“Ashibe Stays Up Late”
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)
The return of Sugao to Ashibe’s world has been interesting for the last couple of episodes and it played well in showing us how Goma-chan was reacting to it. That also put the bit into the back of the mind about just how much Sugao would impact the show by essentially always being here. I really like the character, though I was frustrated with how the show used him for so long, but the strength of the series is in the supporting ensemble cast that allows for a lot of different stories to work. Sugao has to fit into that structure and not be a show about the two (or three) of them. So after the heavier focus on Saguaro this one starts to show how they’ll handle him.
The focus here is just on Ashibe and Goma-chan as they stay up late to support the Japanese team in an international sporting event and that requires him figuring out some fun ways of doing that. Coffee is the obvious route and it’s fun seeing it go from the basic to more complex forms, with the two working through it. Ashibe desperately wants to stay up to watch but he ends up just so tired because of how it actually works with kids and gets increasingly frustrated with himself. Watching this unfold over several nights with him unable to stay up is definitely amusing as he gets more incensed with himself and everyone around him leading up to that final match.
In Summary:
I’m still not digging some of the changes to the look of the show with the animation this season, especially with Ashibe as he looks even more off-model than before through a lot of this. The narrow focus on him and Goma-chan is welcome after what the last few episodes have been about while bringing in some fun with Ma and Pa along the way in their efforts to help (or hinder) what Ashibe’s trying to do in staying up late. It’s not totally over the top but it plays well near there and is good clean fun to watch unfold that made me smile a whole lot.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll