Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boys – 03

The deeper we get into Chuubyou Gekohatsu Boy, the clearer the reason why it works (aside from Ishida Akira as a parakeet).  The guys at the heart of the story are rather infectious in their commitment to their delusions, and both the story and the surrounding cast treat them with a certain bemused affection.  It would be easy (and probably more realistic if we’re honest) for the rest of the world to view them with derision and scorn, but a lot less fun to watch.

Mizuki is the obvious exemplar of this.  You can see her being slowly drawn into the boys’ world, much against her better judgment.  Life as a high schooler can be, at its heart, rather boring – and the Hero Club are amusing.  This element of “what will they get themselves into next?” is the heart of the premise, basically, so it would hardly do if Mizuki weren’t caught up in it herself.  But it isn’t only Mizuki – it seems as if the whole town is in on the joke, but the important thing is that they don’t treat the boys as a joke.  Take the old lady with the tea kettle, or the sellers in the shoutengai who play along with Rei’s delusions of grandeur.  What’s the harm in it, really?  I suppose that could be the catchphrase for the series as a whole.

The truth about Rei is that he projects his delusions of grandeur for a reason – he’s put-upon and bullied by his older sisters at home.  That’s a gag I sort of hate and I think it’s a potential trip-wire for Chuubyou as it cuts against the overall tone of the show, but it does make you wonder if all the boys have similar underlying reasons why they’ve chosen to escape into their chuunibyou cocoon.  Then there’s the matter of the new boy, Green – who returns from America just as the episode comes to a close.  How he fits into the story should be interesting to watch play out.  We have our hardcore LN otaku, our tokusatsu, our string-puller and or 2D romance addict – so what’s Green’s niche?

Kabukichou Sherlock – 02

While there are certainly exceptions, when it comes to anime (as in most things) the cream does tend to rise to the top.  I didn’t much like the premiere of Kabukichou Sherlock – in fact it would be fair to say I flat-out disliked it – but the second episode was much better.  Kishimoto Taku is too good a writer for something that mediocre to be a normal occurrence, so my hope is that the first episode was just a series of unfortunate choices building up to a bad start.  But I’m still far from sold on this series.

I still feel like Kabukichou is simply trying too hard.  Too hard to be funny, too hard to be ironic, too hard to be edgy.  Not everything has to have a hook behind it, though I suppose when something has been re-purposed as many times as the Holmes mysteries there’s a lot of pressure to raise the bar.  Fortunately some of the posturing was toned down a bit this week and we got down to the essentials of the story itself.  A bunch of detectives sharing a row-house (The Pipecat, basically – which does have an actual cat), a three-tiered fee system built around competition between them, and an actual mystery to solve.

I don’t know how well all of this is going to work, but at least it’s kind of clear what Kishimoto is trying to do here.  Moriarty-kun seems like the key – he plays himself off as an ally to Holmes, he’s clearly a sort of leader of the irregulars, and he takes the feckless Watson under his wing by solving this week’s mystery for him.  But Moriarty is always the final boss when it comes to Holmes fiction, and Kabukichou Sherlock does seem to be trying to be faithful to the originals at least to a degree.  We have funhouse mirror reflections of the original characters, even homage’s to specific stories like “The Speckled Band” (with the Cobra cameo).  As I said I’m still not sold, but I can at least see the potential now – and I have a good deal of confidence (or at least hope) that Kishimoto will find his level.

Shin Chuuka Ichiban! – 02

I’m hungry.

Shin Chuuka Ichiban! has really been a pleasant surprise for me.  This isn’t some by-the-numbers retread of a tired old franchise – it’s genuinely spirited and well-made.  There are limiters here which guarantee this show won’t become a triumph on the level of Gegege no Kitarou 2018 – mainly that it’s only going to be 12 episodes long.  But for what it is, Shin Chuuka Ichiban! is certainly working so far.

This week’s theme is shumai, the humble little dumpling at the heart of China’s gargantuan Dim Sum culture.  Little Shirou overreaches and tries to make a “simple” veggie stir-fry for a post-lunch guest at the legendary Cantonese (we can use that moniker literally here for once) restaurant where Mao works, with soggy results.  The guest happens to be a famous dim sum chef named Xie Lu, and this leads to a challenge between he and Mao after the latter catches the former’s eye with his make-up dish.  This is all over-the-top (cooking as a martial art to be sure) but in a hilariously entertaining way, and the scent of old-school shounen hangs as heavy in the air as the garlic and pork fat.

At the heart of all this is an actual truth – for those who pursue the vocation, cooking is a deadly serious business.  Shin Chuuka Ichiban! manages to respect that seriousness without taking it too seriously, and combined with the really excellent production values (all the more surprising given this show could only get funded for one cour) the result is quite palatable to say the least.  As a food-lover and amateur cook myself I find all this minutiae (Crab eggs?  Pork wombs?) kind of interesting, and since I adore almost all regional Chinese cuisines the food itself looks delicious.  Yup, it’s working for me – kind of makes me wish I’d discovered this old franchise years ago.