RJ Writing Ink’s Initial Review for My Deer Friend Nokotan
Brain rot (Noun): media deemed to hold little artistic value and/or negatively impacts those who consume it.
Over the years, I have watched plenty of shows that would qualify as brain rot, especially when it comes to anime. There’s the classics like FLCL, where turning your brain off and not thinking too hard is a requirement, not a recommendation. A few years ago, we got Pop Team Epic, which is so random and all over the place that it makes people ask if they’re on something when they’re watching it. But the thing about brain rot is that there can be standards to it that separate the plain stupid from the stupidly brilliant. And right now, there is one anime that is considered the pinnacle of brain rot. An anime so stupid yet so funny that even before it came out, it was already flooding the Internet with memes. And it’s all about a girl…who is a deer.
This is Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan, AKA My Deer Friend Nokotan, AKA the herald of the deerpocalypse.
Shika Shika Shika
Poised; prim; proper; beautiful. All of these adjectives can be used to describe the class idol, Koshi Torako, who seems to be perfect in every way…and that’s just what she wants everyone to think. The truth is, before high school, she was a notorious and feared delinquent. But she’s since gotten her act together, and has made sure no one knows about her delinquent phase!
Then, one fateful day as she’s walking to school, she looks up and sees a girl with antlers stuck in a power line. And just like that, Torako’s perfect life comes crashing down. For this…deer, this embodiment of chaos named Nokotan, is not only the new transfer student at Torako’s school, she knows about her delinquent past! And to make matters worse, she’s suddenly the only sane person capable of questioning how bizarre this new girl is!!!
Oh, and she gets tricked into forming a club meant to take care of deer like Nokotan.
And if none of that made sense, then you’re not alone.
The Craziest I’ve Seen Since Pop Team Epic
So, Nokotan is a series that operates under two types of comedy: surreal humor and the straight man-wise guy routine. Surreal humor is when something’s so absurd and random that it leaves the audience wondering what the heck they’re even watching. And even though they don’t know, they can’t help but want to watch more. For example, one minute everything is normal, and the next you’re surrounded by CGI deer while this girl with antlers breaks down the door to a classroom and sends debris flying into the faces of all the students. And the whole time, they’re smiling like nothing is wrong! Or that same girl proceeds to remove her antlers and uses them for bombs or as a compartment for snacks! Or we get a CGI deer staring at us in a way that reminds me too much of this creepy cat picture from a 2000s animated series from Cartoon Network! And some of that has only happened in the first few episodes right now!
And then we have the straight man-wise guy aspect. In this case, it’s more accurate to say that Koshitan is the only sane person while everyone around her is now crazy. And try as she might, she is the only person questioning how strange things are around Nokotan. On top of this, she has to deal with her little sister, whose sister complex is so massive that she turns into a yandere if anyone tries to get between them. Plus, this other girl insists on wanting to become a deer like Nokotan and eats a mountain of rice. Is it any wonder why Koshitan cracks under the stress and lets her delinquent side come out?
Of course, no comedy duo is complete without the wise guy, and in that regard…Nokotan is ? built different. It’s not clear just what Nokotan is besides the fact that she’s not normal. Is she a human-deer hybrid? Some kind of reality-warping god? An anamoly that escaped from the local branch of the SCP Foundation? All we know is that she is a living embodiment of benign chaos, and pretty much everything she does is worthy of being a meme.
So, if you’re reading this and thinking that My Deer Friend Nokotan is so stupid and absolute brain rot, then you’re right. It’s 100% pure brain rot…and it owns it!
This is High-Quality Brain Rot Right Here
In the months leading up to its debut on TV in Japan and on Crunchyroll/pirated websites internationally, Nokotan has been at the center of a pretty successful viral marketing campaign. Studio Wit, the studio famous for Attack on Titan and Spy x Family, made it a point to emphasize how absurd it is in the months leading up to its release. It got to the point where they decide to pre-empt the inevitable attempts to make hour-long loops of the Opening theme by releasing their own on YouTube. It worked. Not only did it help the show blow up before even starting, but people started copying it.
My Deer Friend Nokotan is, by its nature, an incredibly silly and stupid series, but that’s what makes it so funny. Only a few episodes have been released thus far, and people are already memeing the heck out of it. I’m one of those people; I already remixed Nokotan’s classroom entrance to the theme for the Pillar Men from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure!
Bottom line: it looks like My Deer Friend Nokotan is in the running for one of the funniest anime of the year. If you’re looking for something that’s just a stupid good time and requires little to no thinking, then it’s time for you to become a deer like Nokotan!
