In it’s own (very) under the radar way, Tenchi Souzou Design-bu has been as consistent as any show on the schedule this season. In short, it hasn’t disappointed me once yet, and I never feel worried that it will going into a new episode.
- A great start this week was God saying “Yoroshiku!” when He passed off the order to Shimoda-kun. Kudos to Tatsuta Naoki, who’s having a divine time with this role.
- New info galore this week. Male crabs holding the females prisoner in their legs? I’ve managed to get through my life never having any clue that happened.
- IBID bears delaying their pregnancy, and pandas giving birth in pairs with the intent of abandoning the smaller cub. There’s apparently a concerted attempt to keep the latter from being publicized so as not to hurt the panda’s public image (not a joke).
- Sparrows sharing food with their flock – I feel like maybe I did know that, and the reason for it, but I wouldn’t even swear to that. I did know sparrow dads were active parents though.
- Getting Meido to design a moe creature was an idea fraught with terror – and comic potential – right from the beginning. Meido is one scary angel.
- Rhizocephala – uwah, that’s an ugly story. Yet another bit of science I didn’t know. I love this series but it does have a way of reminding you you’re not as informed as you thought you were…
- Perhaps the one thing I feel most stupid about is the penguin color thing. Black on top, white on the bottom – it’s so simple, how did I never piece that together?
- As reflected in the owl video I linked a couple episodes back, you gotta watch out for birds – they like to hide long legs under their skirts. You can’t even trust penguins.
- Focusing on pandas and penguins, the black-and-white bookends of adored animals, feels almost like cheating. Just to rub salt in the snot, I didn’t know penguins talked to their children in the egg so they’d recognize their parents voices either. Or maybe I did and forgot, now that I think on it. I think I’ll stick with that story.
Derrick
March 6, 2021 at 8:55 pmI love reading encyclopedia as kid.
Now that we have internet I miss those times , but this series reminds me of that when information was presented in artful medium
Guardian Enzo
March 7, 2021 at 10:21 amMe too. We had the full World Book set (we were too poor for Brittanica). I loved to pick a random volume and make a random shuffle, and just read.
AN
March 8, 2021 at 7:15 amA japanese friend told me that the original manga is the work of an university professor that decided to team up with a diverse number of mangaka just to create edutainment works for the world to discover all the fun stuff he knew. Design-bu is one of the resulting mangas, but it’s easy to see why this one in particular has triumphed enough to get an anime.
Guardian Enzo
March 8, 2021 at 9:36 amVery interesting, thanks! I assume that would be “Hebizou”.
Yukie
March 8, 2021 at 10:17 amIt’s kind of nice to know there’s still so much to learn. Unlike last episode, I’m a lot more familiar with the animals in this one(apart from Rhizocephala), but I was still completely caught off guard by the facts sometimes, like the legs of penguins (which I should’ve guessed after the owl episode). I’d always thought they walked funny because of their shorter legs, now I know it’s because they’re scooching around with their knees bent under their fluffy skirts.