English Dub Review: Witch Watch “Kanshi’s Part-Time Job Diaries: The Superhero Show; Kanshi’s Part-Time Job Diaries: The Side Job”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kanshi has to get a job to make rent, first by being a sub suit actor for a Sentai live show, and later by having Nico give him a speed spell that speeds him up, but makes it almost impossible to understand everyone slowed down.

OUR TAKE

This week’s another one with segments and both are Kanshi focused with a single theme of getting him rent money. They also end up, to my utter bafflement, being the funniest segments in the show thus far! I’m about has invested in Kanshi as a character at around the same low level as Nico and Morihito at this point, but lord did they give him a couple hilarious bits this week. The first one has Kanshi filling in for the hero suit actor at a live performance of a Sentai show, something that a lot of real life Sentai shows do. It turns out the show itself is popular with both kids and mothers, which is odd, but the reason for that is its odd, very personal humor about the main hero being in a complicated home and work life. Not sure how this would appeal to kids but there is certainly a ton that went right over my head when I watched cartoons back in the day. Anyway, Kanshi pretty much immediately has some notes about the program, but things end on a wholesome note when he learns that the regular actor really needs the gig and instead plays one of the mooks. Witch Watch already does plenty of manga humor that I understand, but don’t really laugh at. THIS though, got a laugh out of me a few times, mainly because meta Sentai production humor feels…I dunno, more clever and layered? It’s not just a matter of “hey remember this from this thing”.

The other segment, somehow, ends up landing even better, possibly because it’s also kind of tragic. As mentioned, in order to do a part time job faster, Nico helps Kanshi speed up, but ends up making things look slow to everyone else and him unable to connect with anyone until the spell wears off. For him at ten times speed, a week and a half passes in a single day, leaving him to need to eat more, wait more for his laundry to be done, and unable to talk to anyone as they talk too slow from his point of view, while Nico and Morihito can only watch in concern as their friend/roommate loses his mind for (in his mind) a month while for everyone else it’s just three days. And the worst, but funniest, part is that he actually learns to adapt by walking and talking slower…just in time for the spell to wear off and everyone talking at normal speed to be too fast for him to understand! It sounds traumatizing, but it’s hilarious! More of this please! And it looks like we are in for more of that as we have an episode about Morihito’s true feelings expressed as a tiny man in his hair!