Anime Hajime Review: Punch Line

Series Synopsis

Yuta Iridatsu (voiced by Marina Inoue) has found himself in the middle of a bus jacking. Held at gunpoint, the situation seems dire when suddenly the hero known as Strange Juice arrives on the scene. The masked fighter, with glowing hair and superhuman strength, easily defeats the culprits and everything seems to have been defused.

However the mastermind of the high jacking reveals himself and gets the advantage over Strange Juice. Yuta is at a loss of what to do when he accidentally gets a glimpse of a female passenger’s panties (stay with me on this). This triggers a transformation within Yuta, giving the same bright hair and strength of Strange Juice. Yuta is able to put an end to the conflict by throwing himself and the mastermind out of the bus.

The two go crashing into a nearby river where Yuta is saved by Juice. The triumph is short lived because a strange beam of light shoots down from the sky and Yuta’s spirt is thrown out of his body.

Waking up the following day, Yuta finds himself back at his apartment, the Korai House. Still dazed by what has transpired he is greeted by a spirit cat that calls itself Chiranosuke (voiced by Yuri Yoshida). The cat says that someone has taken over Yuta’s real body and the only way to change back is with a mysterious book that is hidden somewhere in the apartment complex.

Begrudgingly, Yuta begins his search for the book. While doing so, he also starts to take up the role as guardian for his four neighbors.

First is Mikatan Naruginoa (voiced by Sora Amamiya), a member of the idol group Seas May and who appears to be guarding some kind of secret. Next is the recluse gamer, Ito Hikiotani (voiced by Minako Kotobuki) who has recently been through a volatile moment in her life. The third is the landlord Meika Daihatsu (voiced by Rie Kugimiya) who has a special knack with machines. And finally is Rabura Chichibu (voiced by Haruka Tomatsu), an exorcist who doesn't believe in the supernatural what so ever.

With the dawn of the New Year a little more than a week away, Yuta and the other members of Korai House become involved in a series of strange occurrences that all seem to be leading to an event of apocalyptic proportions.

Series Positives

If you think my synopsis comes off as completely random, it’s because Punch Line goes so far down the rabbit hole. I can recite, verbatim, every action and event for the first half of this series and you would still have no idea what direction it would be going in.

Yuuta

The first episode introduces the series as if it was a light hearted comedy. That’s accurate, but it’s also completely not the case. Punch Line is funny, but also sad, terrifying, intense, uplifting, heartfelt, and really any emotion you can think of would be a good fit.

Where this show ends up is a universe away from where it started. And it’s so fun the whole way through.

Mikatan

The Story

Ito

Think of an hourglass. When you start one it’s obvious that it’s moving, but in those beginning moments any visible progress is negligible. As time goes on, the sand starts to move faster and faster, smoother and smoother. The closer it gets to the end, the clearer the decent is. That’s essentially Punchline and I don’t know about you, but I find hourglasses to be irrationally enthralling; which is again Punchline.

Meika

Everything starts off simple, with only a hint or two of anything unusual. That balance quickly gets over turned. The first half of the show builds the mystery and the intrigue. It’s able to do this while still managing to be funny and comical, but never losing the sense of urgency or threat.

No action is a mistake, but rather a deliberate choice. Seeing it all come together in the second half is both well done and satisfying; everything fits together and makes sense. Having the many roads congregate into a single point was what made the show worth it.

All of this leads to a finale that is equally happy and sad. The absolute ending is a little bit of a copout and begins to fall apart, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Yuta

Rabura

All of the residents of Korai House defiantly do their part in making this series as good as it is, but it’s Yuta that I want to focus on because it’s his progression that made me really like Punch Line.

Chiranosuke

Yuta became a hero. In the beginning he's portrayed as an accidental pervert who always seems to end up in a compromising position. This happens a lot because this is how he gets his powers and yes it's annoying at first. This entire plot thread makes Punch Line come off as an excuse to have girls in their underwear.

It defiantly does that and exploits it to no end, but as the show goes on it becomes more and more secondary and it doesn’t come up when it absolutely shouldn’t; particularly in the climax.

This is where Yuta and the show pull out all the stops. It’s surprisingly big and unpredictable, thus making it absurdly tense and gripping. Getting to this point, we get to see Yuta become a much better character. He comes to understand what he needs to do, how he needs to do it, and why. There's a lot on the line, but ultimately it comes down to him saving the people he has come to care deeply about.

Yuta doesn’t become the hero because the story says so. He had to go through quite a bit and prove that he truly was the only one that could make everything happen. I want to go into more detail, but this is such an important, series making process that I dare not say more.

Series Negatives

This show does goes against an ideal in storytelling that I whole heartily believe in. It’s something that's needlessly risky and has no true benefit. To Punch Line’s credit, it has a strong enough story to abate it, but not avoid it; the Complexity Trap.

All of the best anime I have seen have spawned from simplicity. This includes comedies, romances, and mysteries.  It's simplicity that allows for the greatest creativity because it allows for the greatest adaptability. A story shouldn’t be bogged down with rule after rule after rule. The simpler the premise, the simpler the idea, the more there is to work with.

Again, Punch Line does have a lot going on and it does a great job balancing them, however it’s not perfect. There are three things that this show is constantly struggling with.

Details

With everything that’s going on and with them all seemingly important to the story in some form, it all needs to be explained. This doesn’t happen in a few areas. The main, and maybe most important one, is how and why Yuta has the powers that he has.

This is an important answer because it is also the answer to why everything is taking place. What the show goes with is basically because he does. Okay I guess, but really that’s all we get? Sure this does allow for some cool action scenes, but it feels like there should be more to it than that. I say this because along with the details that are glanced over, there are also details that are irrelevant.

Strange Juice for instance, why is she a thing? It’s fine that there’s another person with the same powers as Yuta, but what’s with the hero route? The existence of Strange Juice doesn’t serve the story in any way.

Another example is with Yuta himself. If he were to see a girl’s panties twice in quick succession, his power level would become so great than an asteroid would come crashing down to Earth, killing everyone. This doesn’t come into play at all except for a joke in the first episode. It’s just another rule that exists for the sake of existing.

Instead of having all these pointless details, the show could have focused more on the back story and why these events are taking place.

Conveniences

This isn’t a full blown problem, but it is something that should have been avoided.

Overall, the transition from event to event is smooth and makes sense. However on a couple of occasions, it feels like it’s making up rules as it goes along. This usually involves Yuta in his spirit form.

Yuta wants to do something that will help his friends, but is unable to do so because of some rule that wasn’t mentioned beforehand. Like when he needs to possess someone in order to communicate. To do this there needs to be someone who has a strong connection to the spirit world. Surprise there is one. However, Yuta’s spirit power isn’t strong enough to do this. Luckily, he can get a boost if there's cinnamon in the air. Why cinnamon; f@#$ if I know. But it’s okay because there happens to be cinnamon. Ah but one more thing, Yuta can only possess someone for seven minutes and we only learn that after the time is up and he gets kick out. It’s a never ending cycle.

I say this is not a huge problem because more unfortunate rather than annoying. It’s this kind of thing that separates a good story from a great story.

Paradox

To get my point across effectively, I will have to mention a detail that can be construed as spoiler-ish. Therefore I will be issuing a SPOILER WARNING, but this is a detail that you learn early in the first episode.

There’s time travel. That right there is probably enough for you to guess what it is I’m about to say.

Time travel is such a tricky thing to pull off and it only becomes harder with a series as complex as this one. It leaves so many opportunists for plot holes and paradoxes. That and it gives you one hell of a headache when you start to think about them.

Punchline is able to avoid it, until pretty much the last minute. I can’t say anymore because it would a series spoiler, but needless to say I still haven’t fully made sense of it yet.

Final Thoughts

Punchline is good. I may have got a tad wordy with the negatives, but this is a good series; I had a lot of fun with it.

Thought the story is on the complex side, it is well told and it mitigates much of the fallout. It’s able to do this because all the things I did mention in the negatives were never the focus and they never took away from the focus.

There is an end goal to all of this craziness and it never loses sight of it. A thousand things may be happening, but the story never strays from the path. Because of this, Punchline manages to be a really solid series.

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