Sometimes, you really wanna watch an anime
but just don't have the time to fit a full length series in.
Other times you really need to get a video out for saturday
and don't have any other ideas you can produce in one day.
As a solution to both of those problems, in the next seven minutes
i'm gonna tell you about seven great anime
with episodes that you can also watch in less than seven minutes.
Not counting the openings.
Let's start the clock!
Wait what do you mean it has already started? Ohh God, we don't have time for this!!
[WHEEW] This is stressful.
But not as stressful as watching Yamishibai
witch despite at clocking in at just four minutes per episode
manages to be substantially scarier than almost any other horror anime out there.
Every episode tells a new spooky tale
and manages to pack a suprising amount of tension, dread and buildup, into its short runtime
before giving you a good scare at the end.
This is classic Japanese horror, through and through.
Build on simple to understand premises
and unnerving twists that stick under your skin
long after the unsettling, discordant end credits roll.
The show makes use of a distinct paper puppet art style
that both saves on animation costs
and adds to the creepy factor with stiff unnatural movements.
Yamishibai takes full advantage of its time and
budget limitations, to chilling effect.
Unfortunately it kinda goes down hill after the first season
though later seasons do have some great episodes mixed in.
One show that surprisingly hasn't declined in quality
even after nine seasons and 108 epsiodes
that's one for every Star of Destiny in Suikoden
is Teekyuu.
A rapid fire, absurdist comedy, about an earnest
and enthusiastic, tennis loving, high school junior
who joins a tennis club
that does just about everything except play tennis.
Having watched almost the entire show
i'm still not entirely sure i can accurately describe it.
But i can tell you that it's funny!
Really, incredibly, at times, painfully funny!
And the laughs do not let up.
The girls hardly pause to give you time to breathe
let alone let a laugh sink in
before they have moved on to the next insane parody or non-secutor gag.
Now you can make it through this whole show in about four hours
if you marathon it.
But you're going to need an oxygen break or two in the middle
so it'll keep you busy for a fair bit longer than that.
If you need additional tips on keeping yourself busy
try consulting Tonari no Seki-Kun.
A show about a young boy with a nack for comming up
with elaborate ways of goofing off in class
and Yokoi, his easily distracted desk neighbour.
Yokoi plays the exasperated straight man
to Seki's silent, gag-driven antics,
and often gets more caught up in his wild daydreams and crazy contraptions than he does.
I know it doesn't sound all that enthralling just from me describing it
but trust me when i say that this show is charming as hell!
Every new episode brings with it a new creative surprise
and Yokoi even undergoes a bit of
character development in its 21 episode run.
Also, not for nothing, the show has one of the greatest OP's of all time.
Although not as great as the greatest anime ever made, ever!
Inferno Cop.
As the literally explosive debut of Studio Trigger
following Imaishi and co.'s split from Gainax
Inferno Cop had a lot to prove, and not a lot to prove it with.
We're talking a staff of just 23 people
including the musicians who worked on the theme song.
And a cast of just 12 actors playing 39 different characters.
Instead of compromising for the sake of its pocket change budget though
Inferno Cop goes balls to the wall
drawing immense humor from its concerted attempt
to create a gritty, action packed crime drama
with literally none of the resources required to actually make it.
Inferno Cop doesn't let its hilariously cheap
mostly motion tweened animations and frequently reused assets
stop it from exploring themes like time travel and cybernetic augmentation.
Or even from taking occasional trips to hell.
Inferno Cop is basically what Kung Furry would be if they had forgone the Kickstarter
and animated the whole thing in Flash instead.
In other words: Pure awesome!
I could watch it over and over again. It never gets old.
Speaking of getting old, that's the subject matter of the one other non comedy on this list:
She and Her Cat: Everything Flows.
A loose reimagining of Makoto Shinkai's debut short film of the same name,
that is substantially sadder than what Shinkai came up with.
I'll give you a second to let that sink in.
Well, actually, we can't really spare that second.
This touching drama tells the all to familiar tale of a family pets life
frorm adoption straight thorugh to very predictable spoilers.
With the unique hook that it's told from the perspective of the cat
narrated with an animals limited understanding of the human world.
It's beautiful, touching and above all
really, really f***ing sad.
Aww man, after that i need a bit of a pick me up
and i have just the thing.
The sweetes love story ever told.
Ojisan an Marshmallow tells the tale of a middle aged salaryman, Hige,
and his one true love, marshmallows.
Also he has a younger coworker named Wakabayashi
who's constantly trying to get in his pants.
It's neat to see a romance anime
with the woman in persuit rather than the man.
And despite Hige being dense enough
to make most harem protagonists and harem girls seem downright clairvoyant
the show manages to walk the fine line between a comedy of errors
and an infuriating cavalcade of pointless misunderstandings.
The show can also be unexpectedly sweet.
(Heh, see what i did there?)
But more than that, it's surprisingly dramatic
featuring intense rivalries, monumental battles of wits
and some of the most earthshaking plot twists in anime history.
Now lastly, on the subject of twists, Oshiete! Galko-Chan
is a show all about subverting your expectations.
The series follows the day to day lives of Galko, Otako and Ojou.
Three girls who seem, at first glance, to be cardboard cutout tropes
who you'd think would have nothing to do with each other
but quickly reveal themselves to be more than meets the eye.
The three friens spend 12 sublime episodes
talking through the trials and tribulations of high school girl life.
Including a lot of topics that you don't often hear about outside of health class.
But even with its raunchy subject matter and sense of humor
at its heart, this series is about theese girls supporting each other
moving past their preconceptions
and learning to understand each other in spite of their differences.
It's the very definition of a feel good comedy
with a selection of waifus who are the very definition of top tier.
But if you're still unsure and you wanna hear more before giving it a go
then go watch THIS video from BestGuyEver, and see if that doesn't convince you.
And with that, we are done. Without much time to spare.
Hopefully i gave all of you something new and entertaining to watch
during commutes and lunchbreaks on days when there is no new Mother's Basement video.
If you would like som recomendations for longer shows
check out the videos on the left.
And don't forget to subscribe for new videos every tuesday and saturday.
I'm Geoff Thew, Professional Shitbag
signing out from my mothers basement.