Asobi Asobase is a show from 2018 that you can stream on Crunchyroll. The show is about middle school girls who start a "Pastimers Club" to explore Japanese games and pastimes, though in reality they just goof off. To be honest, it took me a long time to actually watch it for the first time because it has all sorts of red flags when you just casually look at it that really put me off at first. The phrase "middle school girls" is almost always a no go for me because, just, gross. A club about pastimes is also just weird and unappealing. Plus, the art style is really simple and ugly and weird looking. I would always sort of gloss over it when trying to find something to watch on Crunchyroll and then skip it.
But then I actually watched it - I guess I was desperate or something - and almost immediately fell in love with it and felt like a fool for avoiding it. The description and promo art do a fairly terrible job of showcasing what the show is actually about. This is not a sweet and saccharine show about innocent middle school girls playing simple games. This is an absolutely insane off the rails comedy that is ridiculously funny. Like, you know how the best parts of Nichijou are really, really funny but then the rest of the show is really, really boring? Well, Asobi Asobase is like the funny parts of Nichijou cranked up to eleven but there aren't any boring parts in between. It's all funny.
Let me just lay out some scenarios for you - In the first episode the girls set up a swimming pool in their club room and some water leaks under the door in the hallway. A passing teacher notices the water and in order to keep him from entering the room, they tell him that it's actually pee - which he then proceeds to dip a finger in and taste and is disappointed when it's just water. That's just in the first freaking episode! Another episode features a Pokemon Go-like mobile game that uses the phone camera to see actual bacteria in the real world. The girls accidentally burn down a cafe due to poor fashion sense in another episode. And did you know the ancient Japanese board game shogi actually involves shooting lasers out of your butt? Other plotlines involve an ongoing feud with the student council president, a cross dressing boy attending their all-girls school, making friends with the weirdo in the occult research club, and much more.
Every episode is just ridiculously funny. And I know I said at the beginning that it isn't lewd, but it is a little lewd. In a charming sort of ignorant middle school girls learning about the world sort of way, though. Things like sex ed, bra shopping, boys love, and those kinds of things. Always presented in a ridiculous and over the top way that is freaking hilarious.
The show does a good job of subverting expectations right from the start, too. The intro is of a typical shoujo style of pastel colors and light happy music and shots of the girls doing normal cute girl things that gives you a false sense of what the show is going to be. Then the ending theme is wild heavy metal with neon line art on a black background that is more along the lines of what the show actually is. It's absolutely brilliant. The artwork in the show also changes throughout each episode so it isn't always the simple bland art that put me off initially and instead is much more interesting visually than it seems at first glance.
In the end, Asobi Asobase is one of the absolute funniest anime shows I have ever watched and I can't recommend it highly enough. Everyone should watch it. And if you end up not liking it, well we probably can't be friends.
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