English Dub Review: Africa Salaryman “Africa Flower-Viewing Parties”
Overview (Spoilers Below)
We begin with some candid questions aimed at our office irregulars. Lizard’s taking it seriously, like he’s on The Office, hoping to be the standout star of the documentary. His boot-licking answers aren’t truthful and don’t paint him in the best light. Toucan, on the other hand, uses the questions as another excuse to perv out. It’s not like he needed an excuse, and it’s not like we aren’t super tired of his antics, but hey, the guy needs to talk and that’s all he knows.
When asked about social media, Big Cat claims ignorance over the whole ordeal, but admits to peeking at his daughter’s account over her slender lioness shoulder. What he saw made him a little uncomfortable. Later on, his daughter reveals that she knew he was peeping over her shoulder. That made her much, much more uncomfortable.
At the bar, Toucan pounds down a bunch of brews while Lizard laments about how he has no party tricks to entertain clients. Big Cat usually does hot towel origami and Toucan can change a nosebleed into a “delightful water feature”—even though it almost kills him. However, before Lizard can learn anything useful, he notices that Toucan is eating chicken on a skewer. Oh my god! That dirty bird eats other birds, gross!
Shamed for his semi-cannibalistic ways, the guys make him sit out in the cold overnight to hold their spot for their planned flower-viewing party. Toucan goes stir crazy and decides to abandon his post. Luckily, Lethal Hamster—a co-worker, or the invisible devil on Toucan’s shoulder—brings Toucan to a dead bird somewhere else in the park. Dressed in a suit, the corpse looks enough like Toucan to save their spot, allowing the real bird to go out drinking.
At the club, Toucan uses his patented method to pick up a lady. His sloppy plan involves spilling a drink on her, talking excessively about himself, and spouting nonsense like, “This song is HELLA TIGHT!” It takes a bit, but she eventually sees through his façade.
Dejected and hungover, Toucan returns to the park and discovers that his coworkers mistook the dead bird for him. Immersed in a wake, the guys and even President Turtle aren’t saying the most flattering things. Angered by their callousness, Toucan busts through the crowd to shame his faux friends. Unfortunately, Lizard—because this show is very weird—believes his friend died on purpose so a random bird could eat him, thus giving Lizard a party trick to show the entire office. Toucan wants nothing to do with such wackiness and runs away before he is forced to eat a dead guy.
Our Take
You’re losing me Africa Salaryman. When you’re a show about animals suppressing their natural urges to mindlessly work in an office—okay, I can buy that. I’m not worried when you traipse through the jungle searching for ancient Japanese myths. In fact, I wish you’d do more of that since the office atmosphere is a little dry. But having a bird eat another bird as a party trick? What are you even doing, Africa Salaryman?
I’m fine with Toucan eating bird on a stick. It gives me a chuckle because the man’s so vapid he doesn’t quite understand the ramifications of what he’s doing. And Big Cat doesn’t care because lions will eat just about any animal without a second thought. Would Simba have eaten Scar if the hyenas hadn’t gotten to him first? I don’t know, but the fact that I’m not entirely sure just goes to show how you can’t trust lions. Lizard being the only one freaked out is also funny because lizards eat other lizards all the damn time.
However, the callback flipped the joke and stretched it at the seams until all the funny seeped out. How could one man be so desperate for a party trick that he completely throws out the morals he so readily established earlier in the episode? At the bar he was far more passionate about shunning Toucan’s cannibalism than obtaining a party trick. So why the abrupt change, Lizard? What kind of game are you playing? Bottom line, tonight’s central scene didn’t work for me.
Toucan’s dating tips were enjoyable enough. It was a rewarding juxtaposition to see the bird go from mega-confident when he was in control, to practically a coma patient the moment the Australian wombat called him on his crap. Wow was she harsh, though. The second she found a chink in his armor, she burrowed deep into his psyche and made him question every dating choice he ever made. But I guess burrowing is what Wombat’s do, so Toucan probably should’ve seen it coming.
By the way, Lethal Hamster killed that other bird, right? Nobody’s saying it, but it’s the most logical conclusion. I mean, hell, the little guy walks around with two sharpened knives at all times. However, if the hamster does turn out to be a figment of Toucan’s imagination, which I suspect—meaning I mentioned it once, earlier in the article—that’ll bring about quite the rude awakening for our unassuming, little office.
