Spelunker Sensei

OK, first of all, I could not help but to notice the number of people who actually finished this half hour OVA (500 and something). The 8 guys or chicks who scored this with a 10 must have never watch a single comedy show, anime or not, in their short pre-teen lifes. Spelunker Sensei does not deserve such a note, neither a big review, so I'm gonna be short: Spelunker Sensei is a failed OVA containing 30 minutes of short jokes in the traditional random anime style. The characters are poor, the budget surely did not help in the art and sound department, and the premise, whichcould have been entertaining if well developed, was poorly handled by the producers. Some of the jokes were a little bit funny, but most were pretty dumb and not good enough to be called "good non-sense humour". It's hard to understand what did Spelunker Sensei try to say to its viewers, especially when the main character seems to be constantly dying with no aparent explanation. Sure, this is a reference to a game from 1983, in which dying was as easy as taking baby from a child. But there was no particular care in this OVA to let the viewer understand this. Would that be so hard? However, this show did not have a hard time turning 30 minutes of my life into a boring moment which I will never forget, right next to Pale Cocoon and Shiki. So, I decided to score Spelunker Sensei with a 3. Don't like it? Me neither :D RATING THE ANIME: Story - 5 Art - 4 Sound - 4 Character - 1 Overall - 3

This is going to be my first review, and I'll tell you now that it aint going to be a positive one. Unless you've seen every legit anime you've got access to, or, like me, had an overtake of curiosity from the number of users who've watched this; I don't see ANY reason why someone would waste 30 precious minutes of their time watching this. Story - 3 I liked the mini divisions of narration, but only the fact it incorporates that idea. It took several minutes for me to realise it was suppose to be comedy - SUPPOSED, and a couple more to realise Iwasn't going to laugh even once by the end of it. The humour was that dry. Art - 5 Legible. Enough said. Sound - 5 Hey the music overall wasn't so bad, I suppose everything else just ruins it. Character - 3 Again; legit, suitable, although I hold strong distastes for the not-so-fascinating protagonist who reminds me of my maths teacher when he tries to be funny. Enjoyment - 1 The only moment I wasn't bored was when the streaming video loaded. Overall - 2 I'll take the average score for this, I mean there could be people who like this sort of stuff and I don't want to be THAT critical.

When it comes to a bad piece of media, whether it be a movie, TV show, music, or anime, the worst thing is a bad comedy. When it comes to every other genre, there is at least something to enjoy or appreciate, like it's atmosphere, technical quality, soundtrack, maybe a great performance or two, or it's potential. With a comedy, it relies entirely on it's jokes, and when it's jokes aren't funny, it has absolutely nothing to go on. And there isn't a point in pointing out the good parts of a comedy when the entire reason you're there is terrible. That's where Spelunker Senseicomes in. Based on the Spelunker Sensei video game franchise, Spelunker Sensei (AKA Spelunker is a Teacher) is a one shot OVA that was released in March of 2011 about a man named Spelunker (yes, that really is his name) being a teacher in your stereotypical Japanese high school. That's pretty much the entire premise, since it relies entirely on the jokes. Or joke, singular, in Spelunker Sensei's case. The entire joke is that Spelunker dies really easily, and he continually dies over and over again from things that don't normally kill people. It's literally one setup and premise repeated over and over again over 30 minutes, and it's not even that great joke to begin with. I wish it had been a lot more creative with it's joke. The OVA could have been Spelunker telling stories of his dying in various absurd or silly situations, but everyone points out that he couldn't have died because he's still alive, and that maybe he has a faulty memory, but maybe he was telling the truth the entire time because no one would believe that a man could die over and over again. But i guess that would have cost too much money, because the OVA has some pretty bad animation. The OVA looks like it was animated by one person on Newgrounds in the mid 2000's. Or maybe they spent their entire budget on Tomokazu Sugita, who is known for his roles such as Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Gintoki Sakata from Gintama. Did the guy owe someone something or lose a bet? There isn't an English dub, but i doubt anyone was expecting one of this. In conclusion, don't watch Spelunker Sensei. Even so-bad-it's-good anime have more laughs than this. And there's plenty of good anime comedy out there, or at least interesting ones.

Spelunker Sensei (or Spelunker is a Teacher) is a 30 minute comedy OVA following the misadventures of a teacher who is a Spelunker and those around him. The idea is based on the video game Spelunker which is a rogue-like game about exploring caves and obtaining treasure. A more modern game based on the same idea is Spelunky, which has some of the same features of cave exploration and easy death. The OVA is made up of numerous short gags, mostly focused on the fact that Spelunker Sensei can die from seemingly minor events. Sometimes the same set up is used multiple times with adifferent outcome, which I found amusing because it was hard to predict exactly how the situation would play out each time. It seems really similar to a lot of shows with 3-minute episode length, except that all the material is in one episode. The animation is done in Flash and very basic, but I don’t think that this is a detriment to the show. The characters aren’t especially mobile, and the backgrounds are simple, but the comedy mostly revolves around dialogue so the visuals are of secondary importance. Most of the show is in a simple traditional anime style, although there are also some 8-bit style visuals and a few scenes which have been shot in real settings. I found the music very enjoyable. The opening song ‘Risk My Life’ is lyrics set to the tune of Spelunker BGM and it was exciting and to me evoked the feeling of the adventure and difficulty of Spelunker Sensei’s life. The ending theme 恋は探検 (Love is an Expedition) was very cheerful and perhaps didn’t suit the very dry humour of the show as well, but it was catchy and fun to listen to. The background music during the show featured mainly some simple synthesiser sounds which I think complemented the comedy in an unobtrusive way. As the comedy of the show is based around dialogue, the voice acting is important and I think that the cast performs very well. Sugita Tomokazu, known for his roles playing cynical characters, is definitely worth a special mention as I think he does a great job showing Spelunker Sensei's resigned attitude to life. I really, really liked this show! I would definitely recommend it for fans of dry humour or if you like seeing a nod to retro games.

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