Yuushibu, Ep 1–2: A revolutionary new form of gainaxing

I almost skipped Yuushibu, since it just didn’t seem too promising of a series and for this season I’m trying to limit the amount of animes that I waste away my life watching. But then I did a little more research and I learned that Studio Asread invented a new way to blend CG with traditional animation, which for Yuushibu they are using to make the character’s breasts jiggle in wonderfully ridiculous ways.

And so I came into this show for the gainaxing, only to find possibly the best fanservice comedy in recent memory. It has just about everything I could want from a fanservice comedy, including sexily drawn anime girls, rampant titillation of said sexily drawn anime girls. And perhaps more importantly, well-written situation comedy and timing that makes the fanservice actually funny and humorous, and more than just glorified pornography.

With episode 2 the fanservice is toned down quite a lot—low enough that I can actually count with my hands the number of panty shots and gainaxing that occur on screen. Perhaps this does disservice to the shows selling point, but it’s actually sort of a good thing since it allows the non-fanservice comedy stand out on its own, and show that this really is a legitimately good comedy that doesn’t solely rely on T&A to sell its BDs. (Although I would certainly hope this ratio of fanservice doesn’t become the norm.) And Fino’s attempts at learning basic human politeness are hilarious and adorable.

There’s also potential for a something of a serious story, surprisingly, since there’s that whole theme about what to do when you spend all you time training in a field that doesn’t yield any career. The heroes spent their education attending a hero prep school and fighting lesser monsters, only to be thrust into a new world where no one really needs them. To give a real-world analogy, it’s like how a lot of college students in America (and probably other countries) will spend four years of college attaining a liberal arts degree, without actually having any idea how they’ll use that to make a living—thus being forced to work at a fast food restaurant or retail store. Raul does the realistic thing and tirelessly job hunts until he lands some sort of job—anything he can do to earn money despite not having any employable skills, whereas his old hero colleagues all seem to choose to be idealists and simply wait until heroes are needed again.

The setting is pretty neat too, since it’s not often that you see the standard fantasy setting with modern technology. I won’t expect too much in terms of world building, although episode 2 certainly had some interesting explanatinos about how the world worked, but either way it’s a fun setting for a comedy.