12 Days of Anime Christmas - Day Nine

Day Nine- Sabagebu!

9 times out of ten, a show like this is something I would skip over. On the surface it is a fan service heavy show that revels in the same cliché type of comedy that most anime use. Everything about this show on the surface seems like something I would just skip over after the first episode. But then there was one thing, one character, in the first episode that sold me on the show, and kept me coming back for more. And that was Momoka, the biggest asshole in anime.

Momoka is an awful person. She is awful and deplorable and selfish and self-serving and egotistical and everything that makes a terrible human being. And her existence in a slice of life comedy like Sabagebu is what makes this show. There are a million shows just like this, about groups of girls being nice to each other and talking in a club room and once in a while actually participating in their clubs subject matter, and to be honest I like shows like this. But even I admit they can be boring and repetitive and slow and they reuse the same jokes over and over again sometimes. Sometimes all you need is something new, something unprecedented to make a genre show like that better. And that is where Momoka comes in. Her completely off model behavior is what sells the show. The first time it really shines through is when she is being picked on by a group of students who are jealous of her being around the most popular girl in school. When said popular girl confronts the mean girls about that, they apologize and in any other show it would lead to a meaning building of friendship. But Momoka doesn’t want an apology. An apology would only get in the way of her revenge, as she does all the things the mean girls did to her, but ten times worse. That moment, where she is pouring thumb tacks into the girl’s shoes as they are crying really sold me on the show. Asshole characters are rarely done well, but this one is really a brilliant star in another wise sea of unlikeable jerks. Momoka alone sold a show for me. 

While hard to find, this year has had some great asshole characters, but Momoka still takes the cake. She is amazing, and was a good amount of fun to watch. Until tomorrow, have fun watching.