30 SILLY ANIME NAMES (or, a quest to briefly understand Japanese animated television before I waste too much time), Part # 2

6. I! My! Me! Strawberry Eggs

Episode 1, part 1, English sub.



COMMENT: Begins with a ruthless old lady collecting rent with a gun. However, from promising beginnings, we find a show about a teacher who pretends to be a woman so he can teach sport at a girl’s school (or something to that effect). I'll say more about this sort of thing under # 17.

BEN’S COMMENT: I think here we meet some profound cultural disjuncture, because all my instincts tell me this should be really funny and entertaining, yet somehow… it really isn’t. Portrayal of the school girls seems kinda sleazy, although I feel I’m probably going to have to get used to that as we go through all thirty shows on this list. They are depicted as having different levels of ‘immunity’ to the lures of boys, which are built up almost like a forcefield.


7. Goldfish Warning

Opening, English sub.



COMMENT: the first 5 seconds - a television picture of a fish on a spire is obscured by a band (with instruments) of cows, one of their number holding aloft a similar fish, flying by on a clock-face. Again, another old-fashioned anime to confuse and confuse once more. The subs. of the opening theme suggest that the 'warning' part of the title is related to weather forecasting.

BEN’S COMMENT: "A high pressure of bowknot... is approaching your heart"? Um….. right. Ok. Next.


8. The Virgin Mary Is Watching You

Episode 1, part 1, English sub.



COMMENT: 'Watching you' is meant in the sense of 'watching over you', alas: merely lost in translation. Added to Youtube in English since last I surveyed. It is a romance in a Catholic Girls School. See # 17 for further comments. In fact, seems, on the face of it, like a very serious, Catholic, version of # 17.

BEN’S COMMENT: the way the girls are drawn in this one is strange and kinda ugly – odd, misproportioned faces, and all that softly shaded hair blowing in the wind. It’s sorta aesthetically disagreeable. The seeming HYPER-INNOCENCE of this stuff is also curious, not to mention the Hyper-Boringness. Is this an anime with some kind of sinister Christian chastity agenda, or are they just trying to cop the signifiers of old-fashioned, ‘respectable’ Western culture (tedium, Christian iconography, classical music) to try to assert their artistic seriousness? Perhaps shows like this serve as a deliberate rebellion against the OTT sexualised carnage of much other manga/anime? Who knows…


9. Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster

Episode 2 (English sub.) - Episode 1 (in English) seems to have been censored by Youtube community.



COMMENTS: Japanese 'South Park' with a hamster. However, while this is the best description, it does not capture the concept. There is a sense of despair in this cartoon. Some might call me a lightweight for saying this. Whereas South Park is quite a blanket treatment to the notion of the comedy of taboo, Ebichu is much more of a dagger: it is directed and without mercy... then again, it is just an 'exceptionally naughty' hamster. Must be my religious vein...

BEN’S COMMENT: I gather this is supposed to be… funny? Actually, this gives me a similar sense of despair and confusion to much contemporary British/American ‘comedy’. I dunno * sigh *.


10. Panda Z: the Robonimation

Episode 1, English sub.



COMMENT: Cartoon with Panda Mechas (giant robots). Not much talking. 'Heavy Metal' soundtrack plays all-the-way-through. Silly. Not much fun.

BEN’S COMMENT: Now, you see, when I wanted to do some posts investigating crazy Japanese pop culture, THIS was the kinda thing I had in mind, not that grim, misanthropic hamster sex comedy shit! Does this have any kind of story, or is it just nifty retro-toy visuals and absurdly awesome novelty hair metal songs? Why so I even feel the need to ask?