Sakamoto desu ga? – 13 (True End)

Anime, Reviews, Sakamoto desu ga

Sometimes, it’s just better to leave well enough alone.

So I did watch the Blu-ray “special” episode of Sakamoto desu ga?, which was actually intended to be the final TV episode before the Kumamoto earthquake pushed the airing schedule back a week.  To be blunt I didn’t like it, and I might have skipped posting about it apart from the fact that it’s the dead week for anime and I had some spare time.

The most important thing to say is, this episode just didn’t have a lot of really funny moments.  The first ten minutes or so was basically a clip segment, and the rest focused on Sakamoto’s time in America (real and imagined).  But it also must be said that it was a really bad choice to go with the grotesque cartoon-nosed caricatures of the Americans, even if it was a fantasy sequence.  What, the ANA commercial debacle didn’t teach a clear enough lesson?  It takes a lot to offend me, but I’ll just say this kind of thing is crass and unfunny and leave it at that.

I was quite happy with the original TV ending of Sakamoto desu ga? which was certainly a far better episode than this one. But truthfully, it’s not as though I have such a deep affection for the series that this really bothers me.  This was fine for what it was (apart from the ethnic stereotyping) – just far from the best Sakamoto desu ga? has to offer.

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Guardian Enzo

4 comments

  1. Morg
    September 29, 2016 at 2:45 pm
    Reply

    When I saw the noses in this episode my first thought was this must be some kind of racial stereotype I somehow haven’t encountered before. My second thought was along the lines of “Meh at least it’s not Buddy Gorilla.” Everything kind of pales in comparison to good ol’ Buddy. I just couldn’t muster up the appropriate level of offense at this one.

  2. Guardian Enzo
    September 29, 2016 at 2:54 pm
    Reply

    I assume you haven’t seen the infamous ANA commercial?

  3. Morg
    September 29, 2016 at 3:26 pm
    Reply

    No I looked it up after reading your post though. Selective skimming of the YouTube comments was enlightening. How large was the backlash to the commercial at the time? Would the regular citizen not associated with ANA itself have been aware of the negative response from foreigners? Regardless they could have done without in the episode, but was it like that in the manga and which is older?

  4. Guardian Enzo
    September 29, 2016 at 3:32 pm
    Reply

    The backlash was huge, actually. A major black eye for ANA, who quickly pulled the ad. It was all over the press both in Japan and the West.

    I did take a look back at the manga because I didn’t remember any chapter like that, and I’m pretty sure it was anime-original. The anime certainly came after the ANA debacle, and even if it in the manga it might have been after but depends on where.

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