Handa-kun

Episodes 9-10

The cast of Handa-kun gets quite a workout in these two episodes. Things don't start off well for poor Handa, who finds himself caught in the middle of a debate over whether or not his class should dissect frogs for a biology lesson. Handa wants no part of the gross science experiment, but his attempts to talk people out of it don't quite have the desired effect. Later, the Handa Force springs into action upon hearing that someone has been stalking Handa on his way home from school. Self-proclaimed “average guy” Kondo also gets a turn in the spotlight when someone sends him a love letter. Finally, the members of the school's Bishoujo Picture Club stake their club's survival on creating a manga series starring a gender-swapped version of Handa.

The frog dissection story uses a fairly standard “in a hole and digging deeper” setup, with Handa's attempts at avoiding the dissection only making things worse for him. It's amusing to watch things spiral out of control as he somehow manages to persuade all of his classmates to do the exact opposite of what he wants. The storyline reaches a state of inspired lunacy when everyone mistakes Handa's half-conscious mutterings for a telepathic link with a giant frog. It's just silly enough to add some unpredictability to the storyline, and science teacher Okayama's attempts at understanding Handa's influence on the class are a nice touch. The segment as a whole strikes a nice balance between a tried-and-true formula and a healthy dose of controlled chaos.

Perhaps the single funniest moment in either of these episodes comes when the underlying joke of the stalker story first sinks in: Handa's overzealous followers are unknowingly on a mission to find and stop themselves. The writing does a good job of playing with the warped perspectives of everyone involved, from the Handa Force and their allies to Handa himself. Handa's impassioned speech from on top of a wall ties things together nicely, if only because it's obvious from the moment he starts speaking that everyone around him is going to miss the point. The newly nicknamed Eraser is a nice addition to the group in this story, and she adds an amusingly scary level of insanity to Handa's female groupies.

Placing Kondo in the position of protagonist for half an episode is an interesting risk for the show to take. He's done well in his role as the unheard voice of reason throughout the series, but the only way to see if he can carry a story on his own merit is to give it a go. The good news is that his inner monologues are pretty entertaining, and his struggle to make sense of the “love letter” makes for a clever play on the show's first episode. I feel a little bad about laughing as the poor guy is brought crashing back into reality, but the brutal delivery is just too darn funny. Much like the stalker story before it, this segment makes good use of the variety of personalities within the Handa force.

By and large, the plight of the Bishoujo Picture Club is a little light on content for the amount of screen time it gets, but it does produce two very funny scenes: the brainstorming session for creating a gender-swapped Handa and the wonderfully awkward conversation between Handa and a scantily clad anime figure. The brainstorming session recycles the same sort of material that many other comedies have used to lampoon the anime market, but applying all of those character tropes to Handa keeps the scene fun. The conversation with the figure could have easily fallen flat, but it becomes something special once Handa decides to just roll with the situation and treat the figure like a person. Even if the rest of this story is on the weaker side, these two scenes make it worthwhile.

Both of these episodes make good use of Handa-kun's core cast, with multiple characters contributing their fair share of humor. New characters are used reasonably well, with Okayama and the Bishoujo guys able to serve their purposes without needing extensive development. There are some clever ideas at work here, and the comedic delivery is generally solid. Handa-kun seems to be at its best when it simply places its leads into amusing situations and uses their quirks to escalate the chaos to humorous levels. When you've got a well-balanced group of idiots and lunatics, you can skip the complicated setups and just let everybody run wild.

Rating: B+

Handa-kun is currently streaming on Funimation.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.