235th G-View: Teekyuu

Well I said I was going to take the Teekyuu challenge in my Spring 2015 anime picks in preparation for season 4 (and its spinoff Takamiya Nasuno Desu!) and I did. How many brain cells did I lose? Let’s find out as we take a look at Teekyuu.

The show is (as of October 2015) in its sixth season but my overall thoughts on the series remain the same.

Genre: Comedy, Parody, Tennis

Number of episodes: 6 seasons (12 episodes each) + 1 spinoff, Takamiya Nasuno-desu.

G-Rating: 7/10

Plot Summary: Four girls who are members of the Teekyuu (tennis) club doing whatever wacky activity, usually unrelated to tennis, they can think of.

Teekyuu is a comedy filled with silly jokes, references, parodies, inside jokes, fourth wall breaking, fanservice, morals, occasional serious arcs and continuity that would easily fit in  a one or two 20+ minute episode season anime series…crammed into a four season anime on fast forward with each episode, not counting the OPs, being 2 minutes long. Believe it or not, despite its ludicrous pacing, it works. Why else would it last long enough to get four seasons, not counting its low budget-esque animation style.

Since the dialogue and pacing are usually on fast forward and slowly get faster as the series progresses, half of the references, mostly text based along with some inside jokes and references, will require viewers to often push pause in order to catch them. Also the episode titles referencing (mostly) Western movies and occasionally local shows are as intentional as the cuts in the few ongoing “plots”  the show has. At least there’s some sense of continuity as jokes or events used previously are sometimes brought back. This is the secret of Teekyuu’s likability. The fact that even though it initially looks like it is terribly paced it is actually paced very well. Jokes well timed, running gags are used sparingly unless intentionally meant to be repeated constantly, new characters are introduced but almost never wasted, the fast forward momentum being humorous in of itself, the situations the gang get themselves into can be borderline ridiculous at times and it helps that the character archetypes the leading ladies have all blend very well with one another.

As mentioned above the animation style won’t win or get nominated for any “best animation” awards but it works well for a show whose length is as short as this one. The music and OPs are all short, random but amusing.

The cast are all archetypes but somehow find ways to expand said archetypes while being true to their roles. Yuri (ponytail) is the “straight person” of the group often giving the retorting to the other girls’ weird antics for the viewers. Kaede’s the “shortie” senior and resident knucklehead. Marimo’s the second knucklehead, a gay pervert and victim of being a tall beauty. Nasuno is the token ojou-sama who is somewhat less wacky than the Kaede and Marimo but still wacky thanks to her narcissism and insistence on using her wealth and connections to solve all problems.

Along with the admittedly sexy fanservice there’s some yuri but it is little more than part of the fanservice.

Overall Teekyuu’s a silly comedy that drank too much kool-aid, which is a good thing. I cannot say who to recommend this but if this review interested any readers out there, give it a try. It should not take too long to watch everything even after season 4 airs/aired. I will not review S4 as it will probably be more of the same but will review the spin-off “Takamiya Nasuno Desu!”…unless it too is more of the same.

It is more of the same as the main series except Nasuno’s the source of madness and Yuri’s brother is the “straight man” of the comedy duo. The other girls guest star in a couple of episodes and we get to meet more of Nasuno’s family besides her father. They are also insane. In short, a worthy spinoff that for some reason did not get the same recognition as the main series. Definitely worth watching if you like the main series.