English Dub Review: Chio’s School Road “Everyone’s Own Path/Chiom-chan Eludes”

This week: stealth action and ass grabbing.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Chio and Manana come across Kushitori, who’s been living in a park with a cool homeless dude acting as her teacher. It seems she’s exiled herself there to perfect her Kabaddi technique, having suffered a terrible defeat at Kabaddi by Chio previously. To avoid a hostile confrontation, Chio lowballs Manana into talking to her. However, things take a turn for the strange when Kushitori starts lusting after Manana’s ass and struggles to contain her feelings, and her drool. But Kushitori finds peace in her new teacher, as the homeless dude she’s squatting with expresses his love of high school girl booty too. Somehow, having her desires validated by a dirty old man restores Kushitori’s confidence, and she comes back guns a blazing, directing her sights on settling the score with Chio.

In the second story, Chio does her best impression of a “Tom Clancy” novel, being one of those burly American heroes in a stealth game trying to save the world. She ducks around corners and points her bag around like an assault rifle, eventually finding her target, Manana, crossing a bridge. She hangs from the bridge by her hands and sidles over to try and spook Manana, but finds herself getting a little more than she bargained for when she can’t get up from the bridge and is subject to Manana’s mercy.

Our Take:

We’ve got ourselves a fantastic episode of Chio’s School Road this week. One that fulfills on this show’s promise of daydream wackiness and adolescent humor, told through the eyes of one particularly eccentric young girl. The setups for both of these episodes are really fantastic, and the writing doesn’t fail to start you laughing and keep you keeled over until the very end.

Man, oh man, this episode really hammers in Kushitori’s desire to grab ass like nothing else. The sequence of Kushitori fighting against her lust is nothing less than two minutes of a non-stop ass grabbing fantasy spectacular. You won’t believe how much someone can appreciate a woman’s bottom, or how much one woman can drool without passing out from dehydration.

Despite how completely nutty the concept is in the first episode’s story, I have to say it really works. I was completely losing myself while this poor high school girl wrestling with her insatiable perversion. The animation follows the ludicrous levels that her desire goes to brilliantly, hitting you with everything it’s got, even wrapping it in a lovely shounen aesthetic that really drives Kushitori’s character home.

The second story is a bit simpler but essentially has Chio being a “Solid Snake” style stealth game protagonist on her school road, which is exactly the sort of make-believe game that I come to this show for. This one’s certainly less exuberant than the first but still clever, and the dynamic between Manana and Chio is just gold. The two play, back and forth, at each other like a tennis match, creating a struggle for supremacy that I don’t think even “Metal Gear Solid” could touch.

I’ve got to give some serious props to the localization team who worked on this episode. The translation to English, even in the depths of the show’s comedy, is completely spot on. Chio uses tons of slang with great comedic timing, accompanied by some engaging voice acting. Chio and her friends suck you into the episode with just how much energy they put into their school road silliness; even if you’re not laughing at first, pretty soon Chio’s infectious personality will wear down your defenses and get right into your funny bone.

Chio’s School Road is quickly rising to be one of the most delightful and exciting show’s I’ve been treated to this season. Good comedy is just so hard to do, and its refreshing to see a show that gives me everything I want from a comedy anime but didn’t know I wanted. There’s a whole lot to love here, and I’d be amazed if any newcomer didn’t at least find themselves giggling like a Japanese schoolgirl by the end of Chio’s odysseys.