L Lawliet’s Review-o-Rama: Nerima Daikon Brothers

Helloooooooooooooooo AAA! Are you ready to rock and roll? How’d you like to make some quick cash with some fellows in snazzy outfits, a panda, and a radish farm, huh? Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the one, the ONLY…the Nerima Daikon Brothers!

Nerima Daikon Brothers is one of those shows you can marathon in one day, and repeat the process just to make sure that you watched what you thought you watched. What did you think you watched? A ridiculous, hilarious trip into sane insanity, if that makes any sense at all. As mentioned before, the plot revolves around the titular band-made up of big-dreamer daikon-farmer Hideki, money-grubbing gold-digger Mako, and pretty-boy part-time host Ichiro. They want to build a concert dome on their daikon farm, but they don’t have the money to do it. This is usually due to the money being blown by one or more of the band members, through one zany incident after another. They attempt to get back the money by thieving it, which leads to even zanier incidents. Along the way, they meet an…interesting cast of characters, and do quite a number of showtunes while they’re at it.

The series is only twelve episodes long, and it was directed by Watanabe Shinichi, who previously worked on Excel Saga, Pani Poni Dash, and other anime series. His trademark craziness is apparent in this show, and his author avatar, Nabeshin, as he does in various other shows, makes an appearance, which I’ll get into later. For now, let’s rock right in and talk characters. Oh, and for the record, I’ll be going by the English dubbed version. I’ll explain why in a little while.

Characters

Alright, let’s give a big round of applause to the Nerima Daikon Brothers themselves!

In the middle, we have Hideki, a young man with a big dream: to see crowds gather to listen to the band play at their own, personal concert dome. He’s very driven in this regard, as much of what he does is for the sake of the dome, and he’ll take any chance he can get to get the show on the road. Hot-tempered and hellbent, this is one farmer you don’t want to take lightly.

Coming up on the left is Mako, a conniving money-grubber (and money-blower). All she wants in life is to be famous and to own a lot of Dom Perignon wine. She sabotages her own efforts, though, by spending all of her and her bandmates’ cash on things like pachinko or plastic surgery. She is the object of Hideki’s affections, despite the fact that they’re cousins, and she continually rejects him by saying the constitution doesn’t allow it (protip-it does in Japan). Sneaky and scheming, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your wallet around her.

Last but not least, on the right, we have Ichiro, a silent-but-deadly type who works part-time at a host club. He’s the straight man to all of the others’ antics, and he talks in a monotone, quiet voice. He usually is the lone voice of reason in the band, not that the others will listen. He’ll willingly go along with what they do, but he’s occasionally the center of trouble himself.

Oh, and the little guy? That’s Pandaikon, a panda adopted by the band, Ichiro in particular.

Now, occasionally, the band gets into some trouble, always involving money. Who do they turn to? Boys and girls, give a warm Nerima welcome to…

…Pops! Or, as we know him, Nabeshin. In this series, Nabeshin appears as a rental shop owner who loans the band whatever they need, in exchange for a song. These rentals range from rocket launchers to underground drills. Sometimes, they get the band into further trouble-but they always come through in the end.

Now, to get right down to it, the band performs a lot of criminal actions. So, who do you call when there’s crime in town?

Inspector Gadget Widget, of course! This femme fatale begins investigating their crimes partway into the series, and ends up getting roped into their shenanigans. With a wide variety of gadgets and gizmos at her side, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Unless she comes into contact with Pandaikon. Then she’s all mushy.

Aside from these guys, there’s not many recurring characters aside from the villains of the last few episodes. So, there ends the band roll call. Let’s move onto the  meat of the show-music!

Music

Now, I mentioned earlier that I will be referring to the dub of NDB in this review. That’s because I find that it is more entertaining to watch than the original Japanese version. That’s not to say it’s bad-but it has more of a wacky charm to it in the English release than in its native language. A lot of dialogue and jokes get lost in translation, so some changes had to be made.

For instance, the theme songs are to the same tune, but while the Japanese is more low-key and similar to other anime theme songs, the English version seems to have more effort put into it, more like a Broadway showtune. Here’s a comparison of the two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUXkboV7BHM&feature=related

^Japanese

^English

The songs in the episodes of NDB are all English dubbed, with the exception of one song in the final two episodes.  It’s an understandable change-you can’t have English-speaking characters suddenly speak Japanese (with one exception in the final episodes.)

Other times, the English dub just sounds better-and that’s a big deciding factor when music’s a heavy aspect of the show. For example, compare the Japanese version of NDB’s “Money” song-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMCKMk3WudY&feature=related

-to the English version.

It’s more peppy, more engaging, and downright funnier. It’s the better song for the show.

The leads in the English dub really gave it their all, and it shows. The show wouldn’t be the same if they had done it half-assed. They manage to take ridiculous-sounding (and sometimes downright offensive, but forgivable in the delivery) lyrics and make them pure comedy gold.

One last thing before we wrap this up-the big disclaimer.

WARNING! WARNING! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

NDB is a fairly adult show. It’s got references to various kinds of sexualities, incest, and swear words up the wazoo. If you can’t handle stuff like this, this isn’t the show for you. If you can, then it’ll be just fine. Just thought I’d mention it. Don’t want people going, “YOU NEVER TOLD ME THEY SAID F$%K! I GOT IN TROUBLE BECAUSE FAMILY HEARD IT!” or anything like that.

Are we clear? Good. Then enjoy the show.

Final Thoughts

NDB takes you on a rockin’ roller coaster of a ride, with its memorable cast and catchy tunes. But, at twelve episodes long, it leaves you wanting more. Many of the plots are formulaic, and the music is even repeated often, but that’s not something that should put you off. All in all, it’s worth the time, but don’t think too much while watching it.

I’m gonna give Nerima Daikon Brothers 4 1/2 dancing pandas out of five. Keep rockin’, keep farmin’ and let the music play.