HomeAnimeREVIEW | P.A. Works’s Summer 2024 Anime Bonanza

REVIEW | P.A. Works’s Summer 2024 Anime Bonanza

REVIEW | P.A. Works’s Summer 2024 Anime Bonanza

I’ve admired P.A. Works’s catalog for a while now. From adaptations like Angel Beats! and Uma Musume: Pretty Derby to original works like Buddy Daddies and Akiba Maid War, the Toyama-based studio has the knack to deliver something memorable, even if the product isn’t 100% perfect. This summer season, P.A. Works have unleashed three new anime series: two original works, and an adaptation of a cult video game fave. How did the studio fare with working on practically three anime at the same time? Let’s take a look at what the likes of Mayonaka Punch, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, and Narenare -Cheer for you!- have delivered to anime fans across the world!


Story:

Let’s first look at the original series that P.A. Works have released. Both Mayonaka Punch and Narenare -Cheer for you!- focus on a group of friends making YouTube videos. For Mayonaka Punch, it’s a group of vampires, helmed by a washed-up internet star itching to get revenge on her former friends who dropped her. If the former onscreen star Masaki (Ikumi Hasegawa) can get the girls 1 million subscribers, the vampire matriarch Live (Ai Fairouz) can drink her blood. Later, it becomes a race to save the vampires’ home, which may be torn down due to their on and off-screen shenanigans.

Mayonaka Punch

At first, there’s only a thirst for vengeance in the narrative of Mayonaka Punch. But as the story goes on, there’s a big focus on what makes the vampire girls a family of oddballs. While it never goes fully dramatic, there are moments that are both sweet and heartfelt, especially when learning about both Ichiko (Yuina Ito) and Fu’s (Hina Yomiya) backstories. But silly is in the name of the game, and the likes of Live and the pachinko-addicted Tokage (Hitomi Ueda) bring some of the best laughs this summer. Vampires running a YouTube page may seem like a plot in What We Do in the Shadows, but it surprisingly has enough uniqueness that makes it stand out from other recent vampire anime.

As for Narenare -Cheer for you!-, it’s a group of friends with various dance and yoga styles that form a cheerleader team. The only one with true cheerleader experience is Kanata (Rika Nakagawa), whereas the others have some form of high-flying and limb-bending expertise that make them ripe for cheerleading. They start a YouTube channel, in hopes to cheer on those who may need it. Whether it’s for a sports team, a hard-working job, or even something like getting over a fear, the group known as PoMPoMs will be there to motivate them.

Narenare -Cheer for you!-

One can’t help but see this as a more modern take on Doga Kobo’s 2018 Anima Yell, another show about cheerleaders-for-hire. And it’s surprising that the older series has a more clear focus on what it wants to be. Narenare starts off on the right foot, only for it to get off-track with a story involving a closing record store that PoMPoMs member Anna (Larissa Tago Takeda) is fond of. There’s also a focus on the character Megumi (Miku Ito), who is in the midst of rehab for an illness that happened in middle school. But surprisingly, they’ve done very little to address this thoroughly, or any of the other characters for that matter.

Meanwhile, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin already has an established storyline thanks to game developers Edelweiss. The goddess Sakuna (Naomi Oozora) is banished from her otherworldly home to an island full of demons, as punishment for letting humans in and for burning the rice storage area. There, she must learn how to properly grow rice, since what was in supply was grown by her parents, on top of deal with the demons. Some are destructive, whereas other demons are surprisingly helpful.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin

Adapting a video game into an anime can be tricky, but it’s surprising to see how well P.A. Works has handled the source material. It does a good job with putting the main focus on the slice-of-life aspect of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, and leaving the combat part to the episodes that call for a little shake-up. You learn a lot from watching this series about what it takes to grow rice, on top of the kinds of monsters and yokai that roam on the island that Sakuna and the humans have resided on. The anime knows when to be in comfy mode, and when it comes time to add a little drama to the mix.

Mayonaka Punch:
Narenare -Cheer for you!-:
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin:


Script:

Let’s get Narenare -Cheer for you!- out of the way first. To call this series unfocused is an understatement, as there’s little structure here that helps hold up its story. Not only does it do a piss-poor job with giving these characters anything to do, but when it finally allows PoMPoMs to go out and do their thing, it’s kind of minimal in its presentation. Had they focused on something like Megumi’s recovery, Kanata’s wanting to overcome her fears, or even the social anxiety of Suzuha (Yuki Nakashima), it could’ve at least had something to feed the plot.

Narenare -Cheer for you!-

The worst offender of Narenare comes in Episode 8, which attempts to cram five episodes worth of plot into 22 minutes. Getting jobs, making videos, a member going behind their back to help more people, Megumi’s healing frustrations, and even a group breakup all happen in one singular episode! Had they spread this all out into the previous seven, there would’ve been more time to feel something with these characters. Instead, it comes rushing like a bullet train, too fast to see and too quick to gain anyting from.

On the other hand, Mayonaka Punch does a stellar job with its storytelling pacing. You get a good idea of what it takes to be a YouTuber from watching these vampires making videos, and why getting viewers is now one of the toughest things to do. There’s also a plethora of hilarity, with an episode having them be on a deserted island for a survival video showcasing just how useless it is to be a creature of the night. However, there’s a downside to this focus on the vampires: Masaki becoming basically a backseat passenger for the narrative.

Mayonaka Punch

Granted, Masaki has some shining moments, which are demonstrated in Episodes 7 & 8. Her being an editing workhorse shows the determination she has for making the vampire girls the #1 channel, but also shows her stubbornness when it comes to accepting outside help. Then there’s Episode 8, which has the vampire girls participating in a collaborative live event. Although Live and the others are in the spotlight, it’s Masaki that’s making sure their participation doesn’t lead to disaster. There’s some good character evolution here not just for Masaki, but for the YouTubing vampires as a whole.

To be blunt, growing rice doesn’t seem interesting on paper. But just as the Cup Noodle Museum in Yokohama isn’t just about its namesake, such is the same with Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. There’s a lot that goes into simply planting the crop, on top of what it takes to cultivate it into what is a staple of almost every Japanese meal. Sakuna learns all of this through her human cohabitants, and while she can be stubborn with doing the work, she finally musters the willpower because she realizes it’s the right thing to do.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin

Plus, there’s some surprisingly good back story to be found here. Whether it’s about the kappa that reside on the island, who Yui (Aoi Koga) really is, or even a little jealousy spout from best friend Kokorowa-hime (Rika Kinugawa), every episode delivers something that’s either educational or philosophical. Thanks to how it’s paced, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin has become something of a comfort food anime, appropriate considering what the main focus of the show is. It’s fun, funny, and it leaves you with a level of respect for the art of cultivating rice.

Narenare -Cheer for you!-:
Mayonaka Punch:
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin:


Animation:

Even though it already has an established fanbase, it’s surprising to see Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin get the short end of the animation stick. Visually, the show can be a little choppy at times, looking more like a traditional weekend cartoon for kids rather than the teen audience the original game was touted for. With that being said, when it leans more into the action-filled scenarios like in the video game, the quality does go up quite a bit. But once things slow down, the visuals once again drop down to something that’s better than okay, but not exactly good.

Mayonaka Punch

For Mayonaka Punch, there’s a lot more fluidity in how the characters move and look. Leaning more into the cartoonish side of things, the animation can be spectacular, especially when going for something wicked funny. Again, we see this in the desert island episode, with everyone trying their best to escape the typhoon-hit death trap in wild and beautifully-animated ways. The facial expressions are also on-point, bringing forth jolly, defeated, and just-plain exhausted looks that will give anyone a hearty laugh.

Which now leaves Narenare -Cheer for you!-, the best-looking of the bunch. Making up for its poor writing, everything is wonderfully bright and filled with light. But when it comes time to get into a cheer routine (or some parkour from Suzuha), the movements are simply fantastic. Be it with traditional animation or anime-inspired CGI, the dances and acrobatics are captured with such grace and beauty, showcasing exactly what sort of movements are required to pull them off.

Narenare -Cheer for you!-

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin:
Mayonaka Punch:
Narenare -Cheer for you!-:


Voice Acting:

It would be easy to simply say that all three P.A. Works shows this season have very good voice actors. You can’t go wrong with Naomi Oozora’s performance of the titular Sakuna, as she’s certainly the go-to for fun bratty characters. Ai Fairouz is perfect as Live in Mayonaka Punch, bringing a perkiness that both funny and intoxicating in the best ways possible. The same can be said for Ikumi Hasegawa’s Masaki, whose blunt speaking can be both positive and hilariously negative when the time calls for it. For the strongest performance in Narenare -Cheer for you!-, one would have to look at Yuki Nakashima as Suzuha, whose cold outer personality is a hilarious contrast to her bouncy inner dialogue.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin

When it comes to an ensemble as a whole, Mayonaka Punch has the strongest cast, thanks to Ito’s sunny Ichiko, Yomiya’s introverted Fu, and Ueda’s money-hungry Tokage. There’s a good cast found also in Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, with Ryota Yano’s big hearty guy Tauemon and Souma Maeda’s spunky blacksmith Kinta delivering some fun and hearty dialogue. Although nobody is bad per se in Narenare -Cheer for you!-, no one’s performance stands out like Nakashima’s. Maybe Larissa Tago Takeda’s Anna earns a special mention, only because she can play a Brazilian with some sense of authenticity.

Mayonaka Punch:
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin:
Narenare -Cheer for you!-:


Soundtrack:

For a show where people cheer and dance, you’d think Narenare -Cheer for you!- would have a killer soundtrack backing it. Alas, composer Naoki Tani gives off music that’s pretty generic and uninspired. The same can be said about the opening and ending themes “Cheer for You!” and “With” by the PoMPoms. They’re okay songs, but they come off more sounding like Kidz Bop covers than something original.

Narenare -Cheer for you!-

Yoshiaki Fujisawa takes the daunting task of trying to top Hiroyuki Oshima’s score from the original Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin video game. For the most part, he gets the job done both when things are calm and when a little tension is thrown into the show’s mixture. Opening theme “Hare!” by Ikimonogakari is a beautiful and exciting track, one that fits well with both sides of Sakuna’s tasks on the island. Little Glee Monster cools things down with end theme “ORIGAMI”, which is also very beautiful in its own right.

The duo of tape and Raku bring to life the sounds of Mayonaka Punch, with melodies that feel fitting for struggling YouTubers. They do get a chance to go a little wacky when chaos ensues in the anime, adding a lot of silly charm to an already funny situation. “Gimi Gimi” is one hell of an opening theme song, as the vampire girls bring a club-worthy track to imagery that pokes fun of real-life YouTube content. Hasegawa takes the reins for end theme “Henshu-ten”, capturing the grind of what it’s like to edit hours of content into a single video with both passion and a heaping of exhaustion.

Mayonaka Punch

Narenare -Cheer for you!-:
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin:
Mayonaka Punch:


Final Thoughts:

For the most part, P.A. Works successfully delivered more than one really good anime in a single season. Mayonaka Punch is a delightful satire on what goes into being an online success, whereas Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is one of the better game-to-anime adaptations in recent memory. However, Narenare -Cheer for you!- will be forgotten by year’s end, no thanks to a poor plot and a story that doesn’t know where it wants to go. Two out of three ain’t bad though, and for a studio that managed to deliver three anime in one single season, that’s a pretty darn good turnout. Although those cheerleaders could’ve used a little extra pep in their steps.


FINAL GRADES:

Mayonaka Punch:
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin:
Narenare -Cheer for you!-:

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, Mayonaka Punch, and Narenare -Cheer for you!- can be viewed on Crunchyroll, and have been licensed by Crunchyroll. Episodes 1-8 of each series were observed for review. Promotional consideration provided by Crunchyroll.

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The J-POP king of America, Evan has been bringing the hottest sounds of the Land of the Rising Sun to the English-speaking public since his college radio days. He's also an expert in the gaming, anime, & manga realms, never afraid to get critical when the times call for it. Born & bred in Boston, he achieved his biggest dream yet by making the big move to Tokyo, Japan in Summer 2023! For personal inquiries, contact Evan at evan@b3crew.com. For press/band inquiries, write to us at thebastards@bostonbastardbrigade.com. (Drawing by AFLM of Wicked Anime)