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Review of Nerima Daikon Brothers

Nerima Daikon Brothers is a musical comedy that tells the story of three characters whose dream is to build a mega-stage in their backyard and, as a band, sing there whenever they want. In each episode, they engage in numerous adventures whose formula consists of fighting against crooks, playboys and so on, and steal their money, only to see it disappear the very next moment.

Being from the same director of Excel Saga, I was hoping that Nerima would be something similar, that is, funny but with a poorly developed plot.. I don't mean this as a necessarily bad thing. Excel Saga is supposed to be quite random, insane and just plain funny, so the plot isn't really necessary. However, Nerima Daikon Brothers surprised me. Although the episodes are somewhat formulaic, especially in the first half of the series, there is actually some continuity along the show and the plot does end up developing a bit, even though it does not build to anything complex โ€“ but we couldn't ask more of a 12-episode series.

The animation, though a little less hysterical than Excel Saga, maintains its energy and its insane pace, full of meaningless scenes, lots of unnecessary movement by the characters and disrespect for physics.

And in case you haven't read the beginning of this review carefully, you might have not noticed when I said this is a musical. Yes, a musical. Like those in which the characters suddenly start singing about their daily lives and the extras spontaneously start to dance in the back. Although the series may fail by repeating the melodies every episode, the lyrics are always different, adapted to each situation, giving each episode traces of originality and individuality. And the seiyuus are perfect. Not only do they manage to handle the songs pretty well, their voices are also perfect for their characters.

Incidentally, the characters are fairly well developed throughout the series. The state of hysteria in which Hideki, the protagonist, usually is contrasts perfectly with its passive brother, Ichiro, making this relationship really funny. Mako's desire of becoming rich so that she can drink Dom Perignon whenenver she wants and the gizmos of the detective, Yukiko, are also an inexhaustible source of laughter. And even Nabeshin, such a cherished character in Excel Saga, is a regular presence. And of course, like in most anime shows, there's a fluffy mascot, the panda.

In short, I strongly recommend Nerima Daikon Brothers to those who enjoy anime comedy. The story is very simple but hilarious, the songs are good and the huge amount of parodies and goofy moments make this series rather enjoyable.
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Added by Anaoj
12 years ago on 1 May 2011 18:59