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SW: Aho-Girl

SHOTGUN REVIEW: Aho-Girl (2017)

Mia: Hey Rice. Rice: what Mia: What is Aho-Girl? Rice: Aho-Girl is an anime about dumb people who eat fruit and cry a lot. Rice: Actually, bananas are a berry, so it’s about dumb people who eat berries and cry a lot. Mia: ahem Mia: That being considered Mia: p gud innit Rice: Stop stealing my socioeconomic dialect Mia: What is Aho Girl ACTUALLY, you absolute knob. Rice: Ladies and gents Aho-Girl is a show following Yoshiko, a girl who is somehow less intelligent than I am, and her involuntary friend Akutsu who just wants to get some goddamn study in. Join them in their everyday adventures as- Mia: Nevermind, I’ll sum it up. Mia: Aho-Girl is an adaption of a manga essentially centering around the antics around the protagonist, the titular Aho Girl, and her big ol’ tsundere childhood friend. It’s mostly comprised of shorts, five minutes at most. Very heavily comedy centered. Mia: If you’re still interested after that premise, the show’s worth checking out for yourself.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

STORY

Mia: I don’t think this anime really had a story. Most people’s knowledge of this series is just it being the source of most BEGONE THOT memes. Rice: I actually had no idea what it was, first I had heard of it as an actual thing was when you brought it up Rice: Though admittedly I had seen the “can I squeeze your boobies for science” cap somewhere before Rice: I agree with you, the anime has no story. It’s kind of just that thing where you tune in for a few minutes, turn off your brain, and laugh at the jokes (just like Yoshiko) Mia: It’s what Slice of Life should be, basically. That being said, it wasn’t poorly paced and it certainly holds your attention for 11 min at a time. Rice: The story is the weakest part of the entire thing, you’re honestly probably not there because a show called “idiot girl” promises an exciting and riveting plot Mia: Yeah basically. The bulk of the focus is really just whoever on the cast wants to bonk A-kun, but it doesn’t get tiresome with every premise. Mia: I guess I should also mention it’s very shamelessly focused on fanservice so. Mia: That’s not quite everyone’s bag. Rice: If you showed up and went “I absolutely cannot follow this, it has no story, 0/10” then you’ve found the wrong experience

CHARACTERS

Mia: Probably the best part Rice: i absolutely agree

Yoshiko Hanabatake

Mia: What can you even say about Yoshiko. Mia: She spends the entire show on the same sugar high and it’s never not entertaining. Rice: The only thing I can say about this is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Mia: Fitting for Yoshiko I guess. Mia: You can’t really put it into words. She’s the personification of the Genki Girl type and that comes out best in her antics. You have to watch it, really. Rice: Speaking of, I looked up a few opinions on the show myself, and it’s perfectly categorised into two groups Rice: You’ve got the people who didn’t like the comedy, and went “This show is the epitome of brain-numbingly dumb” Rice: And the people who did like the comedy, and went “I rate this show 4 bananas out of a bunch” Rice: Yoshiko’s characterisation was probably important in that, if you didn’t like her character then buckle up boyo you’re in for 12 more episodes of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Mia: Pretty much.

Akuru Akutsu

Rice: I absolutely cannot relate to Akutsu. Rice: er, A-kun Rice: Study? No thank you. definitely not me irl. Mia: The thing with A-kun is that he’d be an absolutely tiresome harem protagonist anywhere else. But he actually has a definitive, likable character. Even when he’s beating the shit out of the protagonist for the entirety of his time with her. Rice: Advocating for violence against women isn’t cool, Mia. And neither is study, which I would argue is somehow even less cool, because at least the other one has violence in it Rice: Also I guess I just don’t watch enough degenerate anime trashpiles because I don’t understand what constitutes a “harem protagonist” despite the obvious Rice: Though I feel like despite being what is more or less the deuteragonist, he doesn’t steal the spotlight, which is... probably a good thing Mia: You absolute plebian. You need to watch more Chinese shadow sock puppet shows. Mia: But yes, on his own, the series would be much weaker, so the fact he isn’t the focus is good. Rice: He was still kind of a bland character in the full scope of the show though Rice: Like I’m not gonna fault the character for that, it’s just hard to get invested into the straight-man study dude when you’ve got a gorilla woman who can’t keep her skirt down and someone literally called BOOB PRESIDENT in the same show Mia: You’re not there to get invested, I think is the point. You need the Straight Man to play off of the antics of all the other weird characters.

Sayaka Sumino

Rice: I would hug the SHIT out of Sayaka Mia: A little too much of the Ingenue for my tastes but she doesn’t fall into the cliches usually associated with that archetype. Rice: I have absolutely no idea what that means, because some people don’t live on the TVTropes website, but I get the gist of what you’re saying Rice: Like even with saying that I get the feeling Sayaka is a very archetypical “shy girl” character you expect out of this kind of show Rice: But I would still give her a hug Rice: Are you telling me you would reject a hug from Sayaka? Mia: I’m saying this show got you hook, line, and sinker. Rice: I’m just saying I would hug the shit outta Sayaka

BOOB PRESIDENT

Rice: BOOB PRESIDENT Mia: I’d chastise you for beating that joke into the ground Mia: But Yoshiko does the exact same thing. Rice: BOOB PRESIDENT Mia: Stop that. Rice: BOOB PRESIDENT Rice: Usually “haha boobs and butts xd” jokes cringe me into the 46th dimension but the boob jokes with BOOB PRESIDENT were somehow so tasteless it looped around, overflowed, and became funny again Mia: She’s just got enough of a comedic character to balance out being the butt of every lewd joke. If she did literally nothing, it’d be creepy. But half the time, she’s trying to molest one of the leads while being hypocritical about it.

PRODUCTION QUALITY

Mia: Nothing outstanding for a summer Slice of Life anime, but there’s effort here. I’ve never heard of the studio this came out of so I can’t judge if it was likely sweatshopped or not. Mia: The little touches like the shift in artstyle in the different little skits definitely help give it variety too. Rice: It’s no Nichijou when it comes to that but it is a touch Rice: The base production quality of the show is fine, it has no glaring errors or something (at least visually) Rice: I’ve got the opening theme stuck in my head so that explains itself Rice: My personal favourite part of the anime as it is was the constantly changing intro, it’s not like one of those big shot animes where EVERYTHING IS EXPLODING so they probably had the resources to make every intro unique Rice: Even the one where it was literally just a sign that said “summer vacation” Mia: Right.

ACTORS

Mia: best VAs tbh Mia: Especially Yoshiko’s. (Aoi Yuki) Rice: I’m not really one to look at VAs (unless they’re ear-screechingly bad or something) but I can at least say at least nobody sounded awful Rice: I can appreciate the fact they made 5-year old Yoshiko sound the same as 15 year old Yoshiko though. Mia: I mean I guess it’s not prudent to review acting in a language you don’t speak BUT I honestly think Yuki really showed off her range in this. Rice: We’re all kuso weeaboo here it doesn’t really matter Rice: Also your fixation on Aoi Yuki is now concerning me Mia: I said she was good, how is that fixating? Mia: Fine, I’ll go ahead and say the other VA’s did well too. They weren’t cringey and got into the part well enough. Rice: Voice actors are definitely a strong point for this anime, you heard it first. Go ahead and load up Aho-Girl so you can be thoroughly swayed by the sweet sounds of Aoi Yuki telling you to look at her panties Mia: I’m done with this >:( Rice: You brought up Aoi Yuki first

SUMMARY

MIA’S VERDICT - 7.5/10 (Well Above Average) A lot of good here. Not a lot of substance, but that’s not what you’re here for. Overall, a fun little series that doesn’t waste your time.

RICE’S VERDICT - 10/10 (IT’S LIKE SHOOTING UP POTASSIUM) My friends, there is nothing more enjoyable than kicking up your feet and injecting AHO-GIRL directly into your veins. I thoroughly enjoyed over an hour of banana and I think you should too. In intermediate school someone fucking told me bananas were herbs and I believed them until I looked up “banana” on wikipedia 40 minutes ago, they’re actually berries, fuck you Tom from Room 1.

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y u such a ho

Rice: rude