English Dub Review: Anime-Gataris “Beibei, Don’t Go”

The power of anime brings a new friend to the club as they attend an anime convention.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Episode 5 is dedicated to the anime club’s trip to Odaiba for a giant anime convention. Waiting for the doors to open, the crew meets a girl named Beibei who has traveled all the way from China for the con. After standing in line for literally hours, the group finally makes it inside.

Once they’re out of the sun’s reach and safely indoors, they split up and explore the con. Arisu and Minoa are thrilled to take all the free merch they can carry. After a long day’s worth of convention experiences, they reflect back on the good memories during a boat ride.

Our Take:

When I heard the club was going to an anime con, I expected a much different episode. Beibei, Don’t Go spends over half its runtime with the gang standing in line. The character’s interactions make the first half tolerable, but there’s probably a better way to have paced the episode that didn’t involve watching people stand in line for over fifteen minutes. (Erika’s gratitude to Beibei for helping Arisu and Minoa is great, though: “Thanks for bringing back our missing children.”)

That said, we get a lot of funny jokes about the awful/wonderful reality of attending large conventions. The waiting can be tough (especially if you get stuck in the sun instead of the shade, like poor Kaikai) but the overall rewards make it worth every minute. As Minoa’s new friend says, “It’s not suffering if you share it with friends!”