This review is spoiler-free.

At this point, I'm sick and tired of repeating the same thing I've been saying for the past couple of years, but it goes without saying that we all have our own unique sense of humour. What might have person A rolling on the floor laughing could leave person B completely stone-faced and unfazed, and the reverse is just as true. No single style or type of comedy stands head and horns above the others, and anything, no matter how bizarre it seems conceptually, can tickle someone's funny bone. That said, as much as I love absurdist comedy and tend to laugh at the dumbest stuff possible, Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan—much like both seasons of Pop Team Epic, which I've reviewed before—is not entertaining in the slightest, no matter how you decide to slice it. As harsh as it may sound, this fresh-from-the-oven seasonal is nothing more than yet another flavour-of-the-month, gimmick-riddled fad that'll soon fade into utter obscurity, leaving barely a hoofprint behind.

So, what's really wrong with the show? Why am I, along with so many other people, so hellbent on voicing our disappointment and frustration with its content? Well, it may come off as a complete shock to some, but the series, despite all its supposed quirkiness and uniqueness, has no clue how to create and maintain a genuinely funny moment. Most, if not all, of the jokes are inherently and extremely disorganised, nonsensical and haphazard. While that randomness and abnormality are what should make them interesting and compelling, in reality, they lack the timing, delivery and flow needed to pull it off and land effectively. Just because the comedy is meant to be absurd doesn't mean that the jokes themselves ought to be absurdly wishy-washy. They're simply too lukewarm, scatterbrained and stag-nant to really pack a punch. Naturally, the quality of each of these gags varies from one to another, but they always follow and fall back on the same predictable formula: the punchline is either about the protagonist being a deer, having antlers, or the characters yelling some gibberish at the top of their lungs. Now, you might argue that's exactly what an anime about animated deer should have to offer, and I'd agree with you if not for a small yet very crucial fact: there's no deviation from this formula at any point, and the jokes themselves are neither set up properly nor conclude in a satisfying manner. They come and go without affecting you in any way, shape or form. As a result, once a gag concludes, you're left feeling like a deer in the headlights, unsure of what the hell you've just witnessed or how you're supposed to react to it.

But it's not just the writing that bears the blame for the stag-gering lack of humour and hilarity. The central gimmick and other adjacent quirks are equally responsible for completely screwing the show over and burying it alive before it even had the chance to spread its antlers. Turning a generic, cutesy anime girl into our favourite car-loving animal might seem novel or even hilarious at first, yet there's no universe in which this silly premise can carry the entirety of the anime's humour on its back. There's only so much you can do with such an idea, and it quickly becomes apparent how little wit the show possesses. The running gags are overused to the point of inducing nausea, and any and all deer-related skits aren't amusing in the slightest. The few scenes that have some comedic potential are the ones that don't rely on Shikanoko's appearance, supernatural "powers," or woodland heritage to do the trick. But, as you might've already guessed, they're too scarce and undercooked to be entertaining. But hey, at least the references the show is very fond of throwing in are silly and savvy, right? Pfft, as if. I firmly believe that references aren't funny on their own. Simply showing, mentioning or alluding to a well-known property isn't going to make everyone laugh. For references to be truly laugh-worthy, you have to be innovative and playful. You need to forge them into a ridiculous though respectful mockery of the source material that can and will stand on its own, even if the addressee doesn't recognise the thing that's being satirised. Instead of merely slapping them onto the screen and expecting the viewers to giggle out loud because they "get it," the series should've utilised them to create meaningful, well-thought-out skits. As it stands, all of those references peppered throughout don't enhance the jokes at all. Take them away, and nothing of value is lost. The only reference that really stands out to me is the one poking fun at Disney's extreme strictness for copyright violations. It's snappy, out-of-nowhere, and brilliantly introduced in the conversation. Other than that, the references are a whole bunch of tedious drivel and add absolutely nothing to the scenes in which they appear.

What really doomed the show, in retrospect, was its runtime. Shikanoko's twelve standard-length episodes are painfully uneventful and boring to an excruciating degree. While it's not unheard of for a comedy show to work wonderfully as a fully-fledged one-cour show or even a two-cour one, in the case of this daring darling, cutting the episode duration in half would've been a far more efficient but also more logical decision. Though it wouldn't have fixed some of the more inherent issues it suffers from, such a procedure would, at the very least, have made it less monotonous to watch. Being unfunny is one thing, but being boring on top of that should be classified as a health hazard and come with a warning label. With all of this in mind, it's not difficult to see how and why my enjoyment of the show was flat-out non-existent. Again and again, I was forced to sit through each episode, watching whatever the hell it had in store for me with utter apathy. None of the jokes really landed; none of the references were en-deer-ing or creative enough for me to appreciate them; none of the gimmicks had any staying power; and none of the episodes felt like they actually deserved and needed the twenty-or-so minutes of run time. Nonetheless, despite my extreme negativity, I wouldn't say that Shikanoko is among the worst things I've seen. In fact, I don't even feel particularly strongly about it as a whole. To put it more bluntly, it's so lukewarm and indifference-engendering that it doesn't even warrant intense disdain or a SUPER harsh rating. In a few months, I'll probably forget about this show's existence, and that might be the most damning and destructive piece of criticism I can direct towards it.

Still, before I leave you with the closing remarks, I have to acknowledge a few positives. Mind you, there aren't many of those in here, but I'd look like a doe-eyed goober if I didn't mention them: the memes, the marketing, and the voice acting. It's easy to see how impactful the anime's marketing was to its initial success and popularity; without the fawn-tastic opening, it would've never taken off the way it did. The same applies to the memes it spawned (and will continue to spawn for the foreseeable future) since they're a hundred times funnier than anything in the actual show. Finally, you can really tell the seiyuu had a blast voicing the characters, doing their best to bring life to the lines they'd been given, even though the final product leaves much to be desired. They, the opening, the gifs, and the goddamn brain-rot memes infuse this sorry shitpost of a product with way too much longevity and liveliness for what it's worth, and it's impressive to a depressing degree how deer-ivative and drab it'd be without their presence.

Oh, deer.

To cut to the chase and stop beating around the bush like an unruly beast, Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan is undeniably a strange show, both on paper and in practice. Even if you go in with minimal or even zero expectations, the series will still find a way to let you down and bore you to tears. It's supposed to be one of those turn-off-your-brain-and-let-it-rot kind of shows, but by the time you get to episode three, there's nothing left to keep you interested in its antics. "Haha, she's a deer with antlers sticking out of her empty head! Haha, they're so loud! Haha, there are so many crackers everywhere! Hilarious!" This shtick can only take you so far, and man, do those gimmicks run out of steam fast.

But hey, at least it's over, right?