Who knew that such a renowned meme among the anime community would come from a manga where one man urinated in another man's butt? Moreover, who knew that that meme would lead to that manga getting a PG-13-rated anime adaptation nearly 40 years later? Well, that's just the reality we're living in, so accept it already. I've accepted it, even though I was disgusted by the original "Kuso Miso Technique" manga when I first read it in 2021. I mean, if Alice no 100°Cc was going to gross me out, why would anyone think I'd be any more okay with reading Kuso Miso Technique? Nevertheless, Kuso Miso Technique has achieved meme status for its facial expressions and the quote, "やらないか?" (Yaranaika?), or "Shall we do it?" in English, and on April Fool's Day of 2023, an anime adaptation called "Shin Yaranaika" was announced, releasing exactly a year later. One additional year after that, I have watched "Shin Yaranaika" and will now review it. (I mean, it's March 31st where I am at the time of writing this review, but I mean, it's April 1st elsewhere in the world!)
Shin Yaranaika, also known as the Junichi Yamakawa Collection, begins when Masaki Michishita, an ordinary student at a prepatory school, runs to a public park in search of a restroom. There, he locks eyes with a man sitting on a bench. The man, Takakazu Abe, proceeds to zip down his jumpsuit, reveal his privates, and ask Masaki, "Shall we do it?" Thus, they go to the men's restroom together and....well, I don't think I need to explain how the rest of the Kuso Miso Technique section of this OVA goes. I say the "Kuso Miso Technique section" because there is actually more to the story beyond here, with those elements being based on other one-shot manga drawn by Junichi Yamakawa. Well, I don't know how closely the OVA follows those one-shots (and honestly, I don't really want to know), but it does all come together into one insane ride!
Since Shin Yaranaika isn't an adults-only story like its manga counterpart, you aren't going to see any explicit sex or butt-wetting (I said what I said); those moments are censored with more pleasant images, although you can still hear the main characters' dialogue over those images. One of these images references the "Nice Boat" meme, which really hammers in the fact that this anime is little more than a meme that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Of course, those scenes being censored isn't much of a surprise, but what did surprise me was how the anime developed its two main characters. We actually get a short scene of Masaki's prep school life at the beginning of the OVA (which was a weird but sort of amusing scene, but I digress), and Takakazu has a backstory that is shown in the story and even sort of comes into play later on. Their relationship to each other is expanded a little bit beyond what is shown in the original manga, too, and while whether or not their relationship is actually believable is debatable, it does seem to me like they actually care about each other, more than the original manga did, anyway.
Having previously watched Maki Itou's "World, Before You End", I knew that the animation in Shin Yaranaika was going to be trash before even watching the trailer. Unfortunately, I was proven correct, although in this case, it actually kind of fits in a weird way. Even though I can't, in good faith, rate the anime higher than I am because of the animation, I can easily see the poor animation in this OVA being a meme in and of itself, especially the 3-D animation. As for the sound....well, it's not too bad. The voice acting is okay, with Maki Itou's voice actually being a very good fit for Takakazu. The music is very stupid-sounding, but it's a very good fit for such a ridiculous anime.
There isn't really much I can really say when it comes to how I feel about Shin Yaranaika, but I can at least say that it was never boring and that it was a more worthwhile experience than the manga it came from. I do feel like it's best to watch it if you've already read Kuso Miso Technique, since you might appreciate the ridiculousness of it all better that way, but those with a good amount of familiarity with Japanese meme culture could probably also enjoy it. Just remember to not take this anime too seriously, since it is, after all, a meme.
Comments
Post a Comment