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[series:3640#628] | ||||||
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(Rent-) (All episodes watched): As I attempted to crystalize my thoughts about this show, single words that seemed appropriate to describe it included 'weird', 'odd', 'outlandish', 'spirited', and 'unusual'. This is a kind a wacky show which consists of different comedy skits performed by avatars in a video game-like animation style. Mostly a group of six girls are our hosts, but there are also numerous other characters ranging from a gorilla to people like 'Virtual Grandmother' who explains the 1973 toilet paper crisis in Japan to us. A person who is not savvy about cutting edge virtual reality technology, especially in Japan, is liable to feel confused--what's a 'Comaneci Pose', for example? I got some of the jokes but by no means all; or maybe I should say I sort-of got each of the jokes to one degree or another. Being sometimes funny and sometimes bewildering, I found this show to be kind of mentally exhausting to watch. At the end there was an appeal to viewers to 'send in your own virtual character', so I wonder if this show is being partly made by its own viewers. In general I found the first couple episodes of this show to be amusing and definitely high spirited, and decided to watch some more to see if it remained fresh and fun in succeeding episodes. The typical skits, in which the six girls (and other characters) alternate, include 'Virtual Wars' a sort of parody of Star Wars or Star Trek; trivia at a ramen stand; 'Big Trouble, Akari-chan', in which two spastic girls answer mailed in requests for advice (it's remarkable how animated these virtual characters can sometimes be); 'Kerin Slayer', a roll playing adventure in a cave; 'it's 3PM, Class President'; and 'Listen, Sister', in which a nun hears impromptu confessions and gives advice. This is not one of my favorite shows of the season, but the bizarre stuff is sort of fun, there are decent laughs now and then, and as a result I continued to watch. In episode nine Virtual Wars and Kerin Slayer combine, which was weird but amusing. The quality of the humor varies wildly, from jokes that fall flat to ones that are LOL funny. Sometimes stuff happens which is so bizarre that it's hard to say whether it's outrageously funny or not funny at all. This show sort of grew on me with time. Whereas early on it sometimes seemed like a slog to get through an episode, towards the end episodes seem to go somewhat faster and I got more laughs out of them. Last updated Thursday, August 08 2019. Created Tuesday, January 22 2019. | ||||||||
