Gag comedy at its most mediocre.
What They Say:
Atsushi is worried about his upcoming recorder test. However, after he tries to show off to his classmate, he might have greater troubles.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga of the same name, Recorder and Randsell is this seasons new three minutes per episode series. Shows like this can definitely be a hard sell on a lot of levels, but some have managed to work quite well as we fondly remember Chi’s Sweet Home. Recorder and Randsell likely won’t hit that kind of fun but there is potential for some basic, awkward gags that could amuse and eventually go into some really wrong directions. And frankly, that seems like that’s its best hope of being a brief but enjoyable run since the opening episode doesn’t really do much to sell it.
The show revolves around the brother/sister pair of Atsushi and Atsumi. The gag for it though is that Atsushi is an elementary school student who is built like an adult. So we get the child’s mind in an adult body. Atsumi on the other hand is the opposite, a high school girl in the body that looks like an elementary school kid. The two take care of each other pretty well and are good siblings, but the awkwardness comes in how they interact with each other in front of others as the unknowing people see the child taking care of the adult more than anything else. The fun should be in seeing the very competent Atsumi in her body doing things you normally wouldn’t while the handsome and mature looking Atsushi can’t seem to do anything well or right. Which is what we get at the very opening part here with the whole playing of the flute.
While the show has a decent look to it overall, it’s definitely the kind of show where you can tell it has a low, low budget. The backgrounds are decent for what they are and certainly wouldn’t distract in any other series, but the character animation itself feels off and fairly flat ta times, especially with the faces. Part of it comes with Atsushi himself though simply because of his personality as it has him looking even more cartoonish than he is already. The other characters don’t come across as badly, but they also generally share in the flat and low budget feel. Some shows can do a lot with the three minute format, but this one looks to be going for the basics.
In Summary:
Recorder and Randsell is definitely a hard sell kind of show and we’ve had poor luck when it comes to the three minute format. We’ve tried a few different ones over time, but the only one that worked well was Chi’s Sweet Home and that was largely because we could marathon it. The opening episode makes it clear what the situation is, though it’s not hugely apparent, and I’ll admit it has some potential to be awkwardly funny as we see by the final gag here. The shows’ main hope is to go in that direction regularly and push it further so that it can make you uncomfortable and laugh at it. If it doesn’t, it’s largely going to fall flat like most of this episode does.
Grade: C
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
