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Nanbaka
Episode 5

by Rose Bridges,

How would you rate episode 5 of
Nanbaka ?
Community score: 4.2

Episode 5 continues the New Year's tournament. As I said in my previous review, this conceit works for a show like Nanbaka that thrives on zany physical comedy, allowing for just a slight changeup in format. The New Year's tournament moves Nanbaka into shonen battle territory (the next-episode preview this week even says as much), and that keeps its humor feeling fresh. Still, "freshness" can only last so long before it starts to feel stale. So is the bloom off the rose this week? It's hard to tell, because sometimes, the two battles this week really work. When they don't though, they fall flat and uninspired. It doesn't help when the focus is on the show's most obnoxious character, Nico.

In my first review, I said that Nanbaka feels very dated, more 2006 than 2016. Nico is a huge part of that "datedness." He's a type of character who used to be really common in old-school fujoshi comedies, the really blatant reference-spouting otaku character. He's a loud, childish guy with a cutesy high-pitched voice, who loves nothing more than anime, manga, and everything else from Japan. Nico is even a foreigner himself, psyched to be in prison in Japan precisely for his proximity to these things. Add to that his big eyes and bright green hair, and Nico seems tailor-made for a flashing gif about glomping someone for Pocky.

So I felt apprehensive as soon as I saw that this week's main challenge would feature Nico. Sure enough, Nanbaka included plenty of nauseating jokes about Nico getting to repeat his favorite phrases and otaku references. (For example, he wants to repeat "ora ora ora" while using a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure-style punching move.) However, what made Nico's moment in the spotlight ultimately work for me was the presence of his complete opposite in the arena: Upa. Upa is the prisoner from Building 5 who fights against Nico in the top-spinning competition. He's a serious practitioner of martial arts, able to levitate and use all sorts of special powers that Nico envies. This doesn't stop Nico from winning the challenge, due to his own superpower of being able to instantly copy others' moves, but Upa lets us see Nico through a new lens, from the role of a straight-man who is both awed and confused by this character. It makes Nico far more tolerable and understandable than when he plays against his equally goofy cellmates, who just amp up Nico's most obnoxious qualities. I found myself actually excited to see Upa and Nico as master and disciple in future episodes, so I hope Nanbaka does something with that.

There were other aspects of the show's comedy that didn't work for me this week. The warden's crush on Hajime is getting really tired, especially since that seems to be the only meaningful part of her character. There are too many bishonen-centric shows that file their female characters into stereotypical roles like this. It was cool at first that Nanbaka put a woman into a position of power and authority, so it's frustrating that she has so little to do except moon over one guy. Plus, it's just the same joke over and over at this point. I wish they'd vary it up more with her.

The best part of the episode was the first portion that resolves episode 4's card game conflict. It turns out that Uno is not only an expert cheater, but also brilliant at reading body language. This allows him to triumph, because he can tell exactly when Trois and Honey will pick a card before they do. The most fun part of these New Year's challenges has been getting to see the weird superpowers that each member of Building 13 hasn't yet shown in their goofy escape attempts. It will be interesting to see how Nanbaka continues to build on those in future plots.

In the meantime though, we have one more episode of New Year's challenges to go. I'm eager to see how this last one will continue to flesh out our characters, but I also hope they can quit this arc while they're ahead. Too much longer, and the once-refreshing formula will start to grow mold. Nanbaka works when it's constantly throwing new ideas at the wall, not when it's trying to make them stick.

Rating: B-

Nanbaka is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.


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