Cromartie High School

Publisher
ADV
Director
Hiroaki Sakurai
Production
Kodansha, Production IG, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2003

Cromartie High School Episode 7 Preview

By David Rasmussen
24th May 05

Dearest Reader
Just when I thought they were not going to post up any new episodes of the series on Anime Network’s Free on Demand service they deliver an all new episode, this being Episode 7.
UNFORTUNATELY it just has to revisit a certain one trick storyline seen previously in Episode 4, mainly the man of Destrade and his one man crusade of comedy.

This time out he has discovered the one universal truth that a lot of us know firsthand… there’s not very much to watch on TV these days. And it doesn’t help him in the slightest that the most popular show of his “world” is the odd couple comedy of two guys dressed in outlandish fuzzy costumes… they’re the two who appear in the opening credits walking down the hallway (one hits the other one).

So what does this have to do with anything? Well it seems that the popularity of this show has irritated our man of Destrade to no end, so much so that he wants to form an “unholy alliance” between himself and his rival “honey boy”, aka Kamiyama of Cromartie High… until he finds out Kamiyama is a fan of the very show our Destrade man wants to overthrow by joining forces with Kamiyama!

The next part of the episode is our man watching the episodes to death, trying to figure out what makes the series tick and why people love it so. The rest on that you can probably figure out yourself.
Pity the episode doesn’t have the decency to end there as it wanders off, and (as the classic novelization Dirty Pair Kei once put when referring to her partner Yuri) the episode drifts away into the sky, ignoring common sense and any protests from those watching it, as it goes into another weird tangent that makes no real sense. I don’t know what the hell the last part is supposed to be (other than Kamiyama’s reunion with his old friend who he was considering ignoring when he was in Episode 1 of the Anime, then morphed into briefly at the start of Episode 2) but it has to do with another show featuring a super deformed freakishly disturbing seemingly visually genderless naked male character with kanji writing on his belly that steps on a sea cucumber (the weapon of choice of Osaka), turns into an image of a stomach, and then blows up while floating in the ocean… or some sickening thing like that. Must be a friend of Conkers the nasty Squirrel.

Oh, and did I mention Kamiyama is reunited with his old friend from Middle School… only it seems his old friend has fallen to the Dark Side of the Force since he seems to be in a completely different “backdrop” than Kamiyama (his screen is black, as if he was talking to Kamiyama all the way from the planet Coruscant or something and it‘s nighttime). Next thing you know he’s be trying to cut off Kamiyama’s hand so he can proclaim to be his father… oh, wait, that doesn’t happen. Better wrap this up now.

Cromartie High Breakdown Episodic 7th
What’s Hot? - Well, it’s no Episode 3 and it has a few moments… barely.
Yes, most of the episode is carried by the fine voicework of the guy who plays the voice of the guy from Destrade (the frustrated comedian who heads the Year One class of bullies), but otherwise the episode is another not so fine episode like Cromartie High Episode 4 (for all the same reasons I wasn’t such a big fan of Episode 4). It’s a one trick pony, only this time it’s worse because it doesn’t stick to that “trick” (the frustrations of a comedian yet to be born) and wanders off (severely wanders off at the last 5 or so minutes of the episode) leaving the viewers to wonder what the hell is going on. I still don’t know what’s going on.
Episode 8 looks better though, so things will pick up next review.

What’s Not? - Eck. I don’t like episodes that revolve around the guy from Destrade and his singular one track minded pursuit of comedy. It’s just not very good, and I wish it wasn’t a plot point.
Mind you I like his voice actor, who does his best to make the episode interesting despite the fact it’s not very interesting, but I don‘t like much else about the episode.
Heck, I wish I never have to see another one of these strange episodes ever again, despite the fact I have such a high opinion on the voice acting talents of the guy who plays the Destrade guy in question… that and I know that’s something that’ll never happen since we’re probably going to see another episode like this in the near future, which means seeing this Destrade guy again in the future… sad.

Moments to Remember? - Somehow the whole skit about the TV show with the two guys wearing the stupid costumes got a few chuckles out of me… and that’s it. I don’t know why I reacted though, maybe I was bored or something. Who knows. Again the voice acting was great, yeah, but what was the point.

What to Ignore? - Where the hell is Kamiyama’s friend reporting from that his backdrop has to be bathed in darkness of a nighttime cityscape sky? What’s with another episode going to the guy from Destrade? What’s with the one track minded humor thing? Where did that come from? And by all that is holy what the heck is up with that naked super deformed character thing that steps on a sea cucumber and explodes while floating on the sea like that!! Ugh. Never show me that character ever again!!
Ahem… sorry, ignore me, this episode is somewhat passable despite my complaints, really.

Overall? - It’s not a horrible Episode 3 fate, but it’s not much of an uplifting thing either.
Maybe we won’t have to see another episode like this for awhile… pray that’d be true.
Now mind you it’s not a horrible episode, and it’s good… but it could have been better.
The series is still good, and I still have nice things to say about it, but I just didn’t like this one all that much. Slow week. Next one looks great though, so I hope they show that ASAP.

-- David Rasmussen 24th May 05

Cromartie High School Images