How do you rate episode 8 of
Acro Trip ? Community score: 3.7
©佐和田米/集英社・ 「アクロトリップ」製作委員会
The fact that Acro Trip seems largely uninterested in being a functional TV show is one of its greatest charms, in my opinion. It looks like hot garbage, its characters are all incompetent lunatics, and its stories mostly serve as delivery mechanisms for dumb jokes, with concerns about plot and World-building ranks second on the priority list. At least most of the time it is. Last week, we saw what happened when Acro Trip decided to pay attention and give Chrome and Mashirou some backstory, and it was…pretty good! By any means, this isn't the funniest episode of the series, but it's entertaining enough. This week, however, Acro Trip doubled down on introducing new story elements and supporting characters, and the results were… mixed.
Of course, this also means that I'm once again stuck eating crow, since I was the one who requested strange new side characters just a few weeks ago. The thing is, I was hoping that those new characters would be…fun, I guess? I chuckled at Acro Trip's sheer audacity in introducing Chizuko's secret teacher-father as a plot element that was just casually revealed off-screen by the grandfather before the episode began, but That's pretty much the only interesting thing about the guy. Like, I often joke that he's just as much of a tokusatsu jerk as his daughter, except Papa Date's obsession is directed towards Chrome instead of Berry Blossom, but that's pretty much all there is to it. show made with this week's character. He's introduced, given an award for a few minutes, and then completely disappears until he shows up with a lame gag at the end of the episode. The sauce is too bland.
I feel the same way about Kokoa, the new villain who has appeared to make Chizuko and Chrome's lives even more ridiculous and inconvenient. I like the idea of a “villain” character determined to pick fights with everyone in the cast. Kokoa's whole point, though, is that she's a tiny little girl just as capable of crying over being stiflingly lost as she is of stealing Chizuko's new Magic Card and breaking into Fossa Magna Base. I'm also very confused as to why her best friend/babysitter, Tsuki,…doesn't have a complete face, like he's some random side character that was accidentally cast acting role.
The episode's final sketch shows Chizuko and Chrome crashing Berry Blossom's local handshake event, which is the cutest scene of the week, but it's only a few minutes long and doesn't really go anywhere, or . At least, we get a funny situation when Berry Blossom almost rips off Chrome's wrist. Still, I wish a funny joke wasn't the most memorable part of this disappointing and disjointed Acro Trip episode.
Rating:
Acro Trip is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other popular cultures, which you can also find on Twitterhis blog and podcast.
