What's “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog”?
There are so many different anime to choose from that the situation can feel a bit absurd, but “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog” is here to help. Each week we provide additional information and cultural context to aid anime fans in deciding whether or not they'd like to take an unknown series for a test drive.
What's Ai-Mai-Mi?
Ai-Mai-Mi is a 2013 short form TV anime comedy with direction by Itsuki Imazaki and animation by Seven. The series is based on the 4-panel manga of the same name by Choborau Nyopomi that is serialized in Takeshobo's Manga Life Win digital manga magazine. Crunchyroll describes Ai-Mai-Mi as follows:
“Three girls in the manga club, Ai, Mai, and Mii, battle with evil Earth invaders, face off against rivals in tournaments, and might not actually draw any manga.”
Yes, Ai-Mai-Mi is about girls in a high school manga club in the same way that Teekyu is about girls in a high school tennis club, i.e. almost not at all. Instead, Ai-Mai-Mi serves as a framework for Nyopomi-sensei's bizarre sense of humor, which brims with the sort of absurdity that neither apologizes nor explains.
Running Gags, Gagging Runs.
Ai-Mai-Mi has a very loose sense of continuity, with no attempt to tell a serial narrative. However, there are callbacks to earlier jokes, and the most common running gag in Ai-Mai-Mi is ludicrous violence.
In slapstick comedy, some of the humor proceeds from the fact that the characters are protected from harm. Ai-Mai-Mi offers no such protection, as the titular trio and their friend Ponoka-senpai are frequently maimed or killed in increasingly outlandish and graphic ways.
While these scenes are usually played for laughs, occasionally Ai-Mai-Mi strays into a tone that is more in line with the grotesque or the macabre, such as when Ponoka-senpai is masticated by a giant monster or when the girls face off against a mysterious and malevolent creature that tries to invade the classroom.
Ai-Mai-Mi also has no problem with humor that is brazenly scatological. Blood, vomit, and urine are all fair game in the name of gag humor.
Non-reverential References.
Referential humor is another element of Ai-Mai-Mi, although the references are less about invoking a sense of recognition and more about being weird. For example, the theme song animations for the series reference numerous 8-bit and 16-bit era video games (such as Sonic the Hedgehog and The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner), and one episode alludes to the legend of Momotaro, although in either case the references are skewed toward making an odd visual or verbal gag.
One reference that crops up continually is Ponoka-senpai's takotsubo. Takotsubo are a type of pot, traditionally made of terracotta, that are used in fishing to trap octopuses. They don't grant their users magical healing properties or the ability to travel through space-time, though.
Non Sequiturs.
A lot of the humor in Ai-Mai-Mi stems from the fact that the punchline doesn't follow from the set-up. For example, each episode includes a humorous or embarrassing anecdote purportedly from Choborau Nyopomi about the real-life events that inspired the creation of the Ai-Mai-Mi manga.
Although these stories seem heartfelt and authentic – ranging from awkward dinner parties to troubles with her editors to the first time someone stole Nyopomi-sensei's work and passed it off as their own - they may be entirely fictitious, and they're invariably juxtaposed against a bizarre image, such as a shiba inu in a sailor fuku or Mai furiously licking an axolotl.
Further Investigations.
Crunchyroll currently streams Ai-Mai-Mi in 250 countries. The series is available in the original Japanese language with subtitles in English, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. Crunchyroll also streams the 2014 sequel series, Ai-Mai-Mi Mousou Catastrophe, which introduces a tournament arc that occurs mostly offscreen.
Each episode of Ai-Mai-Mi averages about 3.5 minutes in length, so if Choborau Nyopomi's oddball humor appeals to you, you can watch both series in a little under an hour and a half. If you like what you see, Crunchyroll also streams Magical Somera-chan, another short form TV anime based on a 4-panel manga by Nyopomi-sensei.
Special thanks go to resident anime-loving cryptid Sasquatchulous (@Sasquatchulous) for suggesting the series for this week's "Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog". Is there a series in Crunchyroll's catalog that you think needs some more love and attention? Please send in your suggestions to cruisingcrunchy@gmail.com. Your pick could inspire the next installment of “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog”!
Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.
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