Shelf Life

Monday Night Lights

I quantify funny on a laugh-out-loud basis. I only laughed out loud once every other episode of My Bride is a Mermaid; Sgt. Frog makes me laugh out loud consistently. Ninja Nonsense had me laughing out loud more than once per episode. It is funnier than Sgt. Frog subbed, but not as funny as the dub.

The action of Ninja Nonsense is usually instigated by Onsokumaru, a character who is oddly absent from most of the promotional material. Onsokumaru is a freaky little floating yellow ball, somewhere between Pac Man and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy logo thing. Onsokumaru heads a ninja school where all the students except one are identical male "Sasukes". The remaining singular non-male ninja, Shinobu, dresses in a not-very-sneaky, non-anonymous all-pink outfit.

Shinobu meets the ordinary girl Kaede on a panty raid mission. After the girls become friends, Kaede is allowed to visit the secret ninja training base whenever she likes. The episodes then proceed with very little continuity. Each show consists of two self-contained stories. Usually Onsokumaru causes trouble or devises a scheme involving Shinobu, and Kaede acts as the sane person and the voice of reason. She is a foil to Shinobu's inexhaustible naïve optimism.

If one-third of the jokes in the show are about sexual harassment, another third are about beating up Onsokumaru. For example, when Onsokumaru makes inappropriate sexual remarks about Shinobu's prepubescent sister, he is pummeled into the ground. His elastic body is able to take a lot of punishment; at roughly soccer-ball size Onsokumaru is easily thrown or kicked. Even after six episodes I was left wondering what kind of creature he was. He is able to transform into a muscle-y naked humanoid with no neck and able to sprout wings and fly like the Snitch from Harry Potter. Not quite pure evil or pure id, Onsokumaru drives the plot forward into disaster.

Onsokumaru's flexible nature lends itself well to animation. He's capable of giant exaggerated expressions and movement unencumbered by realism or physics. Norio Wakamoto is the Japanese voice of Onsokumaru. Usually Wakamoto plays villains like Vicious from Cowboy Bebop and Cell from Dragon Ball Z, but here he is absolutely hilarious. In the live-action seiyuu interviews, Wakamoto talks about ad-libbing much of the dialog himself.

Sean Schemmel as Onsokumaru sounds almost like Christopher Sabat in Sgt. Frog. Some of the jokes are changed to be funny in English, but they are usually kept close to the spirit of the original. The dub is just different enough that you could watch the show twice and find the jokes funny in two slightly different ways.

There are so many fast jokes and quick visual gags from the Sasukes that this is a rare anime series that I could see myself watching several times. Re-watch value is one of my elements of Shelf Worthiness.

Ninja Nonsense draws heavily on Japanese culture and puns at times. Fortunately, this set comes with a great color booklet of cultural footnotes, plus a production diary from the staff, and the standard character profiles. Between getting the booklet, the entire series in a box, an enjoyable dub, and the seiyuu interviews, I couldn't ask for a more in a Shelf Worthy release (except maybe a toy). Sometimes the show is great, but the packaging sucks and vice versa.[TOP]

Here's why I hate football: (a) I was forced to watch our team lose every week when I was in marching band in high school; and (b) I once tried to learn about football for a boy I loved, but he dumped me on Super Bowl Sunday. (Lots of people have "ex" reasons for hating bands and films, so why not sports?)

The pace of Eyeshield 21 is its saving grace. It's way less boring than all the time outs and commercial breaks in a regular NFL game. Football is hard to understand, but Eyeshield 21 explains the Byzantine rules as it goes in an entertaining way. We're never left waiting for the ref's decision for long minutes like in real life. A lot of dramatic tension carries the action between plays.

Protagonist Sena was a weakling in junior high, the sort of guy who bullies force into being their errand-boy. His childhood friend, a very outgoing girl named Mamori, has always pulled him out of fights and stood up for him. She means well, but she's clearly emasculating Sena. Meanwhile, Sena's only talent is running from bullies and dodging through crowds. This strange and specific talent quickly makes Sena invaluable to the struggling football team. Mamori thinks Sena's been bullied into joining by the team's demonic-looking quarterback Yoichi (he's like a predecessor of Ozu from Tatami Galaxy with a love of football).

When I think of football, I think of large men and girly cheerleaders. Sena is a small guy, who initially resists playing at all until he discovers his talent for running. Mamori is an assertive girl who ends up joining the team as a manager to look out for Sena's best interest. Mamori (unlike me) learns all the rules overnight. Sena pretends to be another team manager, keeping his identity secret from Mamori on the field by wearing an eyeshield. It's cute.

As one might expect, American football is not very popular in Japan, so a lot of time is spent explaining game play. I was glad to have it. My husband periodically objected to illegal moves, leaving us to wonder if the rules of American football in Japan are slightly different.[TOP]