Tonagura

(All episodes watched):

"Looks like another Oh-God-only-in-Japan comedy" was one of the first thoughts to occur to me as I watched episode one of Tonagura*, namely a show where the humor comes largely from the shock you feel at seeing things which you'd always thought would never appear on TV--sort of like High School Girls. I noticed, for example, that one of the commercial break eyecatches consisted of a view of a girl's thigh with the show's logo on it. There's plenty of fanservice but not all that much ecchi--just absurdly perverted antics and a glimpse of panties now and then, so the show remains fairly funny without making me feel at all dirty for watching it. We have another childhood marriage promise--except when the supposed groom (Yuuji) returns after a ten tear absence, he's grown up into a complete pervert! The violence which is meted out to him reminded me of Girls Bravo, except this guy completely deserves it, so I'm not offended. I think Marie, Yuuji's unemotional little sister (who keeps him in line with an air rifle), will be my favorite character--I hope she gets an episode or two to herself. Then there's the obnoxiously cute and genki Niina (the blond girl); she's fun, too. My first impressions were that this show would be nothing exceptional, but I eat up this sort of comedy voraciously, so I'm not complaining. In fact, I waited anxiously until Ryo fansubs provided a version of this show for those of us who still live in the "Avi" era. Two-thirds of the way through I still detected little or no ongoing plotline, which was disappointing, and modest comedy. Still, I think Tonagura has a campy, fun feel to it--something must have been done right, because I've begun rewatching it from the start, even though the fansubbed episodes are still being released and I haven't even seen the entire series a first time. One intriguing twist, which I wish more had been done with, is that Yuuji can behave himself if he has to, and even seem like quite an admirable guy. As the series nears it's end, a fairly decent plot does come together. Going into the final episode, I think too many hints have been dropped about Kazuki's possibly faulty memory, thus spoiling what could have been a killer joke that might have climaxed the series as a whole. But, like I said, a show with a premise like this is a "must watch" for me, and there was no way I'd quit before it's over. I remained eager for new episodes right up 'til the end. Things worked out OK in the end, as one would expect, but the ending seemed rather lackluster to me. I can't help thinking that Tonagura as a whole didn't live up to it's potential, and turned out to be a thoroughly unexceptional show. Though I would pay to rent it, I think most people would consider it a "watch" at best. I would say the chances of Tonagura being R1 licensed are nil.

My favorite line: "Dash! Let's Go!" --Niina

*What's the deal with anime comedies that have one-word titles of four syllables (and often an exclamation point at the end)? I can name at least six: Tonagura!, Inukami!, Maburaho, Magikano, Himawari! and Mahoraba...

The first episode is available as a fansub - compliments of the NhK (Nihon no Kiseki)fansub team.

Yuji is a class-A lecherous teenage-pervert (on par with Satonaka Ikko of Amaenaideyo!! or Kawahira Keita of Inukami), but when he sits on his hands and behaves himself, he can be a very nice and charming boy. These types of Japanese anime series find a lot of humor in seeing the pervert get whacked, thwacked, shot and bopped by the righteous girls!

So this is what you can expect in episode 1 !!

In some of the pervert-boy series, the pervert calms down a bit and the story get to move on to other things. In other series, each episode consists of a whack-a-pervert segment in the story as part of it’s humor. Having only seen one episode, I am wondering how this series will ‘evolve’?

I posted a short summary and some snaps of episode 1 ....so,enjoy??.

Do I really need to say more? (posted July 19, 2006)

Update - August 22, 2006 - RYO fansub group has released episodes 1 & 2.