English Dub Review: City the Animation Episode 1

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

A young man wears a skirt to get lucky, a bistro chef drops noodles in a guest’s bag, and a young woman has fluffy dreams.

OUR TAKE

Like all anime fans watching stuff in the early 2010’s, I watched the sleeper hit Nichijou (“everyday life”), which mostly followed the wacky misadventures of a few high school girls, a genius little girl, and her talking cat. Based on a manga by Keiichi Arawi, Nichijou was instantly memorably both for its distinct character designs and the fact that Kyoto Animation, who produced the anime amplified the seemingly mundane comedy to near ludicrous levels, turning something as simple as stubbing your toe or running into your crush into doomsday level events. Nichijou quickly landed itself as one of the big anime hits of its year, and many desperately wanted a follow up since it ended about a decade and a half ago. Well, it seems we won’t be getting that, but in its place is this adaptation of the same author’s current manga, City. Yeah, not exactly an innovator when it comes to titles, but going by this first episode, City looks like it has the same crazy sauce as its predecessor, even if the cast is completely different. It’s also apparently Kyoto Animation’s first non-sequel anime in six years, which I suppose is significant since the last original story they adapted was before the big fire that shut them down for a good while.

That’s enough for background, so how is the show itself? Well, simply put, I enjoyed Nichijou and so I did enjoy this first episode, so if you are also a fan of that, this should suit your tastes well enough as well. For those uninitiated though…this is a bit of a challenge to explain. Not just because reviewing comedy is a bit more tricky than reviewing drama, but also because this is just so distinct that it really just requires you to jump on in to see if YOU enjoyed it like I did. If I had to describe it, it’s pretty much just cranking up the heightened reality of awkward situations throughout life up to eleven and then breaking the knob off. And it looks like this series will be focusing on more than just high school life, which is kinda fitting since the audience that saw Nichijou will probably be much older now. Call this the Close Enough to Nichijou’s Regular Show if you need a better comparison. No stated amount of episodes, but maybe next time I’ll remember who the goddamn characters are.