OK, I really hadn’t intended to post on CITY again. But I felt like I had to check in, as the last two episodes have been by far the best of the series. It annoys the hell out of me when that happens right after I drop a show, but it is what it is.
I’m swamped for time so this will be short. And I wouldn’t even try to describe what happened in Episode 5 – it’s a fool’s errand. I’ll just say #4 worked because, quite simply, it was the funniest episode so far. And with comedies, that’s job one. As a general rule the more focus on the Makabe clan the better – both father and son are often hilarious. It also means less focus on the screaming college girls, who work better when you split them up (as #5 did), and on the snoozeworthy (though that whole “cheeseboige” sequence was obviously way funnier in anime form) middle school duo.
Now, as to this week’s episode – all I can say is, watch it. KyoAni is shamelessly showing off here, but if you’ve got it, flaunt it. That 8-way split-screen stuff was seriously another level – I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I do remember this subplot from the manga and it’s pretty wild even there, but they absolutely leveled it up x100. The rest of the series isn’t going to even try to maintain that level – the manga doesn’t lend itself, and not even Kyoto Animation could keep that up. But the comedic success of Episode 4 is certainly a more realistic upside. Let’s hope so.
Joshua
August 6, 2025 at 12:27 amYeah, so while I found episode 5 of City to be an absolute technical accomplishment, it stinks just how much City remains so scattered in its comedy and nothing felt more scattered than how this tried to throw in so many jokes within its runtime that it didn’t understand how important the joke density is to humor, so it ended up far less funny than I thought and far more exhausting. Feels like the remainder of this series will be like this, the equivalent to Apatow improv comedy like I tried to make an analogy of in another post for City.
Guardian Enzo
August 6, 2025 at 12:30 amEpisode 4 was really funny start to finish. 5 was almost transcendent of comedy, although the humor did mostly work for me. It was just a marvel, 16,000 drawings for one episode – that’s insane, even for them.
Dodgers
August 8, 2025 at 1:10 amI generally have a better opinion on City than you do (though I think these 5 eps were generally better than Nichijou too, largely due to focusing on a more varied ensemble cast, and the city as a whole), but I agree about episode 5, it’s a technical marvel down to how the vast majority of the 3D scenes weren’t CG, but rather arts & crafts. It’s especially impressive considering the tragedy the studio suffered, and the actual material was like a microcosm of the series that I would have expected much later to pop up, but it does make it and episode 4 arguably the best ones yet.
Guardian Enzo
August 8, 2025 at 11:53 amCheeseboigie
Jay M
August 8, 2025 at 4:14 pmDefinitely have mixed feelings on the show that echo yours. I wish I could love it with my whole heart because the craft and care from Kyoani is just incredible. I also find the art style really endearing, especially the little animals (and the tatsunoko!!). Watching this show is just a feast for the eyes and heart… If only I found it funny. None of the characters are outright annoying or unlikeable so that’s good but way too often the “joke” is literally just AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. And that stuff isn’t hitting anymore at my age.
Guardian Enzo
August 8, 2025 at 4:25 pmWhat I find with Arawi is that he’s like a slugger who strikes out a ton but when he makes contact hits the ball a mile. Not that many of his gags connect for me, but often when one does I find it hilarious.
Joshua
August 14, 2025 at 9:36 amI always felt that the KyoAni staff were what helped make Nichijou the laughfest that I found it to be, in how they took Arawi’s gag manga and went in all sorts of wild directions with it in the adaptation. Of course, not every joke hit, but even the weakest material was carried by how each segment was directed and handled. Seems like City though was decidedly more “faithful” to Arawi to a fault though even as KyoAni tried to go further wild. But I never really found it to be as truly hilarious as Nichijou though.