Punchline (anime)

Punchline

Key visual
パンチライン
Anime television series
Directed by Yutaka Uemura
Written by Kotaro Uchikoshi
Music by Tetsuya Komuro
Studio MAPPA
Network Fuji TV (noitamina)
English network
Original run April 9, 2015 – scheduled

Punchline (パンチライン Panchirain) is a Japanese anime television series produced by MAPPA. The series follows Yūta Iritatsu, whose spirit has been separated from his body. The series is directed by Yutaka Uemura, with scripts by Kotaro Uchikoshi, music by Tetsuya Komuro, and character designs by Shōta Iwasaki. It premiered on Fuji TV's Noitamina block on April 9, 2015.[1][2] Crunchyroll started to stream the series on April 9, 2015.[3]

Characters

Yūta Iridatsu (伊里達 遊太 Iridatsu Yūta)
Voiced by: Marina Inoue
The main protagonist. His soul was separated from his body following the bus hijacking incident. He must search for Sacred Tome of Koraikan in order to return to his physical body. Whenever he sees a girl's panties, he gets excited and loses consciousness, which somehow ends up causing an asteroid to collide with the Earth.
Mikatan Narugino (成木野 みかたん Narugino Mikatan)
Voiced by: Sora Amamiya
A member of the idol group "She's May". She is also the magical girl Strange Juice. Whenever she is flustered or alone, she ends up speaking in the Tsugaru dialect which she picked up in her early childhood. [4] When the characters in her name are read differently, her name is a pun on the phrase "superhero" in Japanese.[5]
Ito Hikiotani (曳尾谷 愛 Hikiotani Ito)
Voiced by: Minako Kotobuki
A NEET who spends most of her time playing online games and taking care of her pet Muhi, a bear cub.
Meika Daihatsu (台初 明香 Daihatsu Meika)
Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya
A robot who happens to be the landlady of the apartment all the characters are living in. She is also a genius inventor, and has unrivalled hacking skills. However, she has very poor physical reflexes. She speaks in the Kansai dialect. Her name is a pun on the phrase "Great Inventor" in Japanese.[4]
Lovra Chichibu (秩父 ラブラ Chichibu Rabura)
Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu
A gyaru who works as an exorcist. Despite her profession, she does not believe in the existence of spirits. [4]
Chiranosuke (チラ之助 Chiranosuke)
Voiced by: Yuri Yoshida
A talking cat spirit.

Episode list

No. Title Original air date
1 "Panty Panic"
"Pantsu Panikku" (パンツパニック) 		April 9, 2015
Yūta Iridatsu is caught up in a bus hijacking along with his neighbour Lovra. Heroine "Strange Juice" comes to save the day. Once the bus has stopped, Lovra is knocked out by the mastermind who is about to shoot Strange Juice. When Yuta sees Lovra's underpants, he powers up and tackles the mastermind out into the sea. He wakes up on the shore with Strange Juice, and upon seeing her underpants, falls unconscious again and powers down. Something falls from the sky and his soul leaves his body. He reawakens in his apartment building two days later, with a spirit cat, Chiranosuke, who explains his situation: A spirit is inhabiting his body and he must find the "Nandala Gandala" book to take back his body. While Yuta searches for the book in his apartment building, he learns that when he sees girls underwear twice in a row he loses consciousness and an asteroid destroys earth. Luckily, in spirit-form he can go back in time and re-do that situation. The spirit cat also informs him of his weak ability to affect objects. He learns that his neighbour, Mikatan, is Strange Juice. 
2 "The Lace of Compassion"
"Seirui awaremi no resu" (生類憐みのレース) 		April 16, 2015
Lovra despairs that she will never have real spirit powers like her parents. The apartment's landlady, Meika, learns "Cheermancy" to cheer her up. Lovra mishears, thinking she said "Necromancy" and tries it out. Yuta learns that cinnamon dust in the air raises his spirit powers, and uses the opportunity to break a bottle in front of Lovra, but cannot do it again without the cinnamon. Ito tries and fails to hide a bear cub she found abandoned in a box. 
3 "Mars Attacks!"
"Kaseijin, shuurai!" (火星人、襲来！) 		April 23, 2015
The "Qmay group" broadcasts a video challenging the government to explain an imminent asteroid due to arrive on New Years Eve at 11:55 PM. Yuta suspects the group's recently deceased leader, Tsubouchi Qmei, is the spirit inhabiting his body. Mikatan plans a Christmas party in Ito's room. Ito suspects that Mikatan is Strange Juice, and Mikatan uses Meiko's camouflage technology to try and convince her otherwise. An intruder from the Qmay group attempts to kidnap Ito's bear cub, who gets cut in the struggle but appears to have rapidly healed after being rescued by a costumed hero calling himself Miyazawa Kenji. Ito and Lovra learn that Mikatan is Strange Juice and that Meiko is a robot. 

References

  1. ↑ Technically it premiered on April 10, but the timeslot for Punchline is listed as April 9, 2015 at 24:55.
  2. ↑ "Noitamina announces Punch Line original anime". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Crunchyroll to Stream Noitamina's Punch Line Anime". Anime News Network. Anime News Network. 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Official website for punchline" (in Japanese). Aniplex. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  5. ↑ ノイタミナアニメ『パンチライン』ゲーム版発表！ アニメ＆ゲーム制作のきっかけを、打越鋼太郎氏に独占インタビュー（前編） (Interview with scriptwriter) (in Japanese). famitsu.com. 2015-03-15. Retrieved 16 April 2015.

External links