Tenchi Souzou Design-bu was pretty much what I expected it to be. That is to say, a solidly amusing and fairly witty comedy with a strong cast enjoying themselves. The original manga is pretty under-the-radar both commercially and critically as far as I know – I’d certainly never heard of it before the anime was announced. But this adaptation showed some decent comic chops in the premiere, and having a veteran director like Bones and I.G. expat Masui Souichi at the helm doesn’t hurt the cause.
I’m gotten used to clumsy exposition in anime premieres to the point where it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to, but it should be said this episode is packed with it. It comes wrapped in the “let’s explain all the things he should know already to the new employee” package. The new employee in question is Shimoda-kun (played by Enoki Junya, who seems to be in every show now), an angel who’s been assigned to work as a liaison between God (the Judeo-Christian one, seemingly) and Heaven’s design team. And just who is Heaven’s design team? They’re the ones who design new animals, because God was so busy he had to outsource that job. Which really isn’t a bad gag.
The design team is an interesting collection of misfits with an interesting collection of voices, including Inoue Kazuhiko and Suwabe Junichi. The satire here is pretty obvious but it works – you’ve got the old dude who hit it big (with the horse), and keeps riding that success by recycling it. One guy wants to eat everything that gets created, another is obsessed with cute critters, and another is a softie who gets freaked out by the food chain. Among the creatures we see designed in the premiere is the giraffe, and it’a an amusing process of give and take between the designers and the engineer who has to take their impractical designs and make a workable prototype.
I don’t know how much staying power this conceit has, but for an episode at least it’s quite amusing. I especially enjoyed the rivalry between the bird and snake designers as they try to stay one step ahead of the other (I never thought of the snake as a re-engineered limbless horse, I admit). “Spicy sausage” was another clever bit, as was casting the Galapagos as evolution’s testing platform. Tenchi Souzou Design-bu is more than the sum of its modest parts so far, but we’ll have to see if that continues to be the case.
Litho
January 8, 2021 at 8:54 pmNot seen this, but looking at the screenshots, I hope they used the term “giraffic designer” at least once. If not, opportunity missed.
Guardian Enzo
January 8, 2021 at 9:16 pmIndeed, opportunity missed then. English puns are not always part of a Japanese writer’s repertoire (though there are lots of exceptions).
Simone
January 9, 2021 at 6:53 pm> (I never thought of the snake as a re-engineered limbless horse, I admit)
The missed opportunity here IMO was to not slip in a little more evolutionary biology. You never thought of it because frankly I can’t see in what way it makes sense (they even have different diets). It would have been funnier to see them churn new prototypes like v2, v3 etc. of the same things based on actual logic connections, like the bird creator recycling dinosaur designs with some more feathers on top.
So yeah, it’s funny-ish and I think it poses itself as educational but it doesn’t go deep enough to hold my interest, personally. Feels a bit too childish in terms of the level of the jokes. As far as “edutainment comedy using clever visual metaphors and a workplace setting to teach about biology” anime goes, Hataraku Saibou wins that one (and it’s weird that we have THREE anime falling in that incredibly narrow category this season alone. Plus Dr. Stone that’s more about chemistry and engineering, but still has educational aims as well).
Guardian Enzo
January 9, 2021 at 7:18 pmI would actually like Dr. Stone better if it didn’t have those pretensions, because it’s just too ludicrous to take seriously.
Yukie
January 9, 2021 at 10:18 pmThis was way more amusing than I expected, though I wonder if I’d end up losing interest and dropping it like Hataraku Saibou. Also, it seems like Enoki Junya is the next seiyuu to ride his Shounen Jump protag fame now xD
leongsh
January 10, 2021 at 2:38 pmAmusing initially but by the end of the episode, I lost interest. Another problem is that I am very much attuned to science and an understanding of evolution. Probably it would have been more effective in a shorter format since it appears to be many short comedy skits sewn together. As it is now, skipping this show.
KumaShock
January 16, 2021 at 4:17 pmI really enjoyed the conclusion of the snake vrs bird rivalry skit. That was the funniest thing I’ve seen in this new season so far and will keep me engaged in Heaven’s Design Bureau for the next episodes as least.
Guardian Enzo
January 16, 2021 at 8:35 pmI think the sperm vs. squid in Episode 2 is even better.