Anime Review: Bananya and Room Camp
Jan. 28th, 2023 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaFirst of all, full disclosure: I expected these two anime to have something in common - plot, style, animators, something. Instead, the only thing that these two have in common is that their episodes are 3 minutes long. Bananya has two seasons, 13 episodes each. Room Camp has one season, 12 episodes plus an 11-minute E-SP. (...what the heck is an E-SP? Extra Special Program?). Bananya is comedy, Room Camp is slice of life. Bananya is an original anime not based on a manga, while Room Camp is a spin-off anime based on a spin-off manga (spun off from the anime and manga LAID-BACK CAMP, while I promise to review later this year).
But apparently Japan has a need for three-minute episodes of anime. Or 2 minute 30, given that 30 seconds is taken up with the closing theme.
First up!
BANANYA - 2016-2017, 2 seasons, available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: 6 episodes
Official description: A short about the secret life of kitties who live in bananas!
Actual opinion: This is absolutely Cute for the sake of Cute. And possibly Marketing. It's not that I haven't seen Cute in American media - my nephew was obsessed with PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD last time we visited, for example - but American media tends to assume that Cute means Show For Children, which means Morals must be included. Whereas Bananya is totally up for an episode where the titular cat-banana spends a day besties with a mouse, and then suddenly remembers he's a cat and starts chasing the mouse. No moral attached whatsoever, no stakes, no plot. They didn't bother, and they don't want you to bother either.
Why make a crack-tacular show about a kitty in a banana? Who knows! But if you can turn off your brain and want to stare at cute things for a few minutes, it works.
Room Camp - 2020, available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: All (12 episodes plus special episode)
Official description: The Outdoor Activities Club, Aka, the Outclub has 3 members. In the countryside of Yamanashi Prefecture, there’s a high school named Motosu High School. Go even further to one of the school buildings and you’ll find a very laid-back outdoor club that uses one corner of the classroom as their club room.
Kagamihara Nadeshiko finally wants to kill some time in their club room, but then Ohgaki Chiaki and Inuyama Aoi suddenly announce that they’re all going on a trip. The girls enjoy the various local treats as they travel around, but where in the world is the end destination for this trip?!
Weeb rating: 5 out of 10. The show is right on the border of an ad for the area: here is our beautiful scenery! Here is our wonderful food! Don't you want to come here? It doesn't require a lot of fore-knowledge of Japan, but it does require an interest. (And ideally, having already watched LAID-BACK CAMP. Whoops.)
Ass rating: 2 out of 10. There's a couple scenes with the girls in an onsen where it's pretty clear they're naked, but the show doesn't make a big deal about it.
Shit rating: 3 out of 10. It's a 3 minute slice of life show, so I don't expect a complicated plot, and they manage to fit a lot into those three minutes without it feeling crammed.
Violence rating: 0 out of 10. Seriously, the worst thing that happens on this show is that one character temporarily mislays an important paper.
Crack rating: 1 out of 10, and that 1 is based mostly on the Twist at the end being a little 'uh, seriously?' Fortunately, the show does not require you to be surprised by the Twist, nor take it seriously.
Actual opinion: This show is proof that sometimes, I really should read the reviews first, because Crunchyroll did not flag this show as being a sequel/side-quel at all. (In fairness to Crunchyroll, most of those flags appear in the titles - it's not just titled ROCK LEE AND HIS NINJA PALS, it's NARUTO SPIN-OFF: ROCK LEE AND HIS NINJA PALS.) First review for this show! "This is a spin-off; go watch the original show first."
As mentioned above: whoops.
On the bright side, the show holds up remarkably well for having no knowledge of the original. Three girls running around eating lovingly detailed food and looking at lovingly drawn nature: you don't need to know who they are in order to enjoy this for three minutes. I'll probably revisit the show once I do try LAID-BACK CAMP, and see if I enjoy it more in context.
Next week: a series of short reactions, including series tossed out of my queue, and series that I'm continuing to watch!
But apparently Japan has a need for three-minute episodes of anime. Or 2 minute 30, given that 30 seconds is taken up with the closing theme.
First up!
BANANYA - 2016-2017, 2 seasons, available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: 6 episodes
Official description: A short about the secret life of kitties who live in bananas!
Actual opinion: This is absolutely Cute for the sake of Cute. And possibly Marketing. It's not that I haven't seen Cute in American media - my nephew was obsessed with PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD last time we visited, for example - but American media tends to assume that Cute means Show For Children, which means Morals must be included. Whereas Bananya is totally up for an episode where the titular cat-banana spends a day besties with a mouse, and then suddenly remembers he's a cat and starts chasing the mouse. No moral attached whatsoever, no stakes, no plot. They didn't bother, and they don't want you to bother either.
Why make a crack-tacular show about a kitty in a banana? Who knows! But if you can turn off your brain and want to stare at cute things for a few minutes, it works.
Room Camp - 2020, available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: All (12 episodes plus special episode)
Official description: The Outdoor Activities Club, Aka, the Outclub has 3 members. In the countryside of Yamanashi Prefecture, there’s a high school named Motosu High School. Go even further to one of the school buildings and you’ll find a very laid-back outdoor club that uses one corner of the classroom as their club room.
Kagamihara Nadeshiko finally wants to kill some time in their club room, but then Ohgaki Chiaki and Inuyama Aoi suddenly announce that they’re all going on a trip. The girls enjoy the various local treats as they travel around, but where in the world is the end destination for this trip?!
Weeb rating: 5 out of 10. The show is right on the border of an ad for the area: here is our beautiful scenery! Here is our wonderful food! Don't you want to come here? It doesn't require a lot of fore-knowledge of Japan, but it does require an interest. (And ideally, having already watched LAID-BACK CAMP. Whoops.)
Ass rating: 2 out of 10. There's a couple scenes with the girls in an onsen where it's pretty clear they're naked, but the show doesn't make a big deal about it.
Shit rating: 3 out of 10. It's a 3 minute slice of life show, so I don't expect a complicated plot, and they manage to fit a lot into those three minutes without it feeling crammed.
Violence rating: 0 out of 10. Seriously, the worst thing that happens on this show is that one character temporarily mislays an important paper.
Crack rating: 1 out of 10, and that 1 is based mostly on the Twist at the end being a little 'uh, seriously?' Fortunately, the show does not require you to be surprised by the Twist, nor take it seriously.
Actual opinion: This show is proof that sometimes, I really should read the reviews first, because Crunchyroll did not flag this show as being a sequel/side-quel at all. (In fairness to Crunchyroll, most of those flags appear in the titles - it's not just titled ROCK LEE AND HIS NINJA PALS, it's NARUTO SPIN-OFF: ROCK LEE AND HIS NINJA PALS.) First review for this show! "This is a spin-off; go watch the original show first."
As mentioned above: whoops.
On the bright side, the show holds up remarkably well for having no knowledge of the original. Three girls running around eating lovingly detailed food and looking at lovingly drawn nature: you don't need to know who they are in order to enjoy this for three minutes. I'll probably revisit the show once I do try LAID-BACK CAMP, and see if I enjoy it more in context.
Next week: a series of short reactions, including series tossed out of my queue, and series that I'm continuing to watch!