“Goma-chan and Ruriko-chan”
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:
While I’m very happy to have the series back, the last episode had its cute moments but didn’t do much to really make me laugh all that much. Bad Shounen Ashibe is still good anime so I had some good laughs with it and enjoyed it overall. But the series was firing on all cylinders before it hit its summer break and I feel like we’re waiting for it to recapture the energy and forward movement that it had at that point. Sometimes it does feel like the show needs to shake things up a bit and go nuts. Which is why ane episode focused on chestnut gathering might just be what the doctor ordered.
With a little help from grandpa, he’s bought the kids a mountain order to let them go chestnut hunting and other activities for the day. It’s exciting just from the start as Sugao is there with them and everyone has different ideas of how to use chestnuts in order to come up with great meals and desserts – except for Goma-chan as he just sees the spiky exterior. What sets the real challenge for the episode is when they find some big footprints while looking for chestnuts and that sets them into a panic over what it might be, from wild boars to even bigger animals. But it could also be something Bigfoot-like as well, so imaginations run wild and fast. It’s cute watching them tracking down what it could be and coming up with piles of chestnuts to try and draw it in as it plays to lots of the usual half-measures of kids and other weird attempts.
In Summary:
There are a lot of cute moments as the gang are having fun dealing with hunting up chestnuts and the silliness of Goma-chan as well. But once it started playing to the mysterious creature that may be in the woods with them things shifted a bit and some of the fun lessened. There are good moments with it, such as the visual of one of the kids caught in a trap in the tree and Goro just licking incessantly, but it’s a mixed batch kind of episode. It needed more of grandpa and his lovely lady.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
