***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Shounen Ashibe: Go! Go! Goma-chan. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Ashibe Ashiya (voiced by Rie Kawamura) loves everything. There's almost never a time when he isn’t smiling. Nothing ever gets to him. Nothing ever gets him down.
Recently, Ashibe’s family moved into a new house. Excited to get to know as many people as possible, his first new friend falls from the back of a truck. Of all the ways to start living in his new home, Ashibe brings back a small baby seal (voiced by Nao Touyama).
Though unexpected, Ashibe’s family accepts their newest member without hesitation. Ashibe names the seal Goma-chan and from that day the two become inseparable.
The duo does everything together. Because of this, Goma-chan is soon a familiar face around the neighborhood. Whether at school or the market, the cute white seal and the loud happy-go-lucky boy are a sight to see.
The adventures Ashibe and Goma-chan will go on, nobody can say for sure. One thing is certain, though, the two are going to have the time of their lives.
Series Positives
I don’t have too much to say about this one.
 |
| Left to right: Goma-chan and Ashibe |
Try this. Pick any five episodes. The order doesn't matter. Afterward, if this seems like the kind of show you can tolerate, continue. If you find it annoying, then stop because it isn’t going get any better.
I lean more towards the tolerant side of things. There were a few moments where I was getting into the series.
The most appealing aspect of this show was its art style. It wasn’t fantastic. But it was pleasant. I wish it would’ve been with a better product, and it kind of was at parts. Had Shounen Ashibe changed focused, there might have been something more fun here.
I don’t expect this to be a long review because I don't have much of an opionon. Other than just, meh.
Goma-chan and Others
What makes up half of this show’s title is good. Goma-chan was a huge chunk of this series’ limited charm. I mean, it’s a cuddly white baby seal that’s cuter than sin. How do you screw that up? Shounen Ashibe had a golden goose and used it.
What made Goma-chan standout more wasn’t because Goma-chan was a cute character. Goma-chan was a character. The seal wasn’t a side gimmick. Many of the humorous bits that existed came from Goma-chan.
Did that adorableness factor play a part? No doubt. Yet, I’m not inclined to give it the full credit. There were plenty of other characters who did their roles well.
The biggest one came from Ashibe’s friend, Sugao (also voiced by Nao Touyama). This was the show I wanted to watch. It was, by a large margin, a lot more interesting.
In Sugao’s case, there was a lot more going on. His father got a new job in foreign country. His entire family had to move to a place where they didn’t speak the language and didn’t know the customs. That’s a backdrop where something could happen.
Then once Sugao got there, a lot of craziness went down. His new home was in the complete boonies. He got a tutor that was quite eccentric. There was a f@#$ing Yeti, of all things, that wouldn't leave him alone. He also made friends with a girl who developed a crush on him. Things were happening. To top it off, Sugao had to deal with losing his best friend.
Whenever this series cut back to Sugao, that was when it was at its best.
Series Negatives
I’ve sat through a lot of standard, thirteen episode anime that have felt quick. I’ve also seen plenty of longer, twenty-four episode anime which have breezed by. This show wasn' long. The episodes were only nine minutes. At a minimum, it’s going to take four hours to get through the thing. But at times, you’re going to feel every single minute.
When a short form anime feels like a slog, that's not a good thing. Was this a problem throughout the series? No, but it did exist.
I said this show was tolerable more so than it was annoying. But it did get a little boring. And I have a reason for that.
Ashibe
So, Goma-chan was the good part of the title. Ashibe was the problem.
What a dull character. Nothing happened to him. He was never in any trouble. Goma-chan was the one who dealt with the most nonsense. And some of that nonsense came from Ashibe. Not much, I’ll admit. But enough to make me think, “child you need to stop talking.”
I never cared about what he did or what he said. Yet, whenever he did say something, whenever he did do something, it was ear wrenching. This kid was loud.Everything about Ashibe was subpar compared to the rest of the series. His mannerisms, his action, his reasons for doing things were bland. I can say the same about his character design. I just don’t get why this was the person we had to be with the whole time.
Again, we had Sugao who would've made a much better lead. At least Sugao cared that his and Ashibe’s friendship had to separate. Ashibe said he cared, but you could’ve fooled me. There was all this other good stuff happening to Ashibe. It got to the point where it seemed as if Sugao was an afterthought to him.
Now, I'm giving Ashibe a lot of crap. Was he that bad? No, he wasn’t. When he was with Goma-chan, which was most of the time actually, he wasn’t awful. He didn’t break the show. Except this show didn’t use him well.
This got compounded with a lot of other things. Jokes flopped more than hit. Running gags were over exhausted. This series had a rather large cast which didn’t seem necessary. And in the end, it relied on Goma-chan being cute a little too much.
Final Thoughts
I said it in the beginning. You don’t need to watch much to know if this is the type of show you'd like. So, the question becomes, do I recommend even giving it a chance.
I’m edging toward no. Yes, there was good in it. But it doesn’t matter.
This is a short form series. These types of anime, don’t have much to work with. There isn’t a lot of time to establish stuff worth talking about. It can happen, and it can happen to amazing degrees. Shounen Ashibe: Go! Go! Goma-chan couldn’t pull it off.
 |
| Google+ Facebook Twitter |
No comments:
Post a Comment