My Deer Friend Nokotan

Episode 5

You all think this is funny, don't you? You're having a good time watching your stupid little deer show, blissfully ignorant of the world-upending chaos you're inviting. But me, I'm attentive. I can see the storm that's coming. My Deer Friend Nokotan is a harbinger, a horseman (deerman?) of an apocalypse the series itself is ushering in.

You can see it in so-called "unexplainable" occurrences like the shikadamari in Nara Park. "Unexplained" these crackpot consultants tell us, when the truth is staring us right in our big, stupid faces. Where could these deer have gotten the idea to gather in groups like this, if not from the antics glimpsed in episodes like this week's My Deer Friend Nokotan? It's a bad influence on the behavior of these normally normal beasts. It drives them to these bizarre stunts, like some deer-aimed equivalent of Jackass.

Now, I'm not stupid. I know these gatherings have been happening well before the airing of My Deer Friend Nokotan. Obviously, the deer of Nara read the manga version earlier.

And yes, you may still think this is all fun and games. Deer gathering in huge numbers in a park, can't be that big a deal, right? It's benign—a quaint, funny little happening. Wake up, these animals are playing you for fools as they lull you into a false sense of security. This is but a rehearsal, a training for the other, more violent antics that these creatures will soon start imitating straight out of Nokotan. Fighting back against perfectly legitimate deer hunters? Blowing up a school? Gaining part-time employment? It's all on the docket, alongside the overthrowing of humanity itself as the dominant species on the planet.

In our destruction and ignorance, maybe we earned it. Maybe the deer deserve to rule. But I will still not go gently into that night.

Funny little episode, though! When Nokotan is doing longer bits, as is its wont, it works better when the execution is the joke. Both Nokotan's visions of dodging hunters and Koshi's fight with the delinquents in this episode bust out some surprisingly lavish, impressive animation, and that kind of effort makes them that much more entertaining. Similarly, including more stuff in a sequence like all the aside bits in the lead-up to the love letter reveal keeps the pacing snappy. It's better to have lots of little jokes filling out a bit as opposed to dragging out one single joke as long as possible.

There are also points for consistency. Sure, we all know that the point is that Shikanoko is too pure to have any dark secrets for people like Koshi and Nekoyamada to dig up but they don't know that, so the pursuit of Shikanoko reveals more about her while flustering her would-be stalkers. The whole sequence at the zoo was uneven but I appreciate the no-explanations blunt punchline of Nokotan saying it was "work." Her job is just "deer."

This episode also includes the sequence with Nekoyamada towards the end that shows something interesting: how this show works without Koshi. Koshi has been the best part of the series for me but a comedy like this can't work with a singular straight man. They need someone even less cool to clown on. Nekoyamada's lack of experience with everyone's bits makes her a fresh foil for the palace of madness, the Deer Club—even if I'm still not 100% sure what Bashame's deal is supposed to be. She sure does… love rice.

Rating: A Million Bucks!

My Deer Friend Nokotan is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris doesn't want to burn any decent deer puns in the footer here, lest he need to use them in the reviews over the coming weeks. If you're really craving any extra aside goofiness, why not check out his Twitter or his blog? I think I saw some jokes on there the other day.