Episode 8 – My Deer Friend Nokotan

I can officially say that I made a mistake in judgment. My deer friend Nokotan. Maybe the real measure of a series shouldn’t be how often its comedy actually makes you laugh or the persistence of its beats. There are more relevant standards. There are some series that simply live up to their production quality, regardless of the story. Others present works that speak to the human soul, even the most basic ones elevating their Gospels to the status of masterpieces. and Nogudan? Why, this humble deer cartoon rose to the top of my personal pile with its poignant plot Avoid making Christmas episodes.

Yes, through any non-Euclidean timeline My deer friend Nokotan In this week’s episode, its activities take the Deer Club into December and not even mentioned That damn holly hellscape jumps right into the story about the New Year. I cheered. I cried. I pre-ordered official merchandise worth 3,000 yen ($27.50 USD) Nogudan commodity. This is the anime of the year and I won’t tolerate any arguments against it.

Kind of like the main character in Isekai denouncing slavery, rather than in an untimely Christmas episode should For many anime this is an easy hurdle to clear, but equally many anime fail at it. There are plenty of shows out there that feature a creepy, dissonant winter wonderland in the likes of “Damn” August Too high to count. Whenever I see the pine trees decorated with lights and brightly packaged boxes, my hair wants to crawl out of my body, my teeth itch uncontrollably, and I have the urge to think of Santa Claus and evil The kingdom burned and all his descendants of Satan fell to the earth.

What’s actually more impressive is NogudanSpecifically, no Christmas episodes were produced. The protagonist is a ghost deer. This opened the door to all kinds of reindeer jokes and sleigh pulling shenanigans to keep me distracted while I was sweating in the valley. The theme’s approach and subsequent seasonal skips were so compelling that I can only conclude that the fine people behind it My deer friend Nokotan I hate off-season Christmas episodes as much as I do. It’s amazing that I was able to come to such an understanding with an entity I had previously been hostile to. But maybe that’s what Christmas is about.

But to be honest, this episode was pretty good overall. One of them, the deer pun and its subsequent translation, hit particularly home this week. Visiting the shrine and finally seeing correctly that they use the name “Deer God” feels like I’ve been waiting weeks for them to deploy it. But you also have something like a sign that says “Great Mis-fawn-tune” or “Hang in there for the deer’s life.” It’s forced in the best possible way and it continues.

My distaste for Christmas and love of terrible puns aren’t only on a wavelength My deer friend Nokotan Stay with me this week too. The humor seemed to continue into the weirder levels I’d been hoping it would reach. The whole routine of the deer god at the shrine during the New Year’s visit is one thing, but the game of deer life that fills the second half of the episode is something else entirely. It’s basically meant to put it aside in illogical situations, featuring antlered carcass horror and a detour to Alaska. When Nokotan evolves into “the highest level deer: moose” (my precise smells like crap) and negotiate with grizzly bears to win America’s freedom, I was totally involved in everything this episode did. My deer friend Nokotan This week, one side wins – all it takes to achieve that goal is murder Santa Claus and bury his body in the cold earth.

Grade: Velvet

My deer friend Nokotan Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris doesn’t want to burn any decent deer puns in the footer in case he needs to use them in reviews in the coming weeks. If you’re really craving any extra silliness, why not check out his twitter Or his blog? I think I saw some jokes there that day.