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:
Goma-chan didn’t do much for me the last time around with its focus on music and the like even if it had some comical moments. You can always count on Tendou to go the distance for the kids and having him all decked out certainly bore that out. With this episode, we get some cuteness from the start with Goma-chan enjoying the park by himself and he comes across Makoto there, who is walking his dog. A dog that gets very jealous in seeing how Makoto is treating Goma-chan. Enough so to run away a little bit. It’s cute seeing how Makoto is with Goma-chan but that’s nothing compared to Sakata. Sakata has proven his interest in Makoto pretty hard and that sets us up for some real competition here.
As the competition heats up we get the whole thing turned into a quiz game show with Goma-chan done up as a king with crown and scepter as the goal. Watching the kids go after the win through trivia questions is definitely cute and amusing – especially since Makoto is at a real disadvantage. Having Ashibe show up does change the flow of the quiz a bit since he’s got inside knowledge and he’s certainly not going to let anyone else “win” Goma-chan away from him. Seeing that wrap up and then getting to see how Makoto’s pet Goro is trying to win Makoto over delivers some good laughs and grins because you can totally understand Goro’s panic.
In Summary:
This is a cute episode where the kids try to one-up each other in order to make Goma-chan their own, even if only temporarily. We haven’t had a ton of time with Makoto but it’s clear he wasn’t going to come out on top in this area and watching his struggles are cute. But you feel good for Makoto at the end as he does remember what he actually has and just enjoys his time with Goro completely. It’s a simple but heartwarming episode that’s exactly what you’d want out of something like this.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
