Tuesday 7 August 2012

Joshiraku - Episode 4

It must be annoying when your glasses fog up... wait, don't hit me, please!

Joshiraku's fourth episode begins with lots of in-depth discussion about glasses, and what it is to wear glasses - for starters, is Ganykou violent because she wears glasses, or does it just give her the upper hand in a fight?  Perhaps more importantly, what would have happened had Kim Jong-Il's glasses fogged up in the middle of a nipple poking party?  It doesn't bear thinking about, especially when even Gankyou proves to be fallible in the nipple prodding department once her glasses are sufficiently fogged up by a table packet with bubbling hot pots.


With such worrying thoughts pushed to one side, a train ride sees Kukuru suffer from travel sickness, which is never fun for anyone involved, and it seems that the other girls can think of nothing aside from disembarking from the train to solve her problem.  Still, at least the early departure from their journey gives them a... "unique" opportunity to visit the Fuji Television studios and the myriad individuals therein.  Finally, this episode ends with an evening of viewing the full moon - not the actual full moon mind you, but one projected inside their dressing room.  But just what can one make out from the patterns on the surface of the moon?  It's probably best not to ask Gankyou... or indeed the giant and terrifying rabbit which is later unleashed upon them.

For all of its inconsistencies in terms of quality, this episode of Joshiraku is a great example of everything that this series can bring to the table - some nearly incomprehensible moments of cultural references and wordplay, some utterly bizarre moments (if you didn't think the nipple poking was bizarre, then I worry about you), and a hilarious moment which sees JC Staff riffing on a whole bunch of their previously produced works.  You won't understand it all, but it's still entertaining and treads the line between being self-aware and too knowing excellently to ensure that this remains the summer's most enjoyable comedy, in my personal summer line-up at least.

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