Coming out of the pencil of the twins You.Ling, 快把我哥带走 or Take my brother away is the animated adaptation (with different entities involved) of a famous ongoing and hilarious web manhua that greatly reproduces the structure of what in Japan is the 4-koma, 4 funny panels that end with a joke.
Our twins, do not use four panels but a few more to tell the story of Shi Fen (時分) and Shi Miao (時秒), brother and sister extremely different.
Generally, the adaptations from the 4-koma are complex to be managed especially if they go to base themselves on fast jokes. Luckily for this short anime (just under four minutes per episode, including the intro and outro), we have Rarecho (ラレコ) charismatic director behind the iconic Aggretsuko.
His direction is brilliant and fast, does not let breath and makes every moment lovable.
Shi Miao with her endless energy - a gorilla according to - his brother Shi Fen skilled opportunist and useless human (and to what seems not even an intelligent one!) live their daily lives and shenanigans surrounded by friends.
I've seen both dub versions, both Chinese and Japanese.
To be honest, I found the whole Chinese version superior to the Japanese one, even for cultural references. I noted for example that the Japanese version in some passages changed the dialogues by eliminating things that were not maybe suitable for their audience.
An interesting example is the episode of the "Grand Buffet".
In that episode couples (we are on Valentine's Day) have a huge discount for a restaurant's buffet, Shi Fen then tries to convince her sister to pretend to be a couple in order to spare.
Shi Fen: "What is more important moral integrity or buffet?"
Shi Miao: "Moral integrity."
The Japanese, for example, have changed "Moral integrity" to "Pride", but the bulk of the change is when Shi Miao refuses by telling to her brother:
"Go with your right hand to the buffet", an obviously sexual joke that in the Japanese version becomes "Go with someone else".
There are also references to Chinese socialism sometimes that were cut in the Japanese version.
Chinese dub also works as tone and rhythm and personally, I found it better (it must also be said that I study Chinese Mandarin thus I am accustomed to the language).
Speaking of language, finally, I want to mention that the donghua is also available with subtitles in simplified Chinese and given the paucity of dialogues it can be a great way for those who are studying the language to practice reading ideograms.
Ultimately an excellent product currently in its fifth season, and the You.Ling sisters prove to be absolute masters (I strongly recommend reading their suspense Manhuas - they are incredible).
Nice, fresh and fast.
90/100
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