A show you should definitely watch, that’s what!

(edit: this post has nothing to do with ep 101 of Animal Yokocho btw)

I’ve been struggling to write a post for the past few days now - not because of a lack of topics, in fact if I wasn’t doing this post now I’ll be covering Toshokan Sensou 10 for Fathers’ Day instead most likely. Instead, I bring you this ’special’ post that I’ve been meaning to write up for ages - in fact this should’ve been my number one priority post when I (re)started this blog, but I suppose now that people actually read this blog it’s a good thing I saved it till now :P

Animal Yokocho - that adorably hilarious anime that I base this blog off, in case you’ve not notice. It’s my ridiculous undying loyalty to this show that’s preventing me from changing to a Doujou X Iku header right now :P - can basically be summed up as the wacky episodic “slice-of-life” adventures of a somewhat cynical 5-year-old girl who’s life is upturned by the sudden appearance of 3 random anthropomorphic (i.e., they talk and wear clothes that only cover half their bodies) animals from another dimension(?). It’s zany, it’s wacky, involves cute animals and has a protagonist who’s not too sure what she’s doing amidst all the random WTF-ness that surrounds her - in short, almost everything I most definitely appreciate in a comedy (all it needs now is a Maid Guy)

Yes, it’s a kiddy show. Yes, I happen to like kiddy shows. But myself and every other blogger I know who’s touched upon this series agree that the primary draw of AniYoko is the humour, which has a rather age-universal draw really. There’s a great mix of slapstick, gags, puns, even the occasional witty line, and a whole lot of good old random lulz which anime fans of all ages can surely appreciate unless you’re some sourpuss moe freak who thinks CLANNAD is the pinnacle of comedy The puns though, being in moonspeak of course, may be quite a problem to understand without subs (which is why I am forever grateful to a.f.k. for subbing the first 18 episodes and am in continuous state of despair that the remaining 30+ ones aren’t T_T), but there’s generally a lot else going on as well to keep the viewer entertained.

(Confession of a failed fan: Due to my limited comprehension of moonspeak, I’ve only watched up till episode 18 myself OTL Though I know the raws are all on Youtube, which I’ll get to for sure now that my listening abilities have been bolstered somewhat :D)

No, Ami, not at all

The actual setup of the show is simple. Human girl, Ami, moves into her new home with her parents (which we never get to see, though we hear them all the time), finds a bunny, a panda and a bear roaming around her room who claim to originate from a so-called “Animal Yokocho (Alley)” which lies on the other side of this convenient trapdoor on the floor of her bedroom. Cue episode upon episode of her new-found figments of her imagination friends doing random wacky things to mess up her life make her life fun and interesting =P A typical episode would have Ami coming home from school to find her 3 animal pals engaging in some seemingly ‘regular’ activities (if you can ignore the fact that they can somehow distort the dimensions of the room to accommodate baseball fields, jungle hot springs, ‘beauty salons’, etc) - only in AniYoko style, which usually means more rules of physics are broken and someone (the bear) usually gets hurt XD

Those who refuse to watch AniYoko need to be hit with a large smelly tuna Iyo’s hug pillow XD

Characters:

Iyo is the source of all evil 99% of the chaos and fun that happens in the show. If you see something awfully wrong with the scene, you know for sure it has something to do with this bunny =P I just love how she pulls random objects (like her pet turtle, lol) out of her ears as if it was Doraemon’s pocket XD And if there’s anything wrong one could say in any given situation, Iyo will say it (kinda like me :P), she’s such a mischief monger. Mess with her though, and you’re sure to get a taste of her deadly IYO-PE BEAAAMMUUUU!!!! which can deep fry a fellow bear in 0.000something seconds XD (So blissmo, think twice about trying to kill this one off :P)

OH RLY?

Kenta, the bear, usually acts as the ’straight-man’ supposedly responsible for the ‘punchlines’ of their gags, only he usually ends up bearing the brunt as the punching bag of Iyo instead XD Not only is he frequently physically abused (nope, not at all a kiddy show ;P), Iyo often makes jabs at how he’s probably the least popular character on the show (4h wall broken!) etc. Also I guess he’s kinda oranyan since he’s quick to anger, but has a very soft side to him =P

OH REAALLLYYY?

Issa the panda (not to be confused with this certain issa-sa who roams the internets accumulating fail ;p) makes them 3. He’s the nice one of the bunch who usually sides with Ami when things get too extremely bizzare :P (though Hung thinks he’s emo, lol). Generally, he doesn’t try to stand out as much as the other 2 (or just Iyo XD) and he just goes with the flow of fun and random unless it involves scary stories… >.<

(I don’t know why I copied chose Issa as the base of my “persona” really, the only thing I share in common with him is a penchant for bamboo flavoured foods XD Plus I like pandas, so there =P)

To be honest, I probably share more in common with Ami personality-wise out of all the characters (and not because she’s human). Though she willingly participates in the AniYoko trios fun antics, she often gets this “WTF?” look on her face when things start getting too bizzare for her liking (like I do when I watch anime :P). And though she still keeps her ‘real world little girl’ ideals (there was one episode where she started getting concerned about her weight. WTF? It’s no wonder Kenta didn’t believe her when she said she’s only five on her birthday episode -_-”), she’s still willing to play along with the fun and games initiated by her new-found friends (I bet she loves every bit of random that goes on in her life as much as we do watching =P)

Yamanami-san is, err… horse apparently. He’s a recurring character in the show usually assigned to playing random parts in the given situation like the deliveryman, the beauty aesthetician, or the murder victim (Seriously, one of my favourite episodes is entitled “The Yamanami-san Murder Mystery Chapter“, hilarious shit, putting murder mysteries in ‘kid’s shows’ XD). Also apparently, he gets a zebra love interest later in the series, but unfortunately I’ve not watched that far yet OTL

Appearing later in the series is Kuu-chan, Ami’s human friend who comes over to play and stumbles upon the secret of AniYoko, so gets to join in the fun! What makes her special you ask? She’s voiced by Fukuhara Kaori, that’s what! That’s right, Tsukasa fanboys eat your heart out!

As can be seen from the 1st ED sequence (the song, Fantasista Girl, is rather catchy in a totally different way the OP Tondemo Nothing! is) There are a few other characters that I’ve left out since I think I’ve only seen one of them appear in the one episode I’ve watched (btw, spot Iyo’s pet turtle :P). But even if it’s just Ami, Iyo, Issa, and Kenta this show would still be a riot. Very bummed that subs seem to have stalled quite permanently now (the last subbed episode appeared almost 2 years ago, yikes!) so I’d like to bring some more attention to this series - people, start watching Animal Yokocho and pester someone (if a.f.k. can’t anymore T_T) to sub more of it!!!

I’m now on the lookout for the manga as well, (though here’s a version available online plus a fun mini game to play :P) haven’t seen it anywhere though :( Or maybe I’ve not been looking at Ribon enough… Anyways, here’ AniYoko.com for anyone who’s interested. Look at some merchandise (plushies!!!), have Iyo read your fortune, etc.

And watch more AniYoko!

End note: Now that I think about it, it hasn’t really been that long ago that I said I’d jump start this place to get people to watch Animal Yokocho (only it seems I’ve been blogging about everything but this show -_-”) but to think that was literally 100 posts ago… Yes, that’s right, Incredible Nothing! is now officially 101 posts old - which is why I’ve had to stall my usual random bloggage to do an appropriately themed SPECIAL 101-ST POST and had to think long and hard on “what the hell should I post??” when it finally hit me this morning to do this! Seriously I was on the verge of having those “I is sucky incompetent blogger” again like usagijen ( I use crack posting to quell the thought usually :P) or even upping-and-quiting like Sasa - okay, an exaggeration, but reading that post dampened my blogging spirit at the time :( Fortunately, this long delayed post has put me back on track - I’m never going to stop posting about AniYoko now! MUAHAHAHAHA

P.S. I can’t believe I wasted my 100th post on Junjou Romantica OTL Part of the reason I had to think long an hard to make this post extra ’special’ to make up for that -_-”

P.P.S. Toshokan Sensou and Junjou Terrorist posts coming soon =P

P.P.P.S. What th- a Cantonese version of Tondemo Nothing???