Anime Column] Anime Writers' Review of Fall 2016 Anime! The Competitive Woman: !!!!!!!!" 5 works are introduced including "Knitting a Boat"!

A comprehensive review of fall anime to close out 2016. Weekly Shōnen Sunday serial "Competitive Woman !!!!!!!!" The lineup includes the original science fiction adventure "Flip Flappers," "Nintama Rantaro's Space Adventure with Cosmic Front NEXT," the Honya Taisho Award-winning "Arrange a Boat," and the short anime "Kiantaro Boy's Specter Diary," based on the web comic "Kiantaro Boy's Specter Diary!

Competitive Women !!!!!!!!

The main character, Somi Kaminashi, who attends a training school for "Kyojo," a public gambling game in which contestants fight using their hips and breasts, aims to become a professional together with her rivals in this sports-minded anime. The reason why there are fewer butt-themed works compared to breast-themed works is due to the difficulties inherent in butt anime. We are eager to see butts as close as possible, but if the camera gets too close, we can't tell whose butt it is. Even if we see a peach butt, we cannot deny the possibility that it is a man's butt. In order to overcome this vague uncertainty, it is necessary to show the face at the same time as the buttocks, but then an anatomical problem arises. Unlike the breasts, the buttocks are on the opposite side of the face. As the saying goes, "You can't hide the buttocks by hiding the head," and the face and the buttocks are in fact opposites of each other, which is why they are not always seen side by side.
In this film, the artist attempts to coexist the face and buttocks in the same shot by using all possible means, such as twisting the hips, splitting the screen, and making the camera go around the viewer. Then, in the final episode, "Hot Battle Ends Ass !!!! In the final episode of the series, "Hot Battle: The Last Ass" (), Zomi Kanmu's power is drawn out by the "nipple spirit" of her friends, and her eyes are filled with her breasts. Her power to simultaneously reflect her buttocks, face, and breasts is depicted in brush strokes befitting the climax of the story.

Flip Flappers

This is a transforming heroine anime in which Cocona, an eighth grader, meets Papika, a girl who belongs to the mysterious organization "Flip Flap," and sets off to "Pure Illusion," a different space, to search for a piece of Mimi that can make any wish come true. The world of Pure Illusion differs from episode to episode, and includes battle action in the desert wilderness, school horror set in a mysterious girls' school, nostalgic coming-of-age drama reminiscing about the past, and science fiction robots riding on mecha larger than buildings. Each creator is showing their individuality as if they were competing with each other.
The coloring is also distinctive, sometimes vivid, sometimes monochromatic, to color the characters and scenery. This skillful use of color is probably the reason why the story is not confusing, despite the fact that the story moves back and forth between reality and another world. The story structure, which makes the viewer aware of repetition, also matches the genre of transforming heroines, which cannot be separated from the bank.

Knitting a Boat

This is a human drama in which a member of the dictionary editing department of a publishing company pours his heart and soul into compiling a medium-sized Japanese-language dictionary, "Daidokai. The main character, Mitsuya Mashime, has spent more than ten years working hard on the dictionary. In contrast, the landlord of his lodgings, Grandmother Take, is in the dark to get her granddaughter, Kaguya Hayashi, to marry him. A full-time employee of a publishing company with a serious personality, Umashime is a perfect target. She plays the role of cupid by getting her granddaughter to call him by his nickname "Micchan.
The scene in episode 6 in which the two are united does not depict the light source moon, suggesting that their relationship will not end like in "Taketori Monogatari. Then Takesan disappears from the stage as if he has completed his role, and when he next appears, he is already dead. Come to think of it, just as we no longer use paper dictionaries, we realize that the old lady who always recommends blind dates has also disappeared from the world. This is a work that will shake your heart and make you wonder if you have lost something important.

Kiantaro Boy's Yokai Picture Diary

A short comedy in which a boy with strong spiritual power, Kiitaro, spends his slightly mysterious daily life with a wide variety of yokai, including a fox, a snow woman, and a snow child, led by Suzu, a Zashiki-doji (a boy with a strong spiritual power). The original web comic has a special frame layout of one page per frame, and is presented in a style similar to a picture diary.
In the anime version, each episode has been adapted in a variety of styles. The first episode, "The Great Youkai War," features a large number of youkai in action as they engage in battle. Episode 4, "Kyoritsu to Kakuma no Keeper," depicts a hamster sword fight, and episode 7, "Te no Me," includes a parody not found in the original story to represent a poker game. The ending theme is different in each episode, and a yokai commentary is played in the main story, and other fun details keep the viewer entertained.

Oshitama Rantaro's Space Adventure with Cosmic Front NEXT

NHK's long-running anime "Nintama Rantaro" and the science program "Cosmic Front NEXT" collaborated on this special anime. At the end of the year, the "Milky Way" and "Black Hole" editions were aired as the second series. The three characters, Rantaro, Kirimaru, and Shinbeye, travel around the earth with guest characters to solve the mysteries of the universe, and not only do they have fun learning about the stars and other celestial objects while watching NASA's data, but the animation is also outstanding.
The "Black Hole" episode has a horror-like finish due to its subject matter. In this sci-fi episode, Rantaro and his friends are sucked into a black hole, and their bodies are stretched and turned into udon noodles, which cannot be seen in regular broadcasts. The spaceship was drawn using CG, and even a combined scene was included in the episode. Guest voice actors included Sawashiro Miyuki, Miki Shinichiro, and Ueda Kana.

(Text by Katsunori Takahashi)