First Impression – Binbougami Ga!
Fortune x Misfortune is the new OTP of this season
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Binbogami ga begins by explaining that Japan is full of different Gods, as if to hint that this isn’t even close to the most obscure God we’ll see in an anime plot. Someone out there decided they could get away with using a God of Misfortune as a perfect concept to base an entire manga (and now an anime) around. Whether or not it was a good concept…well..that’s why we have blog posts like these, isn’t it? |
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Hello everyone! Fosh here again for another epic first impressions post with a hilarious episode of Binbogami! Originally I was not going to even watch this, but I heard from a few people out there on twitter that it has the same writing team as Gintama? After hearing that I was curious to see how that would work? Anyway onto the review! I hope you enjoy this crazy tag team post. |
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Hello, I’m back for another (late) first impression! Just like Fosh, I didn’t even try to bother this until I found out that Gintama‘s director will be directing it, and it will be under Sunrise‘s care. Just like OC’s short description, this anime sounds somehow odd. But maybe that’s the charm of it? Let’s see how well Gintama‘s director did with this anime. |
anaaga// Here’s a show that’s actually plain but refreshing at the same time. The concept of Japan’s deity has been used gazillion times in anime/manga, making this part of Binbougami ga to be one in a million. There’s nothing new about Momiji’s status as a God of Misfortune, really. The only thing that makes her standout somehow is her attitude that reminds me of a lazy silver-haired samurai who has permanent perm, but that’s not something to talk about here. To make it short, the whole Japan deity business is nothing remarkable. It’s just the same ol’ divine-being messing around with a human for a certain reason, and as time passes by, the deity and that certain human (in this anime, Sakura) develops a strong bond that surpasses friendship but below the romantic level. Let’s not forget other supporting characters that will provide more stories. Oh, and also their angsty backstories as the plot progresses (There must be a reason why Sakura is shown alone in her room and Momiji in a dry land)! Don’t forget the canon romance that will spice things up too! Typical Jump stuff. The only refreshing part here is the whole fortune system, but it comes into a huugeee play since that’s what this anime/manga is all about. That’s not the only charm the fortune system has though. The silliness of it gives a lot of room to make silly humorous things happen. And since ridiculous gags happen, it allows ridiculous characters possible to exist. Yup, that’s the only thing that makes this show somehow remarkable. Take out the whole fortune thingy, and this anime will just be nada. Nah, not really nada. Just plain. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s humorous. I like it. Unfortunately, the humor element will always be under Gintama’s shadow.
Fosh // This series feels a bit like Haiyore Nyaruko-san in terms of all the random anime references like four minutes in we get hit with a sudden Madaka box parody and that series just ended oh and there was one for the Lupin fans out there! What else was there? Oh there are some easy ones to spot like Goku and Vegeta from Dragon ball Z? Along with a special scouter and I think they also managed to include the dragonballs in that container filled with Sakura’s “good fortune” that tells me right there that the creators of this series seem to be in love with Dragonball universe. Just kidding I counted the orbs and we had eight, but hey nice try right? Oh and how could I forget this one the random nose picking scene?! Usually when a character picks their nose what series do you normally think of? For me and a few others fans out there our minds jump straight to Gintama because Gintoki often does that whenever he is bored or generally spewing something very intelligent to other characters around him. Well that pretty much concludes all the references for the first episode of Binbogami! Stay tuned next week for more hilarious fun.
Overcooled // Allow me to warn you that my taste in humour is a bit odd. Everyone’s funny bone has a slightly different physiology (shh, pretend this is an actual bone in your body), but mine seems to be especially hard to tickle when it comes to anime. So it might be partially the gaping chasm in my chest that I call a heart talking here when I say that Binbougami ga isn’t funny at all. Considering this is primarily a comedy show, this is very distressing. All of the jokes are things I’ve heard before such as boob jokes or are delivered with senseless screaming that has no reason or rhyme. It’s like they watched Nichibros, saw that a bunch of punchlines were said in a louder volume, and copied that without understanding what it meant to do so. The jokes aren’t painfully bad, but they always miss the mark of even getting me to smile or chuckle. I might have been watching Grave of the bloody Fireflies based on the expression I had throughout the show.
A comedy show that fails at being funny is already a strike for me and I won’t be watching any more, but let’s go through the motions and look at what else could potentially save the show. It’s not a total wash, because I wasn’t bored enough to stop watching it. Something about a God of Misfortune trying to terrorize a human girl (who does equal amounts of terrorizing) seems to work. It’s not an incredibly clever premise, but it works well enough to base a bunch of gags around without them all being the same joke. It’s unfortunate that they’re trying to inject some drama in the story as well, because it doesn’t work.
anaaga // Maybe the characters are the biggest reasons why this anime can work for lots of people. Sakura is a bitch. Momiji is a lazy-ass god who shows little respect to her boss. No matter how deep and dark their backstories are, it will never change the fact that they’re characters with terrible personalities that will never work in real life. Having a friend like Sakura would be the worst thing in my high school days, and owning a subordinate like Momiji will just give me stress. But that’s why these terrible characters can work in this anime. There’s nothing fun in a comedy anime than to see two characters with the worst personalities ever to brawl with each other. Heck, these characters made this anime seem humorous when the humor fails (the whole TV show gag was lame, but Momiji’s expression and apathetic tone was great). And really, it’s a fact that most people tend to like characters with bad personalities. So are the characters great? No. But they’re great for an anime like Binbougami ga!
Overcooled // Seeing Sakura as someone to sympathize with is nigh impossible. From the get-go she’s introduced to us as a selfish bitch. I was expecting her to be a sweet girl who was super lucky and thus in a constant state of high energy and glee. I love seeing a ruthless bitch as a main character instead of the usual blushing moeblob, but it’s not working here. The shift between scenes where she was being selfish about her own happiness clashed with the softer scenes filled with tears and dramatic monologues. I can’t take any of the drama seriously. I bet you anything this girl will slowly become more benevolent and start sharing her luck with others, thus losing some of that cool edge. I couldn’t care less about that. I would prefer to just see her argue with the Binbougami all day. Luckily, there appears to be a big cast waiting to spring out at us. Hopefully their special, dramatic moments will be slightly more endearing than watching a rich brat learn what it means to not care about someone holding your schoolbag every day more than making the world happier. :/ Sakura and the Binbougami are both pretty solid characters, but they’re both a bit too wild to have good chemistry together. There needs to be more balance and more than just two girls screaming at each other all the time. It won’t fix the fact that I don’t find this show funny, but I think it will get more interesting.
Fosh // Wow! I certainly had a lot of fun with this episode and after it ended it left me wanting more! Seriously there has been a huge void left in my life of anime watching without my weekly adventures with Gintama. I mean sure comedy style anime is one of my favorite genres to explore. Over the past few seasons there have been fun comedies like the hilarious Nichijou! followed by me laughing my ass off with Haiyore Nyaruko-san! And now I am in love with the girls from Yuru Yuri. But there is just something fun about Binbobami Ga! that makes it very entertaining. That said I honestly think this level of “out there” comedy tends to be a huge hit or a giant flop for people. However, there are a few select fans out there who understand this type of comedy and they can laugh at every crude joke! Trust me if you can look past the side gags you might find yourself addicted to this unique series.
anaaga // This episode did not come out great as I expected it to be, but it wasn’t below the average level. Sunrise really did not lie when they said that they’re going to have a Gintama-equivalent anime for this summer. Too bad it didn’t reach the Gintama level though. This anime tried too hard with the gag at times, while Gintama feels natural with it. Why does this matter again? The Director for this anime is also the director of Gintama. Yup, it’s our man Fujita Yoichi. He did so fabulous in Gintama, so the directing of this anime disappoint me a little. This is just the first episode, so I shouldn’t complain much. But I hope that Fujita Yoichi can make the gags better somehow in the later episodes. If this keeps up, I might have to abandon this anime.
But all hope is not lost. The directing might be disappointing somehow, but each of the seiyuu is doing a good job voicing them characters. Hanazawa Kana is oddly getting better at voicing extremely bitchy characters, which is our Sakura in this anime. This might be her true seiyuu call. I haven’t watched any anime with Uchiyama Yumi before, so I can’t really compare Momiji with her other characters. But I don’t think I should compare anyway, since Momiji’s voice is. Just. Great. Momiji sounds like the laziest being in this world, but somehow that lazy voice of hers can work during the dramatic moments. Good job, Uchiyama Yumi! Keep up the good work, oh glorious seiyuu! Maybe I don’t have to abandon this anime after all. I’ll be sticking around a bit to see whether the directing and the gags will improve or not. And I hope they do. I want to stick with this anime.
Preview: A perverted monk and a “sacred” sword. I have a feeling we’ll finally get to see Sakura’s weapon.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
I actually found this anime to be pretty hilarious. Sure, its all been done before but I like how they were executed here. Plus I just love Sakura and Momiji for their horrible personalities as it just makes it even more fun to watch them.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
This series made me laugh so much and it brings back my love of Haiyore Nyaruko-san! With the references and hilarious slapstick, but overall it makes me wish Gintama was back! And I know Kyokai will remind me it isn’t over and I can’t wait hahah
Sakura and Momiji are a odd pairing but together they are comic gold <3
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 116 comments
I watch this anime primarily for Binbouda Momiji – who is easily provoked by making jokes about her A-cup bust size, reads manga, and loves cosplaying. Haha.
And to Suwano, you work fast – getting remarried in just one week after getting “fired” by Sakura? Teach me, Master. XD
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Oh!? Great! Momiji is such a funny character and she is quick to anger! I can tell that breast joke will land Sakura in lots of hot water through the entire series.
Suwano needs to write a book titled How to get fired and get married quickly.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I found this show a lot of fun. Maybe part of that is coming from having really never even heard of Gintama, so I don’t have that other work to reference or compare to. It sounds like that probably helps me out in enjoying this show, or looking at it without another filter.
I thought the show was fun. I hadn’t really read anything about it before watching it, it was just recommended to me as ‘a lot of fun’, so it was actually kind of nice to go through and be surprised by the different aspects of the characters. I am kind of having a hard time getting a handle on Sakura’s personality, because it seems like she doesn’t really have that same feel of a evil bitch in a pretty body. I really got the feeling that it was more of a result of everything always going her way for years, and developing a sense of entitlement on top of being an ok person. So for me, it doesn’t seem like a huge leap for her to slip back to being a nicer person.
I found a lot of the back and forth action a *little* over the top for my tastes, but that’s not really that bad. I kind of like that they seem to be evenly matched, after Sakura’s ‘power level’ is augmented by her good luck and Momiji’s is similarly hampered by her bad luck. Overall, I liked the show and will keep watching.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
So much fun! Ohh you are in for a treat if you ever plan on picking up Gintama I would say goooood luck! It isn’t as long as say One Piece, but if you enjoyed this series you will find Gintama easy to get into once you get past the dul character intros.
Yeah Sakura is a strange girl…voiced by Kana hanazawa but comes off as a bitchy rich character, but hey I loved every minute of her crazy personality! I have a feeling she will learn something special every week or a new “life” lesson.
Ahahah yeah watch more! I am certainly addicted <3
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Geez, I have way too much other stuff to watch to start on a 250-episode series!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Just watch like 2-3 episodes a night! You will get to the good stuff eventually, but I understand that 250+ episode bench looks tough! I did that with One piece from start to current I think it took me three months? I forget…then again I was watching five to ten episodes >.>
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Hm… It’s interesting and funny… Hm…
Well, the animations are good at least, while the characters looks superficial, except for the goddess. Momiji has a nice and unusual design, and is if she was different, Binbougami Ga would not be the same. She made the whole show funny and without her, Binbougami becomes a dull and boring comedy show.
Well, I don’t know yet what this show is all about, so I will watch some two or three episodes more, at least.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Prepare for a lot of laughs if you enjoy this type of comedy.
Animation was great, but you can tell they are aiming at the guys again Sakura’s design is 100% eye candy and she looks like a combination of Nyaruko-san and some generic busty anime girl. Momiji on the other hand is so wacky looking she is the perfect “sidekick” character.
Good idea I usually give a series 3 episodes until I give it a boot.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
The humor in this show didn’t appeal to me.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Not my cup of tea either, I’m afraid. :/ I think Jintai is a lot funnier.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Awwww no worries there! The same was said for Haiyore Nyaruko san and I bet there are similar comments towards Gintama…
@OC Yeah Jintai is a trip I love it! Bread robots, fairies and talking chickens? YESSSSSSSSS!
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 28 comments
It was about what I expected. And I can only think it’ll get better as the season goes on :3
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I sure hope so! I saw caps from episode two and I died laughing just from the random image, but I think episode two is still in raw mode T____T
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Much love for this show. Good work all around Team.
Grave of the Bloody Fireflies! Oh, you laughed so hard you cried until you were depressed for weeks!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I was completely deadpan during that movie too, but that was probably a bad example since most people see that as a sob-fest XD
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
why thank you! GO TEAM META!
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
The OP (Make My Day) is so catchy!!! Can’t wait for the single to hit. Wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I found it really funny and entertaining. When they dissed Vegeta, couldn’t help but laugh.
(This is coming from the person who tried Gintama and couldn’t sit past the first episode). The GG subs are also…interesting.
My top comedy show for this season, for sure. I tried Joshiraku , and the people were right, if you’re not Japanese the show is as interesting as watching paint dry. I didn’t understand a single thing.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
The OP is addicting I want the single release <3
Ahahahah yes poor Vegeta xD
Joshiraku is tough to get into trust me I am keeping my eye on that series just to see if things improve, but mostly because I really love toradora character designs.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The OP is a lot of fun, and I want to like the ED so much, with that retro-60’s feel to it, but like so many other times anime themes have gone with period-style music, they have someone sing it with a really affected voice (nasal, or wheezy, or corny). The OP and ED for B Gata H Kei were really good 60’s style songs, but Tamura Yukari seems to have inhaled helium before each line. I like them both, but they could have been so much better.
Whoever is singing the ED for Binbougami is literally holding their nose, I think, and it just makes it sound annoying.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
OP is great! It is a very addictive song and the ED was meh for me hahaaha B Gata H Kei great stuff.
LOL
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Hmm, I found the ED cute ^^
I probably like it as much as the OP, well almost
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It’s cute, and like I said I like the style, and the voice grew on me a little bit the second time through (plus I have a lot more tolerance for weird voices in singing than most people), but I still think it would have been better if it had just been sung naturally.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Nice!!! This is officially on my must watch list and it might be the comedy worthy enough to replace Haiyore! Nyaruko-san (They even threw in DBZ references). Even Sakura looks like a grown up, big breasted version of Nyaruko but with a foul mouth and Kana Hanazawa is her seiyuu. Can this get any better? And she is getting better at voicing bitchy characters. Recap to Kamisama Dolls’s Mahiru as a great example.
Momiji is a riot. Idealy the perfect perfect personality to go against Sakura for a nice yin/yang setting. Since she’s the god of misfortune, we can put the blame on her for Touma’s unfortunate run-ins. I hope that they’ll also reference Touma in the future as well, I mean its only natural that they do since its misfortune we’re talking about
@Overcooled: The fact you’re not easily swayed by comedy would make the victory sweeter when you finally submit to it. One of them is bound to grab you. It’s just a matter of time.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah this will fill the gap left by Haiyore! Nyaruko-san quite nicely for me personally because I loved that series, but yeah the DBZ references were great! I couldn’t stop laughing when Goku and Vegeta popped up…wow…
Sakura is a great looking character she brings enough eye candy to keep the guys watching and Kana Hanazawa gets to act like a jerk all the time? GREAT!
Momiji is also fun to watch she is insane! I agree she must visit Touma in his sleep to recharge her misfortune powers lololol
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
That means that if I ever praise a comedy or a romance series you’d better watch the goddamned thing because it must be good. Well, I say must be good, but you know what I mean. :3