“Ashibe’s Birthday”
What They Say:
A comedy manga, “Shonen Ashibe,” that follows the friendship between baby spotted seal Goma-chan and first-grade student Ashiya Ashibe. First serialized in 1988 and adapted to anime in 1991, the adorable Goma-chan created a massive following and a spotted seal boom. This spring, Goma-chan returns to “Tentere Anime.” A cute, pleasant story of Ashibe and Goma-chan and their unusual school and their neighbors. Sometimes endearing, sometimes bizarre, it’s a fun anime for the whole family!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With all the time spent with Sugao the last time around I’ll admit that it was pretty good, though still problematic since a lot of it focused on the sensei character that dragged things down. But still, Sugao and his expressions as well as his Ashibe doll just make it all worthwhile when you get down to it. The series is one that has mostly found a good balance for things and correcting on the Sugao side helped a lot. With this episode, things shift toward Ashibe with the birthday itself and all the shenanigans that can go on there, especially when you have someone like Goma-chan in your life. It’s the right kind of follow-up silliness as it focuses more on the kids than anything else and that’s an endless source of amusement.
Ashibe’s party is about what you’d expect with what it does in having some strange gifts come into play as well as some issues with certain parents that are more focused on their own kids than the party at hand. And naturally, Ashibe’s grandpa comes up with a really big event for it all to be housed in with lots of food and events, making for the kind of extravagance that you’d cringe over in real life. What the party serves to do is to bring together a wide range of characters for a single event that lets all their quirks come out, from the gym teacher swimming in the frosting to Peppeppe-san showing off her piano skills that endear her even more to her secret admirer. And, naturally, you have Ashibe’s parents and grandfather getting into a mix of trouble along the way as well with their own agendas.
Sugao Watch: Sugao only gets a small piece toward the end but it is so heartwarming that you have to just love the kind of love that Sugao has for AShibe.
In Summary:
Shonen Ashibe has some cute moments to it as it takes the general idea of a birthday party and works it through a host of smaller character gags on a regular basis here. There’s a lot of characters that we haven’t seen for a bit making an appearance and those gags work well to remind you of the core aspects of those supporting characters. It’s the kind of episode that works well as a whole because it has such variety to it that it delights in showing just how much the series has accomplished with its cast and their interactions. It’s a solid bit of fun that’s definitely a good way to do things as we get close to the end of the show.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
