Series Review – Kochinpa!

Kochinpa! is possibly one of the more unusual ‘anime’ I have watched owing to its exceedingly short episode length. It’s a series of 15 second episode shorts which has now had 2 seasons. The two seasons are pretty similar, so I’ll be talking about both seasons together. It’s hard to give a detailed analysis of something like this, but I thought that I’d still highlight this show as I found it quirky and fun.

Firstly, here’s my review of the series typed in 15 seconds for you.

Kochinpa is very short and while it is ostensibly about idols it is really advertising slot machines.

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Piacevole 05 – Sangria

Hello everyone and sorry for the lack of posts last week. We’ve been having a run of extremely hot weather, which makes me feel really ill and exhausted and makes it hard to write. I’m going to have to see if I can be a bit more proactive about scheduling posts if I want to keep up a reasonable rate of content on my blog until summer is over (and as it’s Australia, sometimes very hot weather can run well into March). I’m hoping to get some thoughts on the final episodes of Long Riders as well as some overall thoughts on the series posted this week, although this is a bit dependent on the weather.

This episode is a continuation of the events of the previous episode, where Sara talks about how much she dislikes Italian food. Morina asks about the differences between Italian and Japanese food and is told that both types of cuisines were developed using the different locally available ingredients in order for people to have a healthy lifestyle. I think that this is slightly odd because as an Australian we barely use natively available ingredients at all, but I also think it rings true. While it’s fairly easy these days to get all kinds of different foods, regional cuisine was just meals made with the sorts of ingredients that were available to people locally.

I Like Shorts

Replace easy to wear with easy to watch and you get the idea

If you’ve hung around this blog for any length of time, you have probably figured out that I enjoy short-form anime, or anime shorts, or sometimes I just call them shorts. While I’ve seen some people create additional categories, I’d consider an anime short to be any show which has an episode runtime noticeably less than the regular 20-25 minute runtime of regular series. This can be anything from under 2 minutes up to about 15 minutes.

Anime shorts are a relatively new thing to become available to English-speaking anime viewers. Back when anime was either fan-subbed or received a DVD release some time after it had finished airing in Japan, the focus was mainly on things which a wide number of viewers would be interested in. Most shorts tend to be a bit niche and quirky, and often don’t have the overarching plot and impressive 2D visuals which draw many people to anime, so they rarely got any attention. With the increase of legal online anime streaming, English subtitled shorts are far more readily available. I think this is a great thing!

Piacevole 04 – Spring Roll Caponata

In this episode, the staff of Festa are thrown into a panic because of an important customer; Teiri Niza. He is the owner of a high-class Japanese restaurant but likes to come to Festa to eat sometimes. It seems like owing to the easy-going way the restaurant is run, Morina wasn’t aware of his coming or his importance until she arrives at work that day, but she gets caught up in the bustle.

Piacevole 03 – Tiramisu

This week, Morina talks to a man who she sees in the restaurant frequently, but it turns out that this man, Oreki Ei is actually the dessert chef for Festa. I’m not sure why he wasn’t introduced earlier, but it seems like the Festa is an unconventional business in many senses, and if Ei isn’t in the kitchen when Morina is working, it is possible that they may have not been introduced. He’s shown to be fond of spending time with ladies and that’s why he likes being in charge of desserts; he can prepare his dishes for the day and then spend time interacting with the customers.

Series Review – Military!

Salaryman Yano Souichi ends up becoming a mercenary in the conflict between the Krakozhia Dukedom and the Grania Republic and this puts his son, Yano Souhei in danger. Whether the danger is from the enemy side or from Lutgalnikov and Haruka, the officers sent to protect him is up for debate.

Military! (why have I been reviewing shows with such dumb punctuation in the title lately?) is a series of comedy shorts (3.5 minute episodes) which focus around Souhei’s everyday life which is suddenly full of military officers, who are cute girls who will use weapons at the slightest provocation.

Piacevole 02 – Penne Arrabbiata

It seems like a little time must have passed since the last episode since Morina appears to have settled into her job somewhat. The episode opens with Morina studying some information about the different cuts of meat which can be obtained from a pig. It seems that she’s trying to learn as much as she can about food preparation in order to do her job better.

Series Review – Encouragement of Climb Season 1

Encouragement of Climb (Yama no Susume) is a series of shorts (3 minute episodes), featuring Aoi and her friends on their adventures mountain climbing. There is a second season, but it’s markedly different from the first owing to its 13 minute episode run time. I may cover this separately in the future when I finish watching it.

Yukimura Aoi used to be interested in outdoor activities when she was young, but after falling from the top of a climbing frame and breaking her leg, she developed a fear of heights and preferred to pursue solitary indoor hobbies. On starting high school, her childhood friend Kurarue Hinata reminds her of their promise to watch the sunrise from a mountaintop and together the two of them start simply and work to overcome Aoi’s fears and reach their goal.

Series Review – Bananya

Series reviews will be sporadic on this blog; whenever I’ve completed watching a series, or want to write about something which I’ve already watched.

Much like the title Bananya is a portmanteau of banana and the noise a cat makes (nya), this series is about creatures who are a portmanteau of bananas and cats. It’s a series of short (3-minute) episodes following the daily lives and adventures of Bananya and his friends.