Ask John: Are There More Obscene Anime Comedies?

Question:
For me animation has created some very memorable moments inside comedy, year after year companies keep outdoing themselves. But lately I end up missing comedies with over exaggerated expressions combined with adult themes (I’m not talking about porn). Comedies like “Ping Pong Club” and “Golden Boy”. I was wondering if you could recommend some that resemble them.

Answer:
I may know a lot about anime, but I’m not familiar with every anime title, and it’s not unusual for shows I am familiar with to simply slip my mind. So I may not be able to identify every shocking and crude anime comedy, but I am familiar with several of them that average English speaking anime fans might not be aware of. Just as typical fan service anime like Aika, Najica, and Strike Witches and their abundance of panty shots have a fulfilling appeal for receptive viewers, lowbrow comedies are likewise enjoyable for viewers willing to appreciate entertainment that seeks to surprise, shock, and offend viewers, good taste, and convention. Aesthetes should move along to another subject promptly. But viewers prepared to appreciate some vulgar, provocative humor should consider some of the following shows. Oh, let me also clarify that I’m specifically citing tasteless comedies, not sex comedies, which is why I’ll exclude titles like Oruchuban Ebichu, Kanokon, and B-gata H-kei.

Assumptions based on the title “Girl’s High” (Joshikosei) are probably only partially correct. The uninitiated may correctly presume that this show is a slice of life comedy about a handful of teen girls but may not guess that the show, especially in its early episodes, also includes a startling degree of emphasis on frank sexuality and the aspects of personal hygiene that are usually not discussed in polite company. The show is very funny and quite crude. As it develops, its focus shifts toward character and story, away from shock humor, but by that time the viewer is engrossed in the series enough to not mind the change. Joshikosei is a bit more explicit and crude than Golden Boy, but since it tries to remain realistic, it doesn’t reach the perversion of “Ping Pong Club.”

The brand new Seitokai Yakuindomo television series looks and feels like a hybrid of Joshikosei and Hyakko. In the two episodes that have aired so far, Seitokai Yakuindomo excludes the visual vulgarity of Joshikosei but includes plenty of frank and hilarious discussion of embarrassingly forthright and frequently twisted sexuality. Rather than call this a crude comedy, it’s more accurately described as a very amusing school slice of life comedy that includes a lot of provocative gags.

Also demonstrating that vulgar comedy hasn’t evaporated from contemporary anime, the second episode of the brand new Mitsudomoe television series includes a certifiably insane extended gag involving multiple bodily fluids spraying haphazardly. Mitsudomoe looks like a cute moé comedy in the vein of Kodomo no Jikan and Hanamaru Youchien, so viewers may be surprised to find it filled with sex gags and bodily function humor along with parody homages to Battle Royale, Street Fighter, Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, and Kanako Inuki manga just within the first two episodes alone.

The TBS network’s Wonderful Anime series aired 20 short anime series from 1995 through 1999, among them the panty shot gag comedy Colorful and the sex comedies Momoiro Sisters, Iketeru Futari, and Let’s Nupu Nupu. More relevant to this discussion, Wonderful was also progenitor of a number of amusing vulgar comedies. 1995’s Ike! Inachuu Takkyuubu (“Go! Junior High Ping Pong Club”) may reign as the ultimate vulgar anime comedy, but it does have some comparable descendants in the Wonderful Anime family. Sexy Commando Gaiden & Gag Manga Biyori director Akitaro Daichi helmed the 1998 Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku (Super Radical Gag Family) domestic comedy about the most dysfunctional family imaginable. The series largely excluded sex and sexual reference, instead focusing on illness, odd physical appearances, and bad behavior. Although Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku looks more outlandish than the later 1999 Papa to Odorou (Let’s Dance with Papa) television series, the tone and humor of the two shows feels very similar. Papa to Odorou stars an irresponsible father and his two children – a brother and sister – who all have less shame and less common sense than ideal. The show revolves around inappropriate nudity, mild domestic violence, crude bodily humor, and inappropriate language. 1999’s Ippatsu Kikimusume consisted of 16 short episodes about a young woman repeatedly getting herself entangled in absurd life-threatening situations, usually while she was naked. Some of her adventures involved latex fetish gear and a broom handle stuck in her butt.

Studio Pierrot is best known for respectable, mainstream fare like Orange Road, Fushigi Yuugi, Bleach, and Naruto. However, the studio took a slight departure in 1998 with the short gag comedy Yoiko. This series about an elementary school girl with a grown woman’s body can be considered a sex comedy, but it’s equally valid for consideration as a Golden Boy style ribald comedy. Every episode includes at least one masturbation joke, but the show also includes bizarre gags such as eating deer feces.

Some viewers may find that Inukami! includes too much story and character development to qualify as a fully satisfying dirty comedy, but the show’s bizarre and hilarious obsession with penis jokes and male nudity in public should make it worthy of at least consideration.

Viewers used to and expecting conventional anime may not be receptive toward the Flash animation of the 2009 Mangatarou Chinyuki OVA. I have watched it, and I can assert that it’s jam packed with fart jokes, excrement, urination, hideous nudity, and other obscene gags.

I’m a little bit hesitant to recommend comedies including Fight Ippatsu! Jyuden-chan, Eiken, Dengeki Oshioki Musume Goutaman, Koharu Biyori, Ultimate Girls, and Jungle de Ikou! not because they’re unfunny but rather because they’re shows that primarily revolve around recycling one or two gags over and over again. These are amusing shows, but I’m not certain that they’re precisely what a fan of “Ping Pong Club” and Golden Boy is looking for. However, a viewer with any interest in any of these shows should certainly try them out.