Turkey!-Time to Strike-

Episodes 1-3

Maybe it's because I grew up loving InuYasha, but personally, I think every anime should experiment with suddenly thrusting their protagonist(s) back to the Sengoku period. It's fresh, it's fun, it's bold, it's unexpected, and I'm all the way here for it. Would an unironic bowling anime have been fun, too? Sure, probably. But I have a feeling that on any given day, there's a higher chance of that getting greenlit than bowling-anime-haha-jk-we're-going-to-learn-about-the-horrors-of-war-and-history, so you'll have to excuse me for not mourning the loss of what could've been harder.

This is all to say that while I get why some people (bowling fans, especially) are disappointed about the rug being pulled out from under them, I'm much more invested in this wild new direction Turkey! has taken. It probably helps that I love history—so much so that I've dedicated a lot of time and money to doing so: I have a MA in medieval history. The Sengoku era isn't my area of expertise (that's 15th century politics in England—think, Wars of the Roses) but it's something I have a lot of interest in all the same, so I hope I'll be able to talk history sometime in these reviews as the series continues. As for my abilities relating to bowling, well, I actually went bowling with some friends over the weekend since I figured the research for these reviews would benefit me. I'll let my score speak for itself. That's me on the top row:

But for now, let's get on to the show itself. The first thing I know I want to talk about is how much I love that Nanase is super worried about butterfly effect-ing. She's worried enough to the extent that she's telling people, for example, that they can't use tissues because leaving them out—even if it's as trash—could potentially risk causing an environmental issue. Which, in light of the circumstances, I'd say is a valid concern that a lot of people would probably overlook!

And speaking of fun details like that, let's talk about food. A disclaimer: I'm no expert on how the human stomach works. I'm not even an expert on historical food. Still, when you study history, you're likely to at least dip your toes into food at least once in a while, given its importance. How historical figures would react to modern food and vice versa is, I think, always a fun—and super underrated—thing for time travel media to put any attention on. I think broadly speaking, we underrate just how different food was even a century ago—let alone 400+ years ago. So needless to say, it tickled me seeing Sumomo react to the gummies (and Nanase and co desperately trying to convince her that they were just a type of fruit). As we saw at the end of the third episode, she very clearly knows something is going on—perhaps our group isn't the first to be Bowling Alley'd over there? Or maybe she just has some kind of psychic ability that tunes her in? Either way, it was very cute. And similarly, it was really neat seeing our protagonists getting really excited about eating food in the Sengoku period—I was shocked they liked it so much, but still, it was cool seeing them looking forward to it (rather than, say, acting disgusted by the notion of eating historical food prepared in a historical way) all the same.

Speaking of, is the fact that Mai is trying to get them to treat this all like a trip to a weird summer camp probably a good idea psychologically? Uh, no. This will almost certainly come back to bite her at some point or another. In fact, it might even literally bite her—as we've seen, this anime doesn't exactly shy away from the violence that often defines this era of Japanese history. (Side note: the scene where she hits the thugs with the bowling ball is the greatest thing I've ever seen, I don't care how physics work—that was awesome.) But even if it's almost certainly going to come back to haunt them, the optimism they have toward it for the time being is, I think, a big part of why it's so easy to have fun with this and feel like you're also along for the ride.

And finally, let's talk about the bowling of it all. The girls are stuck in the Sengoku era with their bowling equipment. The history of bowling stretches back thousands—not hundreds—of years. I'm not sure whether bowling-like games were in Japan during the Sengoku era, but I'll look into it by the time the series ends and report back to all of you. But for now, I'll say that anecdotally, something I've noticed is that people who don't study history sometimes forget that it doesn't matter how far back in history you go—people want to have fun and play games with each other. For example: I promise you, just about any museum or gallery you go to with even a decent collection of viking-era Scandinavian goods will almost certainly have more than a few Hnefatafl game pieces since there's just so many of them out there. So what I'm getting at here, is that it's cool to see an anime that seems thus far like it wants to explore that at least somewhat.

In a nutshell, this anime obviously isn't taking itself too seriously, which contrasts hilariously with the seriousness of the circumstances that our protagonists have been thrown into. I think the whole idea of this anime is delightfully unexpected, and I love that. So far, I'm having a great time with this show, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it's going next.

Rating: 4

Turkey!-Time to Strike- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.