Bono Bono (2016)

Bonobono is a TV Short (animes that have about 1 minute- 12 minutes of screentime.) that was adapted from a very popular manga by Mikio Igarashi of which sold about an estimate of 9,000,000 that aired in 2016 and is still airing to this day, albeit with no subs coming out after the 154th episode. Bonobono tells the daily lives of a relatively small cast of anthropomorphic characters, with a disconnected plot each episode, usually with something mundane, from removing a raccon's tail, peanuts and climbing trees, with the charming Bonobono (the blue sea otter) and the cynical Araiguma (the racoon) being the central main characters, some appear regularly too, like Bonobono's father and the pink chipmunk Shiramisu.

The mellow pacing and atmosphere, Bonobono makes excellence use of it's simplistic art and animation to evoke a sense of familiarity and comfort many of Japan's people and many others might need in order to unwind from their busy days. The music is quite mellow as well, from the ending theme which just SLAPS as well as the accompaniments that play along with the many character's peaceful and quiet lives.

Though from how straight-forward and simple this show is, it's bound to have the many pratfalls many of it's genre share in common together, being repetitive. A lot of the characters can get old pretty fast, from Bonobono's sometimes annoying naivety, Shiramisu's repetitive annoyance towards the other characters to Araiguma's constant hitting of the other animals which just tries to force some laughs from the audiences, which most of the time fails due to how overused their gimmick and gags can be, and did i say that this show has some toilet jokes too? Because it does. As i've said, everything is as simple as it can be, which some or maybe a lot of people might not like which i don't blame them for as it's a matter of personal preference and taste.

Although despite that, the true highlight of Bonobono, for me is how simple it is. From the art, to the characters and to the music as well, there's really no complexity when it comes to shows like these, though that really isn't a bad thing, as Bonobono serves to be just a comforting show for people (mainly for kids and busy japanese salarymen) that anyone could watch at anytime of the day or night and i would highly recommend this show to anyone who likes short iyashikeis and comfy kids shows.