Animal Lane 1

  
  

The show is set up as 2 episodes, so we start the second one after the break. Ami-chan comes home to find a game of baseball being played in her room and she gets pelted with balls. Ouch... Issa, Kenta, and Iyo can't play outside since other people would see them and they can't play in Animal Lane either.. Ami-chan wants to know what exactly AniYoko is.. it's short for Animal Yokochou (Animal Lane).. not short for アニメの視聴率が横ばい anime no shichouritsu ga yokobai, "Anime ratings are going sideways". Yes, we know (^^;;) That's not what Ami-chan meant, she wants to know what kind of place it is. She wants to know what's beyond that weird door in her room. Giving her no answer, Iyo, Issa, and Kenta go play a game... she doesn't need to know about it, Kenta says. Ami-chan goes to open the door and Kenta stops her. If she opens it they might not be able to come back again... well, that's fine, they aren't all that good of friends yet. Iyo dies (^^;;).. and when Ami-chan says they're friends forever she springs back to life.. turns out that Kenta was lying about not being able to come back. But nobody besides those who live in Animal Lane have opened the door so something might happen...

Iyo tells a story.. One day, a girl not from Animal Lane was asking for food and one of the residents gave her an onigiri. After eating, the girl carved a statue of an onigiri and that place is now known as Onigiri Street.... okay, what does that have to do with anything? (^^;;;) Ami-chan again asks what's behind that door. Well, maybe it was left over from the person who lived there before remodeling the house.. no... Kenta's heard something different. In 1999 the human world and Animal Lane were connected and.. Ami-chan doesn't let him finish. According to Issa, a robot cat named Iriemon (not Doraemon) came from the future with it... well, no choice but to try opening it now. Ami-chan pulls on it as hard as she can but it doesn't open at all.. something's wrong.. Issa points out some writing on it.. おす osu, "push".. not pull. Oooops (^^;;) Seems Iyo stuck the door in the wrong way... Ami-chan still wants to know what's beyond the door. Ami-chan takes a look inside -- there's a horse. She takes another look -- the horse is in costume now. Issa says that horse is Yamanami-san... they still won't answer her question. Kenta finally agrees to tell all, but she better not regret it. According to him, this world isn't real, it's something she's dreaming as an adult while riding a train to work. They've been in the room the whole time and no one else is around, so that's your proof. It's got to be a lie.. nope, Iyo'll prove it by hitting Ami-chan since it won't hurt in a dream. But it does hurt (^^;;) Issa, Iyo, and Kenta leave without giving an explanation about Animal Lane to Ami-chan. Still curious, Ami-chan takes another look through the door before heading off to dinner-- this time Yamanami-san's in some odd dancing costume (^^;;).

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Well, that was interesting, wasn't it? Some amazing jokes thrown in there for a supposed kiddy show (^^;;) Animal Lane reminds me somewhat of Paniponi Dash! with all the jokes and random things (and some chaos). Especially from Iyo... she's up there with My Melody and Sophie in terms of being an airhead, and then some. How many more times is she going to die from being sad? (^^;;) Others aren't quite that bad, but Ami-chan seems the only reasonable character around. Quite something for a supposed 5 year old kindergarten girl, the same age as Yuzuyu-chan from Aishiteruze Baby... Ami-chan seems to be a bit older than that in the way she talks, perhaps a bit like Miku from Zettai Shounen ;)

I'm not concerned about the animation since we're dealing with pretty simple stuff, though it is a bit low budget (with most of the work outsourced to Korea). Anyways, I like the mix of silliness with omega kawaii Ami-chan so I'll keep on watching, though it might be hard at times to blog (especially if I miss some of the jokes). aaryarya koryarya aaryarya koryarya~... still can't get it out of my head ;)