CITY The Animation

Episode 8

It's “Summer in the City”...CITY The Animation that is! Which means it's time for some summer romances! This episode follows a few members of CITY's ensemble cast crushing on other characters, navigating the anxieties associated with this kind of attraction, and drawing a lot of humor from these wholesome, if awkward, situations. My partner once described this show as feeling like it was “made by someone who never had anything bad happen to them,” and I can't help but agree now more than ever as CITY makes so much fun out of what can otherwise be some of the most uncomfortable and distressing parts of life.

With an opening shot that utilizes the diorama of the Tanabe Mansion once again, this first segment builds on the romance between Ms. Tanabe and the eldest son of the Adatara family, Tatsuta. Evidently, she's been pining for him since they were in school together, and she laments his not asking her out over the past eighteen years. Considering Tatsuta's cool older brother vibes and his just a little intimidating appearance, I can't blame her for letting her crush persist for this long.

Tanabe having her world upended by her butler, Hotaka, informing her that it would not be inappropriate for HER to ask HIM out works as both an immediate gag, and within the broader joke of Tanabe's inherited wealth leaving her a socially inept weirdo. This segment ends with her being given the wrong impression by Tatsuta's dad that the young man's favorite food is yakisoba pan, and I'm so excited about what outrageous development CITY will turn this misinformation into.

Next up is a masterfully choreographed and scored scene where the police officer — whose implied name of “Honkan” would mean his literal name in English would be something like “Officer Officer” — resists the charms of the sleepy angel Riko Izumi. He focuses on his already established crush on Wako Izumi to suppress the affection Riko engenders, and I'm so curious to know if he knows that the two are siblings! One of the best elements of CITY The Animation is both the overt and unspoken relationships between its many characters, and I hope the officer faces some form of consequences for even thinking about becoming infatuated with his best girl Wako's sister.

Next up are a couple of Tatewaku-focused bits. While him being pulled into Ecchan and Matsuri's pace over starting a band to impress Riko was entertaining and filled with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure style palette swaps — likely due to that series' affinity for wearing its musical influences on its sleeve — the following segment is one of the episode's heavy hitters. Here, Tatewaku succumbs to his anxiety over asking Riko to see a play with him, and invents a problem of needing to refresh his wardrobe before he can even think of asking her out.

This takes Tatewaku to a boutique fashion outlet where, like a lot of young people, he's immediately overwhelmed by the selection and prices. He ends up buying a hideous, pre-distressed t-shirt that a sales associate recommends to him, and when he gets home, his Dad, Matsuri, and Ecchan convince him to lean into the shirt's look and unknowingly dress like a vagrant.

While Ecchan and Matsuri prepare to mess with Tatewaku further, their efforts are for naught because Riko agrees to go to this play with him! Beyond the sheer elation of seeing Tatewaku getting an uncontested win in this show, the final joke of Ecchan apparently having an unspoken crush on Tatewaku and being devastated by this development, only for her to be completely fine the next morning, is a masterful bit of comedy. These segments are another reminder that CITY The Animation isn't just great jokes delivered through even better production values, it's tapping into the highs and lows of the human experience in a way that's nothing short of endearing.

Speaking of the show's production, the last segment is an absolute feat of localization work! An adaptation of the Momotaro story performed by the acting troupe of animals established earlier in the show, this segment is a full-on spoken verse play, and the English localization managed to give this segment a rhyme scheme that retained the meaning of the original lines. The English voice actor for the troupe's human leader, Tekaridake, A.J. Locascio, also does an incredible job of delivering this spoken verse performance in time with the accelerating beat of the play's music.

At this point, CITY The Animation is great for all the same reasons that being alive is great. There's not a ton going on thematically in this episode beyond the highs and lows of young love and the experience of seeing some unexpectedly terrific art, but channels these experiences so well that the show feels effortlessly amazing. The only thing I have left to say is how much I wish that the first date that I ever went on featured a duck pointing a gun at an ogre played by a porcupine.

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Lucas DeRuyter is the de facto Bad Boy of anime reviews (no one else was using the moniker). He rolls with ANN's This Week and Anime crew, and you can check out his coolest work in his portfolio. You can also find him sticking it to the man on his Bluesky account.

CITY The Animation is currently streaming on Prime Video.