Review #8: Nerima Daikon Brothers

• Released – 06 (JP) 08 (US)
• Episodes – 13

Antispiral – So folks, we’re back! It’s been a little hiatus for various reasons, but that’s all in the past now! And first up on the plate is another work from that egotistical director of Puni Puno Poemy and Excel Saga, Shichi Watanabe; Nerima Daikon Brothers.

Tenjobito – Yay comedy!

Antispiral – Well, sort of. As I said back in my own reviews for Puni Puni and Excel back earlier this year, Watanabe’s humor is is comedy in a real loose, over the top sense. It’s SUPPOSED to be comedy though, that’s for sure.

Tenjobito – And this one is just as much musical as Watanabe comedy.

Antispiral – In a way, that’s something that makes the series unique… but a lot like the Watanabe comedy, the music just isn’t normal. Same songs over and over with slightly different lyrics, didn’t use singers (just singing voice actors)… it’s just different.

Tenjobito – Well there’s nothing wrong with the voice actors’ singing.  But yes, there could really be more variety.  Then again, that’s something you could say for the series in general.

Antispiral – Nothing wrong? If you like amateur singing in a musical I suppose. Still, you DO bring up a good point. All of the characters are really one dimensional and have one thing that is their “thing” and that thing is what the show focuses on. Not that others shows never do that, but with such a small cast, and with the repetitive nature of everything else, it makes the show really tedious to watch… and sucks away a lot of the humor.

Tenjobito – Yeah, most of the series at least has a pretty clear formula;  Way to make money comes up, loan song, way to make money ends up being some sort of scam or such, rental song, confront scammer, get the money, money gets taken somehow, square one.  Not that some series don’t work with formulaic formats, but this is really overkill, and it only works if the formula is entertaining anyways.

Antispiral – And that’s the problem I have. That formulaic style only really works if there’s enough variety and humor in that formula to work. The three main characters (Hideki, Mako, and Ichiro) are all minorly interesting, but they never go anywhere and the formula stays the same. In fact, I feel like the side characters in the show end up feeling more interesting because they don’t get as much over exposure.

Tenjobito – Yeah, I think Widgit is probably the most interesting character.  But even the side characters don’t really grow;  There’s no growth, no conclusion… From what I remember, things pretty much end how they started.

Antispiral – Surprise, surprise; Tenjo-kun’s a fan of the mature woman with glasses and a uniform!

You make a good point about the ending though. It’s not exactly the same; if you showed someone the start and cut to the end, there’d be a few differences, but it’s mostly the same. Very little of the middle gets resolved.

Really though, I still think the humor’s the biggest problem with NDB. Excel Saga has a similar humor, but manages to change things up with its theme episode style and make the humor varied. NDB only has minor changes in character humor.

Tenjobito – Honestly I don’t really find ANY of Watanabe’s three anime’s we’ve watched funny.   Excel Saga is the best in the bunch sure, but the humor in all three of them just don’t work for me.  I’m not sure how to describe it;  It’s not pop culture references, it’s not mere randomness…

Antispiral – All I mean is that at least Excel Saga has enough humor that works to… well, work. And Excel Saga’s plot had longer to develop and actually conclude as well. NDB is too short, and too focused for a good plot, which just makes it require leaning on the humor all the more… and why its failure feels all the worse.

Tenjobito – Like I said, Excel Saga is the best in the three.  I still don’t think it has much good humor… but that’s besides the point.  It all boils down to fact that NDB has no substantial humor, no substantial plot, and no substantial characters.  So there’s really nothing to recommend the series unless you like sub-par musical numbers?

Antispiral – Well, let’s put it a different way; if you really, REALLY liked Excel Saga, and watched Puni Puni Poemy and thought it was a great follow up, this is more of the same to love. If Excel didn’t really move you, this is worse, and you’ll not miss much if you avoid it.