Today we are joined nobody, to talk about 2004’s absurd maid comedy Pugyuru. One of us hated it!
Plus a whole bunch of chat about other things, as Anthony is introduced to anime’s scariest weasel and Brian gets annoyed at Satanists making things up.
Theme music by Paul Smith of quiet quiet band.
You can find Anthony Askew on the web here and on twitter here. He also writes for DefConTwo, so why not check that out too.
Join our Facebook fanpage.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I can’t say I agree about Tiger & Bunny’s mix of CG and 2D animation – I find the 3D armors coupled with 2D faces pretty distracting. The overall style is very colorful and fun but I still say it would benefit from being fully 2D.
What I DO agree with is in preferring Azazel-san over Enma-kun. I only watched it because you kept praising it and while Enma tops it in terms of design work (considering I really like the 70s Nagai + Takahiro Kimura style), Azazel’s animation is way better and I’m surprised that 90% of the jokes actually work pretty well. I’ve always had some serious issues with Japanese joke delivery but I’m not seeing any of that in this show.
As for the creepy weasel… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzGMOFBdiWE it’s far worse in this video than it is in that picture, especially at the beginning. Dezaki’s known for being good at making things really dramatic and the fact that he managed to make the introduction of a WEASEL into complete nightmare fuel is a testament to that. The use of color and the weird aura it has around it is fantastically terrifying.
Here’s my theory about comedy anime, you’ve got to spend time grinding out gags on one of the gag shows before you get any good at it. All my favourite comedy anime directors have – Daichi, Mizushima, Yuasa.
There’s an interview with Daichi about Kuruneko (http://jin.jcic.or.jp/en/anime/animenews/2011_03_22/) where he goes into some detail about his process. He mentions Tetsuo Yasumi telling him not to bother with scenarios in gag shows, which is something certain overwritten, overhyped “comedies” could pay attention to.
What did you think of Mizushima’s other work? Hale+Guu was what introduced me to him, and is still a favourite.
I watched Guu with a friend for a bit (he really loves the show) and while the joke deliveries didn’t strike me as bad, I’m not really a huge fan of “character x gets tortured by character y for absolutely no reason over and over again” humor. Most likely it moves past that later though… I might pick it up again sometime.
I haven’t seen Adult Empire Strikes Back yet (but I need to)… I think he was the lead writer for that? As far as I know people care more about that movie’s themes and message than its humor though.
The thing about Yuasa’s humor is that it’s more just humorous situations than outright jokes, so the viewer’s amusement depends mostly on the atmosphere (which Yuasa is good at). But then so many shows fail at that by having the characters explain the joke to the audience.
Definitely check out Adult Empire Strikes back, it’s great. There’s a sequence on some girders (a cartoon standard) that reeks of Mizushima’s sensibility.
Guu stays pretty much on that discomfort comedy level. Mizushima’s big influence is Sam Raimi, and that torturing of his lead is also Raimi’s thing. Except of course Mizushima doesn’t have to literally drag Bruce Campbell through a forest.
In Azazel though, the main demons aren’t necessarily not being left alone as much as they’re simply getting their comeuppance. They’re likable characters but they also happen to be huge assholes (because hey, they’re demons) and pretty stupid. So in the end, it’s like the difference between watching a normal person who is just trying to get by get cartoonishly flattened by a heavy object, and watching a villain get cartoonishly flattened by a heavy object as a result of his own stupidity.