Knee Slapping Party

I'm a pretty big fan of Japanese Animation (Anime) and I've seen a lot of titles. According to my Anime News Network account, I've seen all of 158 shows, movies, and OAVs and at least some part of 53 others. The only drawback to having seen so many titles is that finding more good and interesting titles is a bit of a scavenger hunt, only you don't know what to look for until you've found it. When I'm looking for a new title to watch/follow, I'll usually stalk the BBSs and a few high profile blogs to see what the latest buzz is about.

A few days ago, I ran across some talks about this title, "Slap Up Party: Arad Senki."

The show primarily follows a demon knight named Baron who has a curse known as a demon arm. This gives him incredible strength, but has the chance of turning him into a monster if he pushes it too hard in a fight. So far in the storyline (episode 3), he is accompanied by a party of adventurers including a lecherous gun user, a big boobed martial arts girl, and a mini mage girl.

The genre of the anime could be described as an adventure/comedy/action, and is pretty safe for all ages. The animation of the show is very well done and although the character design is a little cartoony, they are very lifelike and constantly humorous. The jokes consist mainly of gags and mostly result from the different character's interactions.

This show blends together action and humor in an interesting way that is not seen in many anime. There are plenty of "cool" moments, like when Baron uses a wind-type blast attack almost hitting a comrade. This causes the companion immediately freaks out in a comedic nature and as a result instantly sparks viewer laughter. Likewise, Slap Up Party has an interesting way of being serious at some moments and completely humorous at others. In both cases, the show is interesting enough to keep watching and there is rarely a dull moment.
The commercial break cutscenes are done chibi style (characters are drawn in a child-like manner) which is nothing new, but adds variation to the show. Although the scene is accompanied by a simple gag, it still manages to solicit some laughter. One really entertaining aspect of the show is it's ending song and credits animation. The animators took the show's concept and plot and translated it into a 8-bit graphics animation and created what looks like an old school Nintendo game. The music, although it has a voice track, is reminiscent of the synthetic track that shipped with many titles back in the day including the NES Mario and Zelda. The ending sequence brings a positive feeling of nostalgia and the song is hard to get out of one's head, though in a good way.



Check out this new show on you not-so-local Japanese television station, YouTube, or torrent site.