“Goma-chan’s Christmas, Part 1”
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:
With a few weeks off owing to children’s show nature and broadcast schedule, Shone Ashibe returns wit the first part of its Christmas block of episodes. With a show focused on kids and some very fun adults, I’ll admit my hopes are a bit high for this show. We know that the snow creature and girl are coming from the footage from the airport and that they’ll cause some trouble soon enough. The problem in a more general sense is that while the holiday is coming it looks and feels like spring out there. Which is why Ashibe’s grandfather is an easy one to bring into things as he appears with Yeti in tow. Or, rather, in their airplane.
Bringing Chit along as well means she gets to have a very cute reconnect with Sugao which definitely makes everyone else happy to see it unfold. The show moves onto a fun little montage piece with AShibe and Goma-chan showing Chit-chan all the places that they all hang out, which isn’t what sugao was looking to do, but it all also goes kind of wonky simply because Yeti is there with them and that causes a lot of attention. But when we get the kids to the park without any adults around for a while it’s a good time to be had by all. They do come up with a fun way to disguise Yeti and it’s just a delight to see everyone having so much fun together as well. Everything is leading toward a Christmas party that’s been in the works for the kids so it’s definitely nicely played in showing everyone together before that.
In Summary:
It’s been almost a month since the last episode and I definitely dislike the gaps that we get with this series. But the show when it does come back almost always delights. Bringing Chit-chan into the picture for a couple of episodes for the holidays is great and there’s some good use of Yeti for this as well. The monk or whatever he is has a subplot as well ongoing as he made it onto the plane as well, but I’m less enthused by his storyline in general. When we get time with just the kids it’s an absolute delight in watching it unfold, especially the little montage with Yeti.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
