The world comes to an end, but not without some major twists.
What They Say:
If he sees underwear, humanity will be destroyed!? An original anime series from the noitaminA block, PUNCH LINE centers on Yuta Iridatsu, a high school student, with a peculiar habit. When he sees a girl’s panties, he gets so excited he faints! After a certain incident with a ghost cat, his soul gets separated from his body. Using his special powers, Yuta watches the daily lives of the inhabitants of an apartment and sometimes plays tricks on them. Eventually, Yuta decides to unlock the secrets to why Earth will be destroyed and tries to save it!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s the end of Punchline’s first iteration as the VR-1 asteroid crashes down to earth on New Years Eve… or, I guess technically the fourth iteration. Or is it the fifth? Well, it’s the first FULL iteration of Yuta’s journey from December 21st to December 31st, and as one might expect from an Uchikoshi story, time looping is key to the narrative. But Punchline has some other twists in store, from the obvious to the completely unexpected.
The episode begins on December 30th, right in the middle of the pitched battle with Turtle Man. Miyazawa Kenji appears to be down for the count, but a glance at Ito’s undergarments and he’s back in action. Strange Juice joins him, and the odds appear to be in our heroes’ favor. Unfortunately, it turns out Turtle Man can also Yubafy, with an enhanced power output of 2000%! It’s only the intervention of Ito that seems to stun the Turtle Man into inaction. Yuta joins the battle during this brief interlude by once again possessing Rabura’s body. By looking at her own underpants, Rabura herself Yubafies and defeats Turtle Man, seemingly once and for all.
The first twist comes in as the identity of Turtle Man is exposed. And as you might expect from the limited number of characters that have been introduced, it’s Ito’s teacher. He allowed himself to be possessed by QMay’s leader in an attempt to get revenge on Ito’s bullies. The reason? He’s creepily in love with Ito. The reason he wanted to kidnap regenerative bear Yuhi is so that QMay’s leader, Tsubochi QMay, who can also Yubafy, needs the regenerative powers. Meika explains that Yubafication is caused by the Hercules virus, which allows humans to turn off their natural genetic limiters. The risk is that Yubafication takes a serious toll on the body. Ito’s teacher himself has been weakened from the repeated Yubafication, which allows him to be knocked out by a punch from an outraged Ito.
As twists go this one is fairly lame. It feels like there’s a lot left unexplained here, though we may learn some additional information as the story goes on. But why would Ito’s teacher risk killing Ito if he was in love? Why did he edit the urban legend video to include Ito’s name? Was it to scare her into turning over the bear? This can be dismissed as a crazy guy just being crazy, but a bigger problem is raised: If Yubafication is caused by a virus, how was this virus able to be spread through spirit possession? Yuta possesses Rabura, and Tsubochi possesses Ito’s teacher, allowing them to Yubafy? Either Uchikoshi is withholding information, or Rabura and Sensei have been infected by the virus earlier in the story, unbeknownst to them.
The second twist is better, though easily guessed: Miyazawa Kenji is actually Yuta’s body. Yuta has been looping through time trying to stop the collision of asteroid VR-1 with earth millions of times, always failing. Before the Korai House new years’ celebration, Rabura makes sure to tell Meika what she learned from Gliese: That a virus had infected the AFSPC servers. Meika says she checked, and no such virus existed. However, at the last minute, the VR-1 asteroid changes course and heads to strike Earth. Yuta panics, since he has not found the Nandala Gandala, but it was in the possession of his body the whole time. In it? A single word: U-Turn (or “Yuu-tan”, Yuta’s nickname). The way to get his body back is to go back in time to December 21st and possess himself, thereby ejecting his spirit from his body and starting the cycle anew.
The best twist, though, comes out of nowhere: Yuta was born Yu Iridatsu, a girl. He has taken on a different gender identity despite being born female. Meika lets this fact slip while telling Ito about her past, raising Mikatan to grow up to be Strange Juice. This threatens the entire gender dynamic of the show. If it’s not a basic harem setup, with one guy surrounded by beautiful women, and all of the inhabitants of Korai House are in fact female, what does this mean? It’s hard not to want to rewatch the entire series with all of this new information in mind. While it seems to come out of nowhere, a look at the opening confirms that Yuta is wearing leggings, something no boy would seemingly do. Uchikoshi is always fairly good about not cheating with his twists, and though I’ve been trying to keep an eye out for every little detail, I have to admit this one got me.
In Summary:
While Ito’s subplot had a less than stellar conclusion, we have a couple of twists revealed this episode that basically challenge everything that has come before. In the show’s remaining five episodes, Yuta will have to figure out the way to save mankind for good, something he hasn’t been able to do countless times before. I’m looking forward to seeing Punchline from his body’s perspective this time around: What was in the mysterious box it was opening in episode one? Why all of the anti-spirit charms around his room? And why was Meika in there in her underwear? All of our unanswered questions will be resolved, and I can’t wait.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony VAIO 20″
