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Director: Kōtarō Ishidate
Screenplay: Kōtarō Ishidate
Voice Cast: Asuka Nishi as Yua
Suzuki; Satomi Akesaka as Hina Satou; Karin Ogino as Aoi Takahashi; Ayaka
Ōhashi as Koharu Tanaka
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
Returning to Kōtarō Ishidate, co-creator of the first season of gdgd Fairies (2011), Tesagure! presents an interesting conundrum
for me as whilst it follows his trademark style - improvisations from the voice
actresses, sketches, absurdity and thought bubbles with absurd whims being
depicted - this is definitely his style distilled down to its most purified
form, almost entirely dialogue in which four high school girls, one roped into
this unofficial club of three, spend the first season here discussing the clichés
of various clubs, and anime/manga clichés about their activities, until it descends
into silliness. Baring some sketches where the cast play out these activities
with absurd new premises - like baseball with players blindfolded and being
told where to hit/throw/catch by bystanders - and sometimes a cold opening
which mocks a troupe of anime, it's mostly this dialogue, with the cast
speaking around their club room table.
It is definitely difficult work
to scrutinise as that premise never drastically changes, and yes, this is made
more poignant as this has three seasons in existence, meaning this is
technically in terms of time Ishidate's
most successful creation so far. Series one, the subject of today, is frankly
as idiosyncratic as you can get. Openly, its cast do spend their time playing
very predictable characters, which proves a problem in terms of actually
reviewing them as, barring those few exceptions I mentioned, the show is mostly
in the cast's club room and dialogue. The cast does grow into idiosyncrasies,
but they are definitely caricatures - the meek older student who blushes at the
others' crudity, the eccentric red head who hates almost every hobby and is
energetic, the one who is roped into the club, and the fourth who is the club
leader - meaning that the fact that improvisation is an integral part is a
godsend, as it leads to farces where these characters develop far more
personality then their initial profiles. Also of mentioned are the Sonota
sisters - an insane number of identical sisters, pink hair and stars for eyes,
who are helpful if they need players for a baseball game or an audience when
one of their ideas is put their conversations on stage as acted theatre.
Production wise, it's a low
budget cel shaded 3D animated work, not as deliberately crude as gdgd Fairies but definitely working to
its limitations, helped by the show being about the conversations primarily. The
depth of references is severe, but never referencing actual manga and anime -
instead, almost quickly to the point you can miss content if you even get
distracted for a few seconds, these characters elaborate on the clichés and
always create their own anime/manga story based on said clichés, so much so as
whilst it could be off-putting for some viewers, others might find this
rewarding for prodding types of storytelling in these mediums new to them. People
who might get the references will definitely find them funnier, but its
poignant I didn't need to get baseball manga reference but could hear about all
the absurd clichés and get a lot of humour from them anyway. The references
lead to tiny additional sketches and jokes which add a lot as well, such as the
fact a pair of students, one male and one female, will always get trapped
behind a closed door, or that one joke that cheerleaders should wear worn
panties leads to a running gag about worn panties to the main cast, one where
it feels like the voice actresses themselves are gleefully ribbing each other
and having so much fun in their work.
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Experiencing Ishidate's work so far, and these micro-series in general, (here, eleven minutes per twelve episodes), I realise there is a huge danger to dismiss these anime programmes, particularly when they are minimal in animation, not to be expansive and artistically incredible. But even Tesagure! is still pushing the format in some way; here, whilst very subdued, the show is taking the piss out of the medium in a warm hearted way, coming from a love of it, but in a way that even an outsider with some patience could get the joke is worthwhile, never namedropping a single anime to my memory and getting the absurd plot clichés over as the joke instead. This is very different from what a lot of anime does, which makes it insolar and in danger of dating greater, whilst this could age very well. For me, some references I did get and were funny as a result, but for others I didn't still there was a pleasure in still having them explained as the joke, leading to a silly air especially when the plots the cast come up with got more idiosyncratic as these characters barnstormed them. The sketches, where they attempt new versions of the activities, are also funny enough, especially as you could try to make them real in some cases.
And of course, the improvisations
are the real meat of Ishidate's style,
more subdued but with the same style as before as the animation is clearly
built around what the actresses do and react, even out of character which is
audibly apparent. A lot stands out for this - when the cast members stumble
into failed jokes which are commented upon by the others, get into crude tangents which always leads to
the character of Hina, the meek one, to blush and be depicted far away from the
table briefly, or the running gag of Aoi, the energetic redhead, trying to find
word play puns in everything they talk about no matter how laboured they could
be to reach.
Its charming, and god bless the
series, whilst they deliberately undercut this in the second season with
humour, the final episode of Tesagure!
is actually bitter sweet, to the point the series could've ended here and ended
on a high note, as the two seniors graduate and try to leave their club to the
youngest members, heartbreak following. Even the ending animation, which is the
same one, is given life as, based around a dance, there's new dialogue each
time which builds on the awkward attempts to improve with a lot of self-deprecation.
The result is sweet like tea and cake than Himote
House (2018), a latter work which hit for more absurd and bolder jokes but
did feel unfortunately a victim to an erratic structure. It's fascinating that
this got two more seasons, and already before I even cover them, arguably Kōtarō Ishidate is an auteur on the
basic level as he's honed this style over and over again. Pointedly with Ishidate, barring one show about Transformers where they from my
knowledge argue about their franchise's lore, he's been obsessed with a female
cast in new character roles playing to this dialogue based premises, and keeps
going. That he's always provided voice actresses, in shows which from what I've
seen of his never have any male
characters of prominence, and give them so much to do, is awesome especially as
he's creative. (And that's also from seeing how, for all the show's flaws, Himote House could suddenly turn into a
critique of Japan mistreats the LGBT community in a "Yuri Game of
Life" episode, thus exposing an even more surprising side to him and
anyone involved with that show that's positive). That's going to be interesting
to come back to when it comes to seasons two and three, and best thing is that,
for all my fear this review would've been stupidly short, stuck in trying how
to describe this show, I can thankfully (hopefully) give it the positive review
it deserves.
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