You know, I can understand the reasoning behind taking advantage of the lack of any real overarching story early on in the manga. But if all this filler padding gets this anime canceled, I'm going to be pissed!
Though, if all the other filler episodes were of the same caliber as this one, I wouldn't be complaining. In a show that is a comedy, the most important thing is having jokes that don't completely suck. And while this episode does have some odd ones, it makes up for it with some really good gags, as well as some more subtle humor. Not only that, but Kanzaki, who most of the episode focuses on, actually gets some character development. Again, not something that filler is known for, so I am suitably impressed.
Then again, I'm mostly impressed because for the past several weeks I've had nothing to compare this to but filler.
The episode starts with Kanzaki–the yogurt one, for those who were wondering–training a new special technique. Unfortunately for him he has not yet figured out how to do a dropkick with both feet at the same time. Natsume shows up with a laptop on which he has video footage of Oga's fights. Shiroyama, the dude who kinda looks like the Chief's daughter, realizes that Oga's strength comes from carrying Beel on his back all the time.
Thus follows the rest of the episode, with them trying to find suitable substitutes for Beel. But none of them work, since their either a dummy, or middle school girls who call the cops on Shiroyama. Add in a subplot where Oga takes Beel to the park, and he and Furuichi run into Aoi, who is looking for Kouta. Then Kanzaki finds Kouta and takes care of him while looking for his "mother," and at the same time learns the secret to unlocking his double heel dropkick.
There's a lot not to like about this episode, such as some of the over the top gags which mostly feel like they're forcing the comedy. But I did find quite a bit to like while watching this.
First, You only need to look at Natsume's face to realize that he's messing with Kanzaki and Shiroyama the whole time. All he needs to do is plant the idea in their heads, and he has some free entertainment for the rest of the day.
Second, my favorite joke of the episode involves the cops showing up after Shiroyama freaks out some middle school girls, one of which is Furuichi's little sister. I immediately called that the next scene was going to be him getting arrested by the cops, and that's almost exactly what happened. Sure it's predictable, I was able to call it, but it's still a good joke, and it was made all the better by the fact that I was able to call it.
Third, Kanzaki got some honest to goodness character development this episode. When I first saw the preview for this last episode I was convinced that he was going to kidnap Aoi's little brother or something. But instead he found the kid while Kouta was lost, and watched out for him. When he runs into Aoi the first thing he does is hand Kouta back to her, and it's only once Kouta and Beel challenge each other that he uses his newly developed secret move. Kanzaki started off as a pretty huge jerk, but later on in the manga he does get some sympathetic development, so it's nice to see the anime getting a head start on that.
So this episode was weird, but not the worst I've seen. But I'll be honest, I've been considering dropping this anime from my review list. But considering that the next episode is going back to the actual story, I'm going to give this series one more week. It's not that I don't think it's good, in fact I enjoy it, and the filler episodes are decent enough at times. I do think they are doing a better job, but there really isn't much to be said about this series. I like it, but watching it and trying to think of something to say about it are two completely different things. So I'll give the series another week to see if I'll keep reviewing or just watch for fun. I also apologize for the short past few reviews, but there really isn't much to be said about a plot when the plot of an episode doesn't matter.
If you liked my review, Watch the Episode Here!
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