Recommended
(This is a review for seasons 1, 2 and 3.) Short shows that are unaffiliated with a franchise usually do not have the best of reputations save for a few gems such as Tsumiki no Ie. The latest and not-so-well received horror short animated by DEEN – Pupa, may be suffering from special circumstances, but it exemplifies a wider problem encompassing the vast majority of shows following the format. The time constrictions set inevitable restrictions on storytelling, characterization, and atmosphere building. Most short shows, rather than adapting to these limitations, simply adhere to the timeframe by limiting their content. The works produced as such imminently endup wretchedly banal, etiolated in nuance, and ultimately completely forgettable. Few shows manage to overcome this problem, much less turn it into an advantage. Teekyuu achieves the latter; it is a pinnacle among comedy shorts that wouldn’t come out as superbly in any other format.
Teekyuu is essentially a short and crazy comedy show which follows four girls and their daily lives in the tennis club. Note that I use the terms “story”, “daily lives” and “tennis club” loosely as the story is practically a nonentity; their daily lives are not just ordinary daily lives; and the girls seem to, save for a few rare occasions, do anything but tennis. Note that by “anything”, I really mean a whole damn lot of things. Each episode is two minutes long and almost all of them follow an episodic approach with no connections between them other than the basic premise. This episodic formula synergizes seamlessly with the short timeframe and works wonders for the series. If there is one phrase which desbribes Teekyuu, it would be “refreshingly bizarre”. Over time, novelty may wear off and quirkiness lose its impact, but Teekyuu keeps itself a fresh by consisting of short episodes which constantly introduce new and creative absurdities strongly redolent of Gintama and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. What is rather unique for Teekyuu, however, is its extremely fast and adrenaline-inducing pace: the events and dialogues are more overwhelming than the monologues of The Tatami Galaxy’s protagonist or the scientific gibberish uttered in NERV command center. The short length of each episode works to the show’s benefit in numerous ways: it continually provides room for new scenarios, offers a break from the show’s intensity, and prevents itself from feeling dragged out. As there is no overarching plotline, no time is wasted on weaving a coherent narrative and all efforts are poured into squeezing the maximum amount of creativity and absurdity into the little time that is available.
Such unconventional and ineffable qualities as explained above are not suitably expressed through descriptions. An example would more accurately demonstrate the true nature of Teekyuu: take our tennis club members, put KFC’s Colonel Sanders in the team, pitch them in a baseball game against the baseball club in a competition over the possession of the tennis court, throw in some former major league players and an Apache helicopter, have one team’s capitulation be followed by the opposing team’s disqualification, make all of this happen in slightly over two minutes, and we have ourselves a standard episode of Teekyuu.
Teekyuu’s main cast consists of four simple characters built from only three stereotypes: the crazily energetic and goofy type, the rich and seemingly demure type, and the straight man type. These archetypes are not developed upon, but are each severely distorted by the ludicrous style of the series. The characters are packed with so many quirks and are placed into such bizarre scenarios that despite all of them being stereotypical and undeveloped, their interactions and antics are crazily dynamic to say the least. After three seasons, I myself only know them as the crazy pink haired girl, the crazy blue haired girl, the rich brown haired girl and purple haired straight man girl. The characters are not particularly memorable individually, but are together as a group utterly unforgettable. Deep character development and edifying insight is not Teekyuu’s essence, and it wastes none of its already restricted time on what it wouldn’t benefit from.
Standalone TV shorts are in general not particularly rewarding for the producers and consequently tend to suffer from poor production values. Produced by the rather obscure studio MAPPA, Teekyuu is no exception to this. It does do, however, a splendid job with what it has through sheer resourcefulness. Budget on the animation is dramatically cut back on in favour of making the art look lively and reasonably detailed with a vividly colourful palette. The results of this is its choppy and repetitive animation with an exceedingly goofy and bombastic appearance which in actuality enhances the raw and absurd atmosphere of the series. The background music and sound effects are, much like the animation, of poor quality while not hampering the viewers’ enjoyment of the show. The music is awfully generic and almost unnoticeable beyond its unconscious atmosphere building, but it is ultimately absolved as the constant chatter easily overshadows any music that may be playing. The exaggerated and cheesy sound effects used in the show may sound cheap, but they are executed flawlessly and become beneficial for its comedic feel. In addition to the background sounds, each episode is equipped with a 30-seconds opening song. Each season uses a different opening song and each of them manages to perfectly capture the essence of the show. They are simple, bizarre, ridiculous, and overly energetic, which really helps immerse the viewer in the right mood for the intense absurdity that is to follow.
At the time of writing, Teekyuu has aired three seasons for a total of almost 40 episodes. Keeping a gag show fresh for so long is a feat in and of itself, but what is far more remarkable is how it keeps becoming better. The series is crazily bizarre from episode one; but looking back at season one has made me realize just how relatively tame it is compared to its sequels. Much like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Teekyuu constantly finds fresh ways to one-up itself. The series undergoes a gradual escalation from school club comedy to encountering extraterrestrial visitors or inter-dimensional travel into a game world where upon completion one returns to the original world with a physically fit body. Tact, subtlety, and physical laws become entirely disregarded in favour of pure fun and entertainment.
Admittedly, I have a certain tendresse for this show and my bias shines right through this entire review. Comedy is impossible to review objectively to begin with, if such a thing as objectivity even exists. All I know for sure is that if you like bizarreness and don’t find enjoyment to be a non-factor in viewing anime, giving the show a try wouldn’t hurt. After all, plowing through this review takes longer time than actually watching an episode or two. Teekyuu will not be everyone’s cup of tea - it is absurd, immature, playful, and ultimately falls under the brainless entertainment category, albeit the extremely fun type of brainless entertainment.
But are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
