Project Terrible: Tono To Issho

One last one to make it through...

It only makes sense for Bob (of my own site) to give me Anime.  After all, my credentials for reviewing Anime is greater than his right now.  This one was less about finding the worst thing possible and more about finding out one thing: just how much condensed weirdness can I stand?  The answer: alot.  It doesn't mean that i'm going to love that much pointless insanity per say, but I don't hate it either.  That leads me to Tono to Issho, a show you can watch a loop of three times during your average Peter Jackson movie.  The first Season was dubbed One-Minute Theater, giving each Episode that much run time (with thirty seconds for Intro and Outro).  In Season 2 (Eyepatch Ambition), they up the ante...to 3 minutes each.  Slow down- I can't keep up!!!  Basically, the Show (in both Seasons) is about weird and random humor involving famous Japanese Characters like Oda Nobunaga, Keiji Maeda and others.  The format is best compared to Robot Chicken, only the random bits are just about these people and the whole thing is separated by Segments (as opposed to being 12 minute Episodes)  This is going to be a tricky one to review, but I will do my best.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Is it Terrible?  To find out, read on...

It is hard to do a Summary for a Show with 24 Episodes and no overall Plot.  What I can do is explain how the formula for each Episode works instead.

First- you have a Japanese Historical Character (who has one aspect accentuated to absurdity).  Like guy (yes, guy) who apparently was seen as soft and feminine as a child...

Next, you pick a silly joke and execute it in a goofy manner.

Rinse and repeat 24 times (at either one or three minutes).

That's not to say that it can't be funny.  Often though, they commit one of the Cardinal Sins of Comedy- explaining the joke!

Just so you don't think I didn't find anything funny in this Show, I will mention a bit that they get (mostly) right.  In Season 2, the sons of a famous General form a Power Rangers-like team (for some reason.  They decide to show off...

...only for the reality of their transformation to be much less dramatic (and much sillier).

So yeah, it is weird, goofy and ultimately has no point.  I could go on, but this guy is not in the mood.

This is just plain goofy.  On one hand, the Show doesn't wear out its welcome.  If you don't care as much about a Setup, it may be over in a minute (or three).  On the other hand, the super-short format seems to encourage them to tell really basic jokes and do very little with them.  The second Season is certainly better about that, but even then the jokes barely have room to really breath.  I'm not going to say that I never laughed at this Show, but I didn't laugh as much as I probably should have.  Part of the problem is that the thing starts and stops so suddenly that it just hard to process.  I have no problem with goofy and silly Anime.  After all, I liked Excel Saga and Squid Girl alot.  This one just doesn't quite work unless you have a real good understanding of the Era of Japanese History that this focuses on and like really obvious jokes.  They got 2 Seasons (and an appearance by Gackt), so someone must have liked it.  As for me, I appreciate a show where anything can happen...even if it is stupid as hell.

Next up, an interesting Giallo starring a Hilton (who's actually from Uruguay).  When a man is killed by a piece of construction equipment, a bigger crime is revealed.  Stay tuned...