三谷裳ちお – Anime QandA

Chio’s School Road – Full Season QandA Rundown

What’s the important information? Chio’s School Road is a Summer 2018 comedy anime that aired 12 episodes from July to September. It is a partial adaptation of a 9 volume Seinen manga series by Tadataka Kawasaki.

What’s it about? Very simply, it’s about Chio Miyamo a below average high-school girl and avid video gamer and the various antics she gets up to on her daily commute from her house to her school. The shenanigans range from strange conversations with her friend Manana to things absurd as encounters with biker gangs, risky parkour and run-ins with a butt-poking elementary schooler.

Why did you watch it? The series sold itself as an ‘absurd comedy’ and I’m all about that!

Did you enjoy the show? Absolutely, it delivered on the absurdity and also solidified it with a truly great cast of characters and a seemingly expanding world of quirky characters that inhabited the series. Even the weakest of episodes had laugh-out-loud moments and imagery worthy of surreal screen caps.

What was your favourite episode? While every episode had a worthwhile and hilarious segment (each episode of the show is divided into either 2 or 3 ‘segments’), Episode 7 which concerned Chio discovering the “joys” of BL (Boys Love) games and trying to buy a magazine about it and then following that up with the first appearance of the butt-poking elementary schooler had me in tears of laughter from beginning to end! Not to mention all the references to the differences between Western and Japanese video games.

What were your most favourite things about the show? Aside from the comedy—which ran the gamut from slapstick, to wordplay, to non-sequiturs, to cringe, to character driven. Chio herself was an absolute joy to behold, the way her mind works was not only frequently hilarious but also surprisingly relatable—especially as a gamer myself.

Wbat were your least favourite things about the show? There were a couple of repeat characters that Chio encountered that weren’t perhaps as funny as the show thought they were, the pervert homeless man especially was a character whose appearance only cheapened the overall quality of the show.

Who was your favourite character? I want Chio to be my girlfriend. Is that weird? That’s probably weird… But seriously, I really love Chio’s general outlook on life—even if it is striving for mediocrity for the sake of living life unnoticed. Plus she’s just cute in that nerdy kind of way!

What’s something unique about this show? Episode 2 just straight up dropped the c-word and I still can’t get over that fact! Yes it was just in text and yes the c-word doesn’t really have the same vulgar/taboo connotations in Japan as it does in the west but I was still flabbergasted to see it on-screen! Amazing and hilarious.

What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? For some reason I’m reminded of Yuruyuri, though moreso the later half of the season where the comedy gets more character driven as opposed to absurd ‘sketch’ style. Also, if you want a Western sitcom comparison, it definitely at times reminded me of Seinfeld, in that these people are all kind of dysfunctional jerks, but they’re absolutely relatable.

Who would you recommend it to? Anybody who likes their comedy on the more ~absurd~ end of the spectrum, obviously not Pop Team Epic levels of absurdity but still grounded in reality. Also, there’s a lot of references to Western video games which even if you’re not a fan of them there’s a lot of fun to be gained to just see the Japanese perspective on something that’s apparently very unusual to them that a lot of us probably take for granted as being ‘normal’.

Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘The road ahead is twisted and filled with obstacles but they’re all a part of silly and strange journey that I’m glad to have taken!’

Final score? 88 out of 100.

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

Otaku’s Creed – Episode 1 Review
The Actual C-Word – Episode 2 Review
Full Contact Perineum – Episode 3 Review
Stupid Sexy Smoking – Episode 4 Review
Urine Trouble – Episode 5 Review
The Art of Butt Groping – Episode 6 Review
Public Enema Number One – Episode 7 Review
Sprinter Belle – Episode 8 Review
Pipe Dreams – Episode 9 Review
The Sweeter Life – Episode 10 Review
Sleeping On The Bank Job – Episode 11 Review
No Panties, No Problems! – Episode 12 Review

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No Panties, No Problems! – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 12 (Finale) Review

No Panties, No Problems! – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 12

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 12.

The season finale! What’s this episode about? Something revelatory happened at the end of this episode!

Uh-huh, why do I get the feeling this is going to be something actually not revelatory… or knowing you something perverted… How dare you! No, what happened was we found out the ~truth~ about this series—turns out this is a TV show!

…Um, hate to break it to you but that’s not news… of course it’s a TV show, what else do you think you’ve been watching?! No you don’t understand, I mean there’s bloopers at the end of the episode that reveal this show is a TV show like a scene will play, somebody will flub a line and then the director yells cut and we see the camera crew bustle around to reset the scene as the cast laughs off the mistake.

Wait, so in the context of the anime it’s a TV show? Actually probably not, I think they were just having a bit of fun since this was the last episode, I don’t actually think this is a TV show—still bloopers in an anime is pretty unique, yeah?

I don’t know… I don’t watch anime… Right, sorry.

So you gonna say what the episode is actually about or just waste my time? Geez! Alright then, so the first segment is about Andou’s kid-sister Chiharu asking Chio for help with a school project—a social studies question asking “How You Could Earn 500 Yen with your current abilities”. Immediately Chio’s mind goes to the X-rated which was particularly funny but from there the segment more or less meanders with only a few chuckles in-between.

Fair enough, and the second segment? A much funnier one, thankfully, especially as it’s more or less the final segment of the show (if you don’t count the “next season preview” and “bloopers”). Basically we get to know a little bit more about Yuki—we already knew she was a bit of an exhibitionist but it turns out she’s also a nudist at home and has a secret desire to streak (which makes sense as it combines her two passions; running and being looked at while nude).

And how’s that come into Chio’s walk to school? Well, Manana ends up trying to “tease” Yuki about being a nudist which ends up biting her in the bare-ass as Yuki straight-up confronts her about her comments and says she’ll fight anyone who talks badly of her lifestyle choices. This ends up with Manana backing down and then trying to fix things by suggesting they “go commando” for the rest of the day—an idea that Yuki is very excited about. One quick visit to the restrooms later and both Manana and Yuki are sans-underpants!

No wonder you like this segment… Hey, don’t kink shame! Besides it’s fun seeing Yuki and Manana get so into it, while Chio just watches from the sidelines, getting more and more jealous of how “Manana hasn’t laughed like that with me in a long-time”. This segment does double duty, catering to my desire to see panty-less school girls frolicking and setting up that ‘ship I so long for.

You’re the worst, just thought I’d remind you of that in case I hadn’t said so today. Thanks. Also just for the record, you don’t see anything—this isn’t an ecchi after all, everything is more-or-less eluded to or carefully framed out. Though I do wonder if there will be an uncensored version one day…

Enough! And what was this about a “next season preview”? It’s not getting a second season is it? Not at this stage, but much like the bloopers I have to assume this “preview” is entirely jokey—and kudos because it works. It teases at some things that were brought up in earlier episodes (like being proposed to on the water pipe Chio likes), as well as setting up some wholly ridiculous and over-the-top elementary school butt poking gang that Chiharu is the leader of—it’s all pretty great!

Can we get a spin-off of the butt-poking series please? No reason…

So I take it you enjoyed this finale? For sure—certainly the show is quite a bit different from when it started (as I discussed in my Episode 11 review), but it’s still consistently entertaining and frequently hilarious and this final episode is no different. Plus for those who truly miss the way the show was in the first half of the season the “next season preview” and “bloopers” are very much a reminder of that particular brand of madness—oh and Chio and Manana finally kiss, but it happens in the “blooper” section, so probably not canon, right? Right?!

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

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Sleeping On The Bank Job – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 11 Review

Sleeping On The Bank Job – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 11

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 11.

So what happens in this episode? In the previous episode I made an observation that the show was turning away from the broader ‘random’ style of comedy that it first sold itself as and was moving into more focused character driven comedy and this episode pretty much confirms that!

We’re approaching Asobi Asobase levels of reaction faces here!

Okay, we get it, you’re clever and pick up on things—so what actually happens here then? Basically we’ve got two segments, one where Chio has an awkward night of not being able to sleep after a particularly exciting online video-game victory (it’s during a bank heist in a Payday-esque game) and the other where Manana is worried about her body odour. On paper, neither segment seems like it would elicit large amount of laughs and you know what, compared to earlier episodes they don’t, but the character stuff is so good it doesn’t really matter all that much. This is a very different show then the one we started with!

Uh-huh… you know glossing over what happens in the episode in the space of a paragraph and not having much to follow it up with isn’t really conducive to a riveting review… It’s the penultimate episode of a comedy series with next to zero actual plot—you should be surprised I made it this far and managed to make entertaining weekly reviews!

Well that’s debatable… Tch!

I think this is the first time we’ve seen Manana in plain clothes, they really suit her! Better than that school outfit!

So at the risk of this becoming your shortest review ever is there anything you want to talk about? There were some really impressive close-up’s of faces and really detailed animations in this episode–along with some expectedly weaker ones, and it almost felt like some of this episode was handled by a different animation studio? Anyone else get that feeling, or am I just imagining things?

Please answer in the comments below, ahem, anything else? Also, there were so many Chio-chan panty shots this week—not that I’m complaining! I mean she was one of my 10 Best Waifu’s Of Summer 2018 Anime after all!\

Trust you to be commending the quality of panty-shots belonging to an anime high-school girl… I don’t know why I continue to be surprised at your perverseness. One day I’ll be gone and you’ll miss it.

And to think people on Twitter were actually complaining about *this* kind of fan-service, like really?!

Don’t count on it. So overall thoughts on the episode? It was fun—I liked the added character trait they gave to Yuki about her being some absolutely brutal truth-teller even at the expense of seeming completely and utterly callous. But the way she does it in such a smiley way that makes her impossible to hate for it—the “smiling reaper” I think Manana called her. And as I said last week but will reiterate this show works on a different level now that the comedy is more character focused—it’s certainly an adjustment and for some it will be too much of a change but for me I’m very happy with this shows course correction.

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

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The Sweeter Life – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 10 Review

The Sweeter Life – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 10

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 10.

So what happened in this episode? There’s been a subtle, but nonetheless noticeable change happening to this show the past three or so episodes and now, with episode 10—the transition is more or less complete.

What are you talking about? From where this show was in the first few episodes; that is to say a gag-driven, almost sketch type comedy show. To where it is now, a character-driven comedy show, it may not seem like a big change but it’s kind of important to note.

Can you give some specific examples of this change? Of course. So, side-characters like Momo are being integrated more heavily into the narrative, expanding Chio’s circle of friends—the antics they get up to feel less over the top and outlandish and the comedy is driven from character interactions and knowing their personalities rather than outright ‘gags’. That’s not to say that things aren’t still silly and random, it’s just there’s less of a reliance on that.

And is that a good thing? Depends. I’ve seen a few comments complaining the show isn’t as funny as it once was and that’s a fair observation—it’s not as directly and immediately laugh-out-loud funny anymore. However the refocussing of this show on character development, world building and an overall more cohesive narrative experience ~feels~ like the right approach going forward, although…

Although? It’s the right approach for an ongoing series—for the manga for example, but this show’s about to end and presumably won’t be getting a second season so whether it needed to change is probably more the appropriate question. But if it happened in the manga then it’s only fair it happened in the manga—even if it feels late.

So what’s this episode about? Well Chio and Manana run across Momo the head of their school’s morals committee and she’s got a problem—she wants to buy some sweets and eat them immediately before school rather than saving them for later—something apparently rebellious. They stop into a small sweets store and it turns out that Momo is a completely different person under the influence of sweets. Basically it’s just a silly and cute segment of girls on a sugar high.

Momo’s version of “cutting loose” is adorably quaint.

And the other segments? In another segment that ties some previously disparate characters together—Chio comes across the butt-poking girl from Episode 7 and she discovers that she’s actually Ando’s little sister! And she’s on a mission—to find the girl who made her once tough big brother quit his motorcycle gang… and kill her! There’s a fun misunderstanding where little sister Chiharu thinks that the reason he quit the gang is because the girl was so good at “the sex”. And I mean what’s more interesting is the idea that they’re leaning into the possibility of the relationship between Chio and Ando—which I’m more and more okay with despite their age difference. (Turns out he’s only in his early 20’s…not that that’s legal, but it’s a bit better than I previously thought.)

I love how this anime censored the word ‘sex’ but didn’t censor the c-word back in Episode 2.

Right… so final word on the episode and how the show is progressing on the whole? I’ve already said a lot on it but I will add that I’m not ~quite~ as enthusiastic about the show as I was previously, while I’m more than happy with the character development and world building I think it’s sacrificed a little of what made it unique in the first place, which was this feeling that anything could happen. I’m still happy and enjoy this show every episode—just maybe not as much as I had been previously.

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

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Pipe Dreams – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 9 Review

Pipe Dreams – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 9

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 9.

So what happens on the way to school this week? A mix of hilarity and awkwardness—in both segments, makes for an uneven experience to say the least.

Oh, so it has problems, does it? The main problem with this episode is how much you enjoy older men preying on younger girls—which does seem to be the theme of this episode. Now watch me make a case for it in true reckless reviewing fashion!

Well I’ll admit it does sound a bit problematic, but you do love playing devil’s advocate so go ahead… It’s only problematic if you view this show as taking place in anything resembling reality, which I mean sure, is a pretty lame defence of something problematic but I think its viable to say that because this show is so exaggerated with reality. Having Chio and Manana befriending a homeless pervert and Chio getting a makeover from the guy only for the entire ‘sketch’ to punctuated by him exclaiming how much he enjoys spending time with high-school girls—it kind of feels like a joke Family Guy would pull except it’s stretched out for 10 minutes.

So wait, are you defending it or not? I’m confused. I think, as a character, the homeless pervert is fine in small doses but spending 10+ minutes with him is a bit grating, also there were probably better ways of handling this bit. There are genuine laughs to be had with Chio’s Marilyn Monroe style first makeover and then her elaborate pole dancing routine while wearing a top-knot style wig—all of this taking place at a shrine too. I was laughing out loud at these moments; it’s just whether they needed to be saddled with the homeless pervert or whether these comedic bits could have been done with any other character playing the role of the makeover artist.

Wait, pole dancing? Yeah, she learnt it from playing Grand Theft Auto—see video games don’t always lead to learning violent things! They can teach sexy things too!

I’m going to ignore that comment. Earlier, but you mentioned “older men preying on young girls”—plural. What happens in the second segment? Old mate Andou shows up again and guess what, our once tough blonde haired biker dude has a crush on Chio—which is adorable?(??)

I take it you’re conflicted about this. Again it’s all about the context of this show and whether this falls into reality or not. Obviously a 20something (possibly even 30something) year old man wanting to date a high school is ~not cool~ in our reality but in the world of Chio’s School Road… I mean maybe it’s okay? I mean if nothing else Andou is an absolute sweet heart, even going as far as playing a plethora of BL (Boy’s Love) games and even pretending to be gay and have a boyfriend in order to be relevant to her interests. But even that backfires because Chio is only new to the world of BL and doesn’t recognise the specific (but apparently popular) move Andou is putting on his “boyfriend”.

Poor Andou… wait, why am I rooting for this relationship? This wrong! I know right but at the same time I kinda wanna see them date… is that wrong? It’s definitely wrong… and yet… okay I’ll stop now.

Probably for the best. So anything else you wanted to add? As always this show, even if it’s doing something off-colour or problematic or even just not as consistently funny it always has enough going on around the segments to remain quotable and funny. Like with Chio’s sudden fascination with a large water pipe (going as far to say she’d marry the person who proposed to her while standing on it) and not to mention the little character moment where the hint of a relationship between Chio and Manana was rekindled. All in all I’m mostly enjoying this show for its characters and on that front this episode delivers.

This is the best line in any anime ever. I want to use this in real life.

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

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Sprinter Belle – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 8 Review

Sprinter Belle – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 8

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 8.

So what randomness does Chio and her friends get up to this time? A surprisingly down-to-earth episode, well—with the exception of the middle segment which has Chio being afflicted with Gamer Brain again and has her shimming up the side of two buildings ala Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell games.

‘Kay… so what happens in the first segment then? Well Chio and Manana are on the way to school minding their own business with their other friend Yuki shows up in “inappropriate outfit” which is to say her track and field outfit—which Manana deems wholly inappropriate for walking to school in but of course doesn’t have the courage to outright say that to Yuki so she requests her to come into the busiest convenience store in town in order to show her the error of her ways.

Those expressions, haha, this show has such a dim view of men, I love it!

And how’s that supposed to do that? By having all the men in the store leer at her and making her feel uncomfortable of course! She’s a good friend that Manana, but it backfires because Yuki likes the attention—says it reminds her of being on the track with “all eyes on her” which Manana surmises to mean she’s an exhibitionist. When leaving the store Chio is suddenly wearing her Tennis outfit which at first Manana assumes it’s to show solidarity by working a similarly embarrassing and unsuitable ‘walk to school outfit’ but she later realises it’s because it better hides her identity, thus preventing embarrassment by association!

Did someone forget to animate all the people in the store? It was full in the previous shot… tsk tsk.

Smart girl… Indeed, all a part of Chio’s “Art of Being Below Average” a delightful way of life that’s very relatable—at least in a societal sense.

And the second segment, something about Chio shimmying up a wall like in a video game? At this point the more outlandish stuff feels almost pedestrian to the friend-interactions that ring far truer. It was still a lot of fun though, even if I think it could have been a bit shorter of a segment. Basically Chio climbs up a wall and gets into all sorts of shenanigans then Manana has to come after her, but uses her brains rather than risking her life, to get up the building.

For a hardcore gamer she sure is pretty able-bodied, though I guess she is in the Tennis club too…

Fair enough, and the final part? Unexpectedly, we get a completely non-comedic segment—and by that I don’t mean it tried to be funny and wasn’t but rather it’s a contemplative and honestly kind of pitiable look back at how Momo (who appeared in Episode 5 previously) became public morals officer of the School Council. It’s a well-written, emotional little piece that’s completely at odds with this show. It also paints her teacher (Gotou, who’s forever standing at the front gate of the school) in a much more sympathetic light as he’s the only teacher who bothers to listen to her—and did I mention this is completely at odds with this show! Maybe there’s a point to it later, maybe it’ll prove to be invaluable information, or maybe they just wanted some random pathos for a character we hardly ever see?

Anything else you wanted to add? This is probably one of the weakest episodes so far, but even then a weak episode of Chio’s School Road is more enjoyable that ~most~ things. Plus there’s never a shortage of outlandish and ridiculous screencaps to indulge in, which, let’s face it is half the fun of these reviews!

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

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Public Enema Number One – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 7 Review

Public Enema Number One – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 7

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 7.

What’s… it… about… I see you’ve noticed what I’ve titled the episode, pretty clever, eh?

I’m terrified, honestly terrified about what you’re about to unleash upon me. You think girls groping each other’s breasts without consent is full-on, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Chio and Manana are on their way to school when they’re challenged to a dual by a pint-sized private school girl—they ignore her, too wrapped up in their own activities so the private school girl gets their attention by shoving two fingers up Manana’s butt (through clothes of course).

…what? And then the girls proceed to have an epic “ass-off” (it’s like a ‘face-off’ just with, well you know) attempting to finger each other’s asses and—

—stop! Are you sure you didn’t ‘accidentally’ watch a hentai? It sounds more rude than it actually is, well… actually… no it is exactly as rude as it sounds it’s just not in anyway explicit it’s school yard shenanigans elevated to their insane zenith. And even that it’s not even that out of the ordinary. I remember a spate of “ass-pokings” that swept through my high school for a short period of time until teachers and even the principal intervened.

I mean when I think of ass-off I’m thinking more like the movie Face/Off but switching butts…

Can’t argue with the facts I suppose… so uh, is this a good thing? I mean what’s happening in the episode? Are you asking me if I enjoyed high school girls trying to stick their fingers up each other’s asses in a competitive sport like series of escalating shenanigans? Is water wet? Of course I enjoyed it, for one thing it’s absurdly hilarious regardless (or maybe because of) how inappropriate not only their actions are but their comments interspersed between—like for some reason they keep referring to the butt poking as “enemas” and I guess these girls don’t know what enemas are—which only adds to the hilarity. I could have absolutely filled this review with screencapped quotes but this is only the second-half of the episode, the first half is just as funny—though in a completely different way to the second half.

Okay, hoping for something a bit more wholesome, what’s the first half of the episode about? Chio’s at the convenience store looking for her favourite Western video game magazine only to find its usual presence has been replaced with a BL (Boys Love) game magazine instead—and what transpires is both hilarious and illuminating.

I’m cautious, but proceed… So after a mini-rant about how Japanese games are terrible and Western games are better (incorrect), Chio decides to peruse the magazine, expecting a cavalcade of girly-looking soft boys like she’s used to from the JRPG’s she derides so much but instead finds an eclectic assortment of buff and muscular men of many different ethnicities and age brackets—something she’s apparently very into after playing so many Western shooters where the protagonists are usually gruff and surly old dudes with tortured back stories. She decides some more “research” is in order and decides to purchase the magazine.

Her reaction to these pages is priceless.

So the girl has gotten a taste for the 18+ fare that Japan seems so fond of. Something like that, but there’s still one obstacle standing in the way of her BL paradise, the convenience store clerk who is none other than ex-biker tough guy Andou. At first she decides it’ll be easier to just put the magazine back and leave but in a delightfully Japanese way of thinking then realises she’s accidentally folded one of the pages back and can’t so feels responsible for purchasing it. The next five or so minutes involve Chio trying everything she can think of to hide the fact she’s buying a BL game magazine from Andou.

And does she get away with it? Of course not, nothing gets past Andou, but he’s surprisingly cool with it—going as far as to allay her concerns and tell her not to be ashamed of being whatever she happens to be “into”—he even double bags it for her privacy. (Also I’d like to add that I had a similar experience buying Dojin in Japan, they put it in a paper bag then into a normal plastic bag. It was considerate but I also felt it was indirectly drawing attention to it as anyone in the know would know ~exactly~ what kind of stuff was in the double-bagged package—but I digress.)

The more Andou shows up the more I like him.

Uh-huh, so given that this was a double dose of perverted comedy shenanigans I take it you loved the episode? You know me so well! This was probably my favourite episode of the series so far, even if the butt poking stuff seemed a lot more absurd than the more realistic and relatable struggle of buying an erotic magazine. Obviously this kind of comedy won’t be for everyone but it’s kind of exactly my taste in comedy, which is probably to say tasteless but hey, at least it’s got it’s heart in the right place… in the butt.

Not sure why they pixelated her flipping the bird, I get the feeling this is Cruncyroll’s doing since they did the same in Pop Team Epic.

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

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The Art Of Butt Groping – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 6 Review

The Art of Butt Groping – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 6

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 6.

So what happens on Chio’s road this week? A lot of butt groping…

Oh no, is she okay? Oh it’s not just Chio, practically everyone’s getting the rear end unwarrantedly massaged, but she’s not just a victim she’s also a perpetrator!

Oh dear… should I even ask at this point? Well I’m going to tell you regardless so no point objecting. So our girl obsessed (let’s just call her what she is—very gay) Kabbadi club captain Madoka has been missing from school for a whole week now. That’s when Chio and Manana stumble across her training in the park—where she’s evidently been living for the past week trading under a wise master in the ways of Kabbadi. Except it’s not a wise master it’s just a weird homeless guy. Chio “convinces” Manana to approach Madoka and try to get her to return home but the mere sight of a nubile high school girl sends the captain into a frenzy—a butt groping frenzy!

She’s probably going to go to jail by the end of the series.

Please don’t ever use the word “nubile” again… but wait, isn’t this touching again upon that predatory lesbian trope you mentioned during episode 3? And isn’t that a bad thing? A bad thing for representation but a good thing for comedy!

That’s a terrible attitude! Maybe, but I get the feeling that Madoka isn’t the only gay character in this series. Yuki, the sporty girl who seems to be on the receiving end of Madoka’s advances more often than not expresses that she enjoyed having her butt groped.

I don’t think that’s helping matters… well whatever! I’m not some kind of expert on this thing, it was funny and I laughed. What wasn’t funny was that the homeless guy became homeless after being locked up in jail and losing everything because years ago he molested a girl on a train. Kinda surprised how nonchalantly the show dealt with that whole thing—but I guess he is homeless now so in a very Japanese way that’s a sort of karmic justice and apparently that’s enough?

*shrugs* this kind of derailed—guess that’s what happen when an anime brings up butt groping in the midst of a pervert like you. Harsh but fair.

And what about the other segment? It’s a funny segment about Chio’s “game brain” making her commute needlessly complicated after playing a Western action-stealth video game all night. See, she decides to play a prank on Manana but ends up in a precarious situation dangling over a rushing canal and that’s when Chio and Manana’s friendship is truly tested!

What happens?! Well Manana, being the “good friend” and absolute troll that she is takes some photos rather than saving her, relishing the moment—and so Chio gets revenge of sorts by grabbing her foot and wedging her under the hand railing! It’s a classic case of escalating madness until the both of them have to be rescued by a passerby.

It’s not what it looks like! Or maybe it is?

So it’s a good episode then? Yeah, not the best not the worst but still wholly entertaining—at this point though, even though this is strictly a gag anime (maybe) I do hope we get some more character development as I really do like all these characters, but even if we don’t I’m still very happy with this show!

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

Otaku’s Creed – Episode 1 Review
The Actual C-Word – Episode 2 Review
Full Contact Perineum – Episode 3 Review
Stupid Sexy Smoking – Episode 4 Review
Urine Trouble – Episode 5 Review

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Urine Trouble – ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 5 Review

Urine Trouble – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Chio’s School Road’ Episode 5

What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 5.

So how are things on Chio’s commute to/from school this week? Predictably unpredictable as always!

And what shenanigans does she get up to? The first of the two ‘segments’ is undoubtedly the highlight—despite (or maybe because) it’s just Chio and her increasingly desperate dilemma to get out of a busy men’s public restroom she accidentally ran into while busting to have a piss. The way her mind works is a marvel and I can’t say I’d ever come up with the same mad scheme she does to get out of her embarrassing situation!

Oh yeah? What’s it involve? Oh you know, pretending her iced tea is urine and spilling it on the floor to stop people from entering and then using urinal ping pong balls (I don’t know, I guess they’re a thing in Japan used to stop pee from getting stagnate in urinals) to distract a cat outside, that’ll in turn distract two high school girls to bend over to “awww” at the cat that will in turn distract two businessmen to look at the high school girls bending over allowing her to escape through a window!

That’s uh… that’s quite the plan. How well does that go for her? Well~ she gets stuck, only for a minute though before pushing her way out and diving into the line of site of everyone almost negating the point of her whole plan! Though she brushes it off by pretending she was just excited to find her cat ‘George’ and runs off after it. Crisis averted?

Right… It almost plays out like some one-woman show; indeed it’s almost the kind of thing you’d see in like a 90’s sitcom—just this escalation of bad ideas that eventually culminate into a successful conclusion somehow.

And the second segment? Less overtly funny, and a bit trope-y to be honest but still good! It concerns the head of the disciplinary committee at Chio’s school investigating all the reports of disturbances that have come from Chio’s shenanigans on her way to and from school so she follows Chio and Manana and basically it’s just seeing how random and reckless the two girls are with the added commentary of a very straight-laced girl observing all the actions. I feel like it’s a pretty standard anime comedy gimmick but it still works well for this show because the stuff Chio and Manana do on this particular trip to school aren’t that out of the ordinary for a lot of high-school students (at least in my experience) but because of how much of a straight-arrow the disciplinary committee girl is it makes it seem a lot more OTT.

So good episode then? Yeah, as to be expected from this show but I’m glad the show is not only still funny, but is gradually adding to the universe of characters and showing that the stuff Chio gets up ~does~ have an effect on the world and is being noticed by outsiders—it adds an extra layer to not only the comedy but the characterisation too. Still got my fingers crossed for that Chio x Manana ‘relationship’ though…

Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:

Otaku’s Creed – Episode 1 Review
The Actual C-Word – Episode 2 Review
Full Contact Perineum – Episode 3 Review
Stupid Sexy Smoking – Episode 4 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!