“I’m a Hero!”
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)
Getting back into the Shonen Ashibe mindset last week after taking a couple of months off for the summer was definitely fun. While it didn’t go big for me in a way, particularly its lack of Sugao once again, it was a good bit of silliness that I enjoy a lot. So many shows are so serious and I enjoy those a good deal that having something light and fun, a mental cleanser of sorts that just makes you smile, is something that should be in everyone’s rotation. But I’m also a big advocate for variety and not living narrowly in a whole lot of ways so this is no surprise.
This episode starts off fun with Ashibe’s grandfather’s company coming up with a Goma-chan designed ramune drink but they did it as a gomu instead, which means rubber instead of sesame. Both should be terrible but it’s fun to see how this puts the execs in a bind as they have to sell a billion yen has been spent on this and in order to keep their jobs it’s all gotta go. What becomes amusing is that they luck into Ashibe and his friends and some of them actually like it whereas others want to vomit. Though it tastes like tire, there’s an audience for everything. It’s just a matter of selling it to the right one. With the pair putting together a superhero stage event show to try and sell the stuff and build up its brand, there’s definitely cuteness as Peppeppe gets involved and costumes up, which is cutely hot, and the kids are totally into it as you’d expect. It’s just goofy fun and it succeeds well.
Sugao Watch: Nada.
In Summary:
Things don’t get as out of control as they could here, which is a good thing, but it hits a certain kind of sweet spot and I even liked the silliness that Yumiko and her father bring into it toward the end. It’s playing to familiar tropes and it kind of loses the script along the way when it comes to the ramune itself but it was a win/win for me just in getting Peppeppe to cosplay.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
