Nerima Daikon Brothers

Nerima Daikon Brothers

As I mentioned before, I used to watch anime on something called Anime OnDemand. It was a strange little service that had tons of anime that were less then mainstream. Sure it had classics like Baccano once in a while, and introduced me to my favorite anime Super Gals, but it also introduced me to Magi-fucking-cano. But there was one show they had that really stuck with me. It was an insane little musical comedy with some catchy tunes and some really strange characters. This is The Freshly Grated Musical, Nerima Daikon Brothers. 

Nerima Daikon Brothers is about three cousins, two male and one female, Hideki, Ichiro, and Mako respectively, who all live on a small daikon farm in the middle of Nerima. They all want to turn their small farm into a huge stadium where they can sing the blues and whatever other music fills their souls. Design wise they are loosely based on the Blues Brothers, the classic Saturday Night Live Sketch and movie. They all wear black hats, shades, and suit jackets, though each wears a different colored shirt under the jacket. They are also joined by a cute panda mascot with a love of eating daikon and a big leaf sticking out of its head named Pandaikon, and a cop by the name of Yukari, or Widget, who kicks ass, takes name, and is a 69^th level black belt in everything. The show is an episodic style comedy. Every episode before the final four basically follow the same formula, and even the final four follow the formula to some extent. Our heroes come across someone who is corrupt and has a ton of cash, usually getting scammed themselves, decide to fight against the villain and steal all their money, borrow something from Pops, a strange dude who will lend you anything except money, use the crazy prop to do something ridiculous, and end up losing more money than they had at the beginning, singing amazing songs all the while. 

Sing it guys!

All that sounds like an ok show at best, but there are two things that really pushes the show beyond just good for me. The first is the music. Both the Japanese dub and the English dub do an amazing job with the songs for this musical anime. All the songs are catchy and fun. They usually reuse the same music for the song multiple times throughout the show, sometimes putting the music into a different context and sometimes just acting as a refrain for the first time it is played. Some songs are even played every episode, like the song to request something from Pops. But no two songs are alike in the lyrics. Every time a song plays you know that you are getting something new. And every time a song plays it is catchy as hell. They also use the music for literally everything. Chasing a panda around? Sing about it. Offering your police officer enemy ramen in order to get on her good side? Sing about it. Being a psychic who can bring about cosmic erections? Sing about it. Falling in love and wanting to have sex with a fluffy panda? Sing about it. 

That boys loves that panda.

The second thing that makes this show worthy of watching is that it has the dirtiest humor on earth. Nothing is off-limits in this show. The first episode literally starts with Ichiro, who works at a host club, being jerked off by a record producer at his club while the record producer talks about how much he loves hotdogs. This scene goes on for a solid minute. A main character is molested by a guy twice in the episode. That’s the first episode. The show has some amazing balls in its comedy. I could go episode by epsidoe and picking out the most fucked up joke in every one. When I said someone falls in love with the panda that is a slight lie. Two people fall in love with the same panda. Ichiro falls for Pandiakon, and a sings a song that goes ‘Fluffy Fluffy, Panda Pandy, Don’t know why you, Make me randy.’ And it is one of the catchiest songs in the whole show. Yukiko goes on a date with the panda and breaks up with him because she is also in love with those ramen fishcakes and the panda doesn’t eat his. There is also a ton of incest. Hideki is in love with his cousin Mako and thinks the only thing stopping their marriage is the law, which Ichiro will quickly tell you is false. Mako falls for Ichiro because Ichiro slaps her and that gets her motor running. Ichiro is in love with a panda. What the fuck.

And that panda really like Ichiro's... daikon.

The show also makes a ton of references to real life things that mattered at the time. The second episode involves the Korean Wave, a fad of Korean pop culture that hit japan, and some of the ugly rumors involved like how all the handsome Korean men had tons of plastic surgery done to them. One of the final villain’s introduced is literally Michael Jackson. He has a different name, but he makes reference to all of Michael Jackson’s music, has an army of zombies fighting and dancing for him, and has had a ton of plastic surgery. How much plastic surgery? In the show he is literally yellow, because he is in japan. He turned his skin yellow to look Japanese. This is an anime mind you. And they don’t only hit the plastic surgery jokes, they hit the pedophile jokes hard too. When Mako hits on him he says that Mako is both the wrong gender and way too old for him. There is a bit where Mako thinks he’s dead, and makes a little burial mound for him in a playground, filled with children. The final villain of the show is literally the, at the time, Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi. The whole plot of the show turns into a large political joke about how Koizumi was all about privatization of the nation’s assets, except owned by the government. It is actually a slightly anti-governmental, anti-nationalistic message that doesn’t show up in anime all too often. Nerima Daikon Brothers uses a ton of different styles of comedy, mixing and mashing them into a fine comedic paste. It has this highbrow political commentary but it also has mid-tier pop culture references. But ultimately, it is the master of dick jokes.

I forgot about the money girls! All they ask is that you bleed. Money!

Nerima Daikon Brothers is the first anime that involved music I had ever seen. It introduced me to a genre of anime that I never even thought could exist. A genre that I also really think doesn’t exist. Music anime exist, but musicals don’t. This show might be the only full musical anime I have ever seen. Add in the fact that it is honestly so raunchy and funny, and the music is actually good and the voice acting is great in both Japanese and English, this is a must see show. It is a small golden gem of a show that people really need to see to believe. Watch it. And remember that sometimes music can be the cure for the heart that ain’t so pure. So until next time, keep on watching. 

Yeeeeeaaaahhhh~~~