(This review covers both the first season and the second one, Bananya and the Curious Bunch)
Now here’s an anime that I’m sure not a whole lot of people know about. Bananya is a short TV series that’s literally about the adventures of cute pocket-sized kittens that live in banana peels. That’s it. It’s a very simple premise, and the first season mainly shows them going through mundane situations, like going inside the refrigerator, or trying to greet a stray cat outside the kitchen window. Every episode is 2-3 minutes long and there’s no real dialogue except for a narrator who tells us what’s going on. Now, if you’re looking to watch this, I should warn you, the story is pretty episodic, and the characters don’t really develop beyond their one singular personality trait. In this case, it can be forgiven, as they’re cats that can’t talk, and the first season has a rather small set of characters that are easy to follow, even if four of them look exactly the same.
On the more technical aspects, the animation is fine for what it is, matching the simplistic tone and feel of the show, but I have to wonder if Bananya was animated using Adobe Flash. It doesn’t look hand drawn, and the art style reminds me of this newer web show airing on YouTube right now called Hello Kitty and Friends: Supercute Adventures, but with less noticeable gaps in the linework. But don’t come in here expecting animation on the level of Akira. The soundtrack is fine and sweet, though it gets repetitive very quickly. Oh, and for anyone who likes English dubs, Discotek Media dubbed the first season, and not only that, they had someone dub the ending theme song! And it’s actually well sung, and by a fairly well known internet personality who’s done plenty of covers for anime songs on YouTube.
So yeah, Bananya’s first season doesn’t have much to talk about, but is a short, sweet little time killer if you want to relax. The second season, on the other hand, goes in a completely different direction. The animation and music are the same, but we’re introduced to a whole new cast of characters save for Bananya, and the second season establishes that Bananyas come from another planet near Earth, which is where our titular character Bananya comes from. Again, like the first series, it doesn’t really try to develop its characters beyond their core personality trait, and some of the new Bananyas look kind of ridiculous, like Emo Bananya and Rainbow Bananya. Yes, really. The second season eschews slice-of-life in favor of zany fantasy comedy, and I didn’t mind it too much, and it’s eventually revealed near the end that Bananya and the Curious Bunch is actually a prequel to the first season. But in general, both series achieve what they want to do and are pretty interchangeable.
Simply put, Bananya is a nice little time killer if you want to gush over cute anime kitties, but it doesn’t really offer much beyond that. It’s not a bad anime by any means, and I did smile whenever I saw those little munchkins playing around, but it’s saccharine sweet, wholesome, and it’ll probably take you a little under an hour to complete. Bananya’s not going to bring the house down, but it doesn’t need to, and it was never meant to be anything except what it is, and that’s okay.
The post Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick: Bananya (69/100) appeared first on Star Crossed Anime.
