Punch Line

When reviewing some anime, I sometimes think about introducing the term "one-hit wonder" in my comments, along the lines of "one-episode wonder". In my eyes, such a term would describe many anime, for example; Punch Line. The first episode offers the audience a crazy rollercoaster ride with a comedic touch, and an interesting premise that suggests the season might focus on parodying irritating, especially shonen, tropes. The hilarious opening and ending also successfully deceived the foolish Hromino into thinking that he could enjoy the rest of the season. However, by the second episode Hromino discovered that this was indeed an illusion, seeing how the focus, instead of being on the perverted cat and the main hero with his quest for a mysterious book that has the power to restore his body, is on the utterly trivial and unremarkable problems of the young female residents of the house, which are neither funny nor interesting. Of course, it is not until he saw the fifth episode that Hromino's patience finally ran out. From an insane, imaginative beginning, he had then reached the point where the producer’s antics had ceased to amuse him. In retrospect, it looks like a completely superficial and ill-conceived project, because the audience is clearly meant to take the girls' emotional outbursts and mood swings deadly seriously. After the fifth episode, Hromino ends up not really caring what kind of punch line the producers have come up with at the end, because he was severely disappointed and bored on the way to it. (09.05.2015)

Punch Line is quite mad and a mishmash of all sorts of things in a strange mix that surprisingly worked, in my opinion. On the one hand, I found it silly, and on the other hand, I thought it was quite strange yet interesting. Plus, there were references to a lot of movies I have seen, even though I ended up questioning whether it was intentional or I was seeing something that was not really there. I enjoyed the unpredictability the most, and a lot of the twists managed to catch me off my guard, and most of the time, I had no idea where it was going or what the hell I was watching. Sure, quite a lot of the twists were shocking, although in a classic WTF way. However, this anime series was certainly not boring. Yes, the FilmBooster reviewer Hromino is right that it could have been much better; it could have even been more original if the anime's creators had focused much more on the main plot. Also, I think they could have put in more surprises, twists, and jokes and made it less of a slice-of-life show about the life of the "young and restless." After all, the chosen subject matter had great potential, and it could have been done as a kind of "anime adventure," for example. Even though the anime's creators went that way and ended up shoving almost everything they could think of in there, the result still amazed me. Plus, the surprise and wonder that it held together and that the head was still actually taking it in without me knowing what was coming next actually amused me when it got to the conclusion. I do not know how much sense this review makes, and many people are probably not going to make sense of this anime series either. However, I am awarding a respectful four stars. (23.04.2015)