Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love! – 02

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So far this one definitely passes the commitment test.

I’m not sure how Binan is going to stack up as a blogging candidate, but I’m certainly enjoying it as a viewing experience.  I’ve said from the beginning that this series was only going to work if it unreservedly embraced the silliness of the concept and carried the joke all the way to its theoretical conclusion.  And I think it only works for the viewer if they reciprocate – if you don’t appreciate the validity (some might even say urgency) in mocking what this show is mocking, I can’t see it providing much satisfaction.

For its part, Binan seems fully committed to the premise its laid out.  After a very absurd and campy premiere introducing us to the Battle Lovers and Wombat, it’s the super-villains’ turn to step into the spotlight here – and they come with their own alien furry and transformation sequence.  It’s the Caerula Adamas, a prissy gang of tea-partiers who look down on the unwashed masses and engage in their “Total Conquest of Earth Lifeforms” master plan for the peasantry’s own good.  This group is voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi, Fukuyama Jun and Terashima Takuma – who take this about as seriously as you’d expect.

Upping the bizarreness levels even further is “Lord Zunda” (Yasumoto Hiroki), Wombat’s evil counterpart.  He appears to be a green spiny hedgehog (I’d have named him Norman myself) who spends most of his time in. Kusatsu’s pocket or curled up in a teacup.  Zunda is the evil one (-dar!), but the boys of the Earth Defense Club rightly note that there’s a certain hypocrisy in Wombat’s professing to love the Earth and its people when he has in-fact killed their teacher and re-animated his body.  This, as it turns out, is Hakone-kun’s indirect doing – though Wombat is the one bearing all the guilt.

The SOP here seems to be to feature a student with a big-name seiyuu (last week Ishida Akira, this week Konishi Katsuyuki) with a ridiculous quirk being used as a weapon by the Conquest Club.  This time around Hashida Owario is a boy who for some reason loathes everything asymmetrical – especially disposable chopsticks that break unevenly.  The pattern of last week plays out again, with the Battle Lovers again foiling the plot with “Scarlet” providing most of the heroics.  And if all that weren’t enough, we also get Sugita Tomokazu as his buff older brother Gora (yet another boy named after an onsen – in his case, two of them).

Most comedies, anime and otherwise, tend to boil down to one simple equation – whether or not they make you laugh, and I think this one is going to be even more polarizing than most.  All I can say is that for me it’s working – I’ve laughed at most of the gags in the first two eps and I’m pretty on-board with what the show is trying to pull off.  This could probably still go either way, but for now I think the outlook is pretty positive – the writing is smart enough, the cast is on their game, and I don’t sense that Binan Koukou is going to lose its nerve.    

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4 comments

  1. e

    The eeeebil elite's noms de guerre definitely sport a mineralogy pattern (Takeuchi-san would be so proud :,D) and Perlite's mannerisms and hair porn are definitely a nod to Zoisite .
    The moment Wombatto crashed into the teacher to the latter's gruesome end was comedy gold execution(teehee)-wise for me.
    After today's episode I'm really rooting for an overcrowded onsen scene at the very end of this series filled with alien critters, zombies and bishonen you know. Or a world-scale Love Shower.
    P.S.: mistery blink-and-you-miss-it childhood friend-related backstory hint in the ED for elite-kun#1 ? Ohoh bring on the sob past bits. Bring'em!

  2. C

    Eh, I found the first episode a lot funnier than this one.

  3. m

    Firstly, thank you Enzo for giving attention to the show, I totally don't get the negative bias on other forums from (mostly male, I believe) people who haven't watched the show yet still feel justified in listing why this show is 'not for them' for factors (BL shipping bait, shallow manservice) that have been repeatedly pointed out to be pretty scarce in the actual show.

    So we get confirmation of Sensei's (hopefully temporary) demise – making the kill count:
    Earth Defense Force: 1
    Conquerors: 0

    Lol at the blatant foreshadowing of the monster of the week. I totally guessed that this week's one is gonna involve badly separated chopsticks when I saw Hashi-da Wari-o.

    Absolutely looking forward to what seems to be a Free! inspired parody next week, hopefully with conspicuous amounts of bishie sparkles.

  4. A

    The lines that won me over :
    “Battle Lovers is a venerable and noble title !”
    “Can’t be, it’s English. At least be consistent about wether you’re an alien or a foreigner.”

    I was both in stitches, and appreciating the genre savyness and quip at throwing english names to look cool 😀

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