every episode of this show is based off of short stories written by takahashi rumiko. the stories are not connected to each other. i didn't have this knowledge while i was watching the episode, so that part's really contributing to my current loss of words.
this first episode is called "The Tragedy of P".
it's about a homeowner's association (but for apartments) (the housing committee) that has a "no pets" policy for its tenants. if someone is found out to be keeping a pet, they're either forced to move, or are forced to give the pet away.
this is haga-san. she's part of the housing committee.
and this is kakei-san. she's the leader of the housing committee (homeowner's association). she's also very strict about the rules. and she's the one that forces people to move if she finds out they have pets.
Haga-san's idiot husband brings home a penguin that they have to babysit for a week while the penguin's American Owner goes out on a business trip.
the penguine is named pitt.
the rest of this episode is increasingly insane shenanigans happening surrounding haga DESPERATELY trying to keep this penguin a secret so she doesnt get FUCKING EVICTED. at one point she hides KAKEI'S SON into a CLOSET while she tries to convince kakei that Huhhh? No your kid isn't here at all! Nooo... Be on your way now! because haga's IDIOT SON INVITED HIM AND ALL OF HIS CLASSMATES OVER TO HANG OUT WITH THE PENGUIN!!!!!!!!!
the intensity of the housing committee's hatred for pet owners keeps ramping up over the course of the episode too. one of the girls that's PART of the committee is found out to have a cat herself and she's put into this weird... interrogation??? scene???
the episode ends with haga letting pitt walk around outside and stargaze. she seems to come to peace with why pets aren't allowed in the apartments. because they don't have enough room to roam and run around, and they have to be quiet... it's not fair to the pets. she also pushes him in a stroller which is awesome
her husband meets her outside and informs her that pitt's owner will be sending someone to pick him up in the morning. her constant stress of hiding a penguin is over... she is free! she doesn't have to be scared of being evicted by kakei!
the elevator door opens.
then, there's an epilogue(?), where haga and kakei run into each other at the zoo, and they have this little exchange. it turns out kakei doesn't hate animals, after all.
there's a lot of things that happens in this episode (every single one of them made me laugh at least a little bit.) but this is the general idea of the story. i couldn't predict where it was going even a single time. they played the penguin so straight. it was just accepted that it was a penguin. if it was something like a dog or a cat i think i would be extraordinarily bored. but because it was a penguin it made the whole thing better
do i want to watch more?
sure. why not? i'm pretty curious to see what the hell the other stories of this anime are like, considering how goofy this first one was LOL. i was honestly expecting a really edgy anime based off the title. it just sounds like the type of thing that would be super Serious, you know? 'anthology' is just that type of word in my mind.
the rest of these screenshots are the penguin
pay: i feel like i have a headache after watching nezha
THE LEGEND OF NEZHA EPISODE 1
i couldn't find a subtitled version of this one, so i had to deal with stilted english dub actors.
... alongside english subtitles for the dub actors?
im not complaining it makes taking screenshots of dialog easier. and by god there is dialog.
Put him in the apparatus!
i suppose this show serves as a history lesson for an important deity in confuscianism, buddhism, and taoism. It's Nezha!
this first episode is entirely about how nezha was born. i'm going to give you the quick and simplified story of nezha's birth, and then im going to be talking about the show itself. you'll see why these are two separate points in a second.
- lady yin was pregnant for 3 years and 6 months.
- when she finally gave birth, she gave birth to a Ball of Flesh.
- li jing, lady yin's husband and the Father Of The Ball Of Flesh, pretty reasonably thought that his wife had given birth to a demon, and attacked the ball with his sword.
- the ball opened to reveal a fully formed boy, nezha! he could already talk and walk immediately.
- other things of note: this takes place during the shang dynasty, and nezha is destined to assist King Wu of Zhou in the upcoming war against the Shang. so, it'd be pretty important for the show to set this up in advance.
got it? that's a very interesting story! i sure do wonder how a teensy tiny animation studio in china will choose to adapt it anohohohohohohoooo boy oh boy oh boy that's the first thing we see after the opening song?
Okayyyy!
it was genuinely kindof really really nauseating looking at this show sometimes. it has... an artstyle....!!! it's very stiff...!!! i dont have much else to say. it reminds me of cheap bible story animations that get reuploaded onto youtube with 128,237 views preinstalled.
the main difference between this show and the actual story of nezha, is the inclusion of this GOD DAMN EVIL ADVISOR CHARACTER.
i can't remember his name and i don't care to pull up the episode again and scrub through it trying to find his name, so i have no idea if he's an actual guy that was in the original legend or if he's this show's own original character but i CAN'T FUCKING STAND HIM EITHER WAY!!!!!!!!! HE'S SO ANNOYING. AND HE'S FUNCTIONALLY THE MAIN GODDAMN CHARACTER OF THIS FIRST EPISODE!!!!!!!!!! HE HAS THE MOST SPEAKING LINES OUT OF ANY CHARACTER!!!!! AND HIS DUB ACTOR IS THE MOST ANNOYING MOTHERFUCKER ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!
in THIS show's canon, this fucking guy is the EEEEVIL advisor to king wu of zhou (that guy i mentioned earlier). why the fuck does the king need an evil advisor? i don't know. he's unnecessary. But he's the driving force through which the main plot is progressed! For some fucking reason!!!!!! we only see glimpses of lady yin's pregnancy!
there's a drought in the chentang pass, where lady yin and li jing live. there's been a drought for three years. the king calls in some of his military guys to ask "Hey why hasnt chentang pass sent us any water for the past three years?"
the evil advisor suggests KILLING LI JING because chentang pass is right next to the sea, so there's plenty of water. but this backfires on him because a guy points out you can't drink sea water. Evil advisor you know magic right? Just make it rain. go on.
So the evil advisor starts fucking flying. Sure. Fine.
he flies up and out of the castle and into a mountain cave. with a giant talking rock. whos dub actor is a bitchy teenage girl. the entire interaction that the evil advisor has with this rock is completely irrelevant and annoying and i didnt fucking care about it at all and it just gave the evil advisor more time to yap.
So blah blah blah the evil advisor shows up at li jing's house and basically says Hey man. Correlation equals causation. We need to kill your demon-pregnant wife to end the drought.
that's a lie, here's what he actually says.
live li jing reaction
pretty conveniently though, while the evil advisor is having this discussion with li jing, lady yin gives birth! So she doesn't need to be fucking MURDERED!!! YAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!
The ball of flesh was so disturbing li jing told one of his servants to send it down the river. which results in a dreamlike animation of the ball of flesh (covered by a red cloth) bobbing and weaving through a river. and then it abruptly cuts back to this guy (not li jing. this is the random servant) crying silently.
lady yin is mad that they threw away her baby, even if he is a ball of flesh. the evil advisor still wants to kill the ball of flesh. Li Jing's original purpose in the story has been taken over by this stupid fucking advisor character. So they hunt down the ball of flesh down the river, and there is such a long and drawn out unskippable cutscene of just. the ball. in the river. interacting with it. and giggling the entire time (the ball of flesh giggles)
And it just keeps going and going and going and
That's a fucking water dragon.
There's a water dragon playing with the flesh ball now.
i do like the water dragon on a design level i think he's silly looking. i dont understand his purpose or why he's here. who is he?
so the evil advisor forces li jing to draw his sword on the flesh ball even though he doesn't really want to, and then nezha hatches! he still has not said anything besides laughter. this is also the only picture i got of nezha. him and his mom
the episode ends with a bird pooping on the evil advisor's head. The end!
i will say one positive thing about this show, i really liked the ending themesong.
just a fucking banger!
do i want to watch more?
i feel like this would've been a lot easier for me to stomach if it was the chinese dub with english subtitles, but it was already kind of difficult for me to find it in english (i had to go to Reddit...) so i don't think it would've been worth the effort. but even disregarding the english dub actors' sheer unlikeability, i still would not want to watch a second episode from the show that has quite possibly the most annoying evil advisor character of all time. i hate that fucker and i hope he falls off a cliff somewhere. there was SO MUCH FOCUS ON HIM!!!!!!!!!
if the evil advisor didn't exist and the story was written better, i might even go as far to say Maybe i would watch another episode. but then it would be a completely different show, so i will not be entertaining that alternate reality.
favorite screenshots
i liked his stupid expression
the only thing that got me through this episode was the thought that i was one anime closer to watching fullmetal alchemist (the original one)
