balloon Nya" Bananya and co. are trying to grab the balloon for an unknown purpose. They try to jump for the balloon string, but cannot reach, until girl bananya manages to grab and tie it to a cup. Next thing we know, Bananya is atop the balloon, after jumping up there.
The physics are ludicrous and inconsistent. One minute, Bananya jumps like he's in zero-gravity, shooting up as high as the story requires. The next he can't reach the string. Similar inconsistencies are shown in "Bananya and the Stray Cat Nya" where he can't reach the window lock, after jumping to much higher places in other scenes. Does Bananya perhaps have jumping powers that easily deplete? If so, the story should have made this more clear.
I hate baby Bananya.
A few more points: the racial insensitivity of “Bananya Goes Out Nya”, the mysterious and underdeveloped narcissism of Long Hair Bananya (for me, one of the most compelling and open ended characters in the series), loose ended depictions of famine and child neglect.
While Bananya has some positive aspects, I couldn’t ignore these glaring problems that, once fixed, I think would make for a very compelling and fascinating programme.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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