DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedySoredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

REVIEWS

• 

  LunaKoi

  92/100
  In Shaft's storied catalog of high quality visuals, this is definitely one of their best.

  

  In 2009, Shaft created the best selling TV anime on blu-ray of all-time, Bakemonogatari. In 2011, they nearly topped themselves with the 2nd best selling TV anime on blu-ray of all-time, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Between that in 2010, they released several shows of course, one of which were Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, which was a bluray flop. For studios like Shaft and Kyoto Animation at the time, which were pushing the envelope of consistent quality well into the big boom of the digital animation era, they had some great gems that didn't see the same return as others. For Kyoto Animation, it was Nichijou, and I would liken the situation to Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (which I will shorten to Soredemo for the rest of the review).

  I don't really know the story behind Soredemo's sale woes, I'm not sure why the anime looks as great as it does. It was well documented how the airing versions of Bakemonogatari and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica had some awful quality and were majorly rehauled for their bluray releases in response to their massive success, but I'm not sure if Soredemo was the same story. Did they get a lot of funding from the publisher, or were they on a high from the massive success of Bakemonogatari? Either way, we were left with one of Shaft's highest quality TV anime ever in their catalog.

  Before I talk more about the animation, I want to address the writing quality. Soredemo is a skit comedy, usually averaging between 2-3 skits per episode. I addressed this in my Gabriel Dropout review before, but for me the consistency of the writing quality is extremely important for the momentum of a viewing experience for skit comedies, as its one of the most, if not the saturated genres in anime, ESPECIALLY when it revolves around teenage girls. It is in my personal opinion that Soredemo stands above them all, considering its my highest rated of the genre as of right now. There is not a single scenario/skit in this anime that is worthless or forgettable, the absurdist nature of the comedy is a match made in heaven for Shaft.

  Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru is literally translated as And Yet the Town Moves, which is incredibly apt for this adaptation, because when Shaft wrapped up the 12th episode with a bow they left the medium of anime with one of the best displays of character animation ever. The expressions and fluidity of the character movement is good on a baffling level, and I hope anyone who gives the show a try doesn't take it for granted. The level of expression makes the comedy very effective. The atmosphere of the anime at the same time has a relaxing nature despite the absurdist comedy, the dichotomy between the two is such a perfect chemistry that it is entrancing to watch. If I didn't have a life or things to do I could probably soak into a marathon of the 12 episodes in one sitting because the momentum of the viewing experience is very well-crafted from episode to episode. The soundtrack is also perfect for the show, and the sound directing to match.

  I think because of the financial failure of the anime, this show got buried among all the great TV anime that came out between 2009-2011 or so. I still think the people involved with it worked exceptionally hard on it and made overall a great product. As far as TV anime go, this is Shaft's highest quality in terms of visuals that I can think of and its probably only below the likes of the Madoka Trilogy or the Kizumonogatari Trilogy. I recommend it to anyone who likes character animation. I personally consider it an underrated gem, and with that I leave it with a score of

  ~!Also S2 never ;~;!~

  Continue on AniList
• 

  planetJane

  90/100
  Big Dreams in Small Cities

  *All of my reviews contain __spoilers __for the reviewed material. This is your only warning.*

  ---

  If SHAFT are a weird studio who, consequently, make shows that are a bit hard to review, and comedy, by its very nature, is hard to review, And Yet The Town Moves may set some kind of land-speed record as far as TV anime that seem purpose-built to throw a monkey wrench into critical analysis. There's just not much that's like And Yet The Town Moves. Yet, here we are. Series Director Akiyuki Shinbo has a reputation as the man who made SHAFT what it is. We can sit here and ping-pong back and forth all day about whether or not that’s true, but what is inarguable is that he’s a very idiosyncratic director. One with a style you can spot a mile away, yes, but the clockwork that makes that style tick is a bit hard to lay out in plain English (or, one imagines, plain Japanese).

  

  The simplest way to put it in this specific case is that And Yet The Town Moves, which sits closer to the more obscure end of Shinbo’s mainstream works, is a school life comedy that’s constructed like Bakemonogatari. This ignores several obvious wrinkles (point the first: it takes place at a school only about half the time) and makes some admittedly over-simple comparisons (point the second: Bakemonogatari is Like That because Shinbo directed it, not the other way around), but it’s the simplest way to get your head around the series. Not to imply that Town is particularly complicated--not many anime that take place in a maid cafe` are.

  In truth, Town’s core source of humor is first and foremost its characters, chiefly its protagonist, the dolty Hotori, a high schooler with a whiny voice and a love of detective novels, and her friends. The direction uses visual cues like extreme closeups, pointedly-deployed and well-done character animation, meaningful match cuts, and oddball asides to sell her antics, and those of the rest of the cast. The point of those antics, in turn, is to highlight the absurdity of the mundane (and sometimes its surprising beauty as well). One episode sees Hotori’s math teacher driven to the brink of madness by her sheer lack of affinity for the subject. Another sees her younger brother subjected to the confusing and arbitrary rules of dating in middle school. Others see Town temporarily transform into a sports shonen or condense an entire school festival arc into 12 minutes. The directorial approach threads the needle here, lending a delightful air of zany loopiness to what are, when you strip all this away, fairly simple stories.

  Sometimes, the show dares to get a bit more ambitious, and it’s here that Town really shines. Episode 7 is a great example for our purposes. It features not one but two classic staples of the “mundane made fantastic” ethos. The first half of the episode revolves around Hotori and Sanada (a boy who has a crush on her) nodding off on the bus on the way to school and ending up in a far-afield town.

  

  The second half sees Hotori take her younger brother out on his first-ever late night stroll. In both cases, these simple, fairly grounded changes of scenery shift the entire mood of the show. The former is played as a fantastic, romantic adventure. The latter conjures an aura of dusky, wide-eyed wonder. Both, and really, many of the show’s best segments, have a real sense of liminality to them. Yet at no point does Town sacrifice its sense of humor. The jokes remain on-point throughout, and the main focus.

  

  These are Town’s strengths in miniature. From the simple; the absurd and the sublime. Either by turns or at once.

  Occasionally, it flips this formula on its head. Milking this absurdity not from the mundane, but from the genuinely paranormal. For another example, the “rainbow snacks” subplot in episode 9, one of the few to barely feature Hotori at all, is one of these. In it, pawn shop proprietress Shizuka gets her hands on a baked treat from her grandfather, who in turn got it from a man wandering the streets of Tokyo. She becomes obsessed with finding more, only to find that the mysterious ‘Mori Confectionary’ listed on the back of the package doesn’t seem to exist. A half episode of dead ends, clues that lead nowhere, and some of the show’s best visuals follow.

  

  The answer? The man wandering Tokyo and giving them out was a time traveler. In a similar vein to Ground Control To Psychoelectric Girl (another Shinbo-directed series, coincidentally enough), the series has just enough of actual "weird stuff" crackling underneath its surface to add the slightest edge of intrigue to things, even as its focus largely remains on comedy. As the series winds down, the final few episodes unscrew the cap completely, decoupling Town’s world from our own and diving into full lighthearted urban fantasy and sometimes delving into more serious territory. Not many anime of this sort ever make that kind of jump, and it’s fascinating to see here. This is to say nothing of its absolutely breathtaking finale, which I cannot in good conscience let myself spoil. It’d be criminal.

  If there’s anything Town “lacks”, it’s perhaps the truly thunderous insanity of something like Nichijou! or the (also Shinbo-directed!) PaniPoni Dash!, but these things are relative, and Town’s marginally more “subdued” (frankly the word feels a little inappropriate here) comedy is just as worthwhile as that of those anime. For all of its silliness, Town is a surprisingly sincere show. There is probably no critical cliche older than “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry”, but, as it just so happens, And Yet The Town Move is good enough to warrant unearthing old cliches. Ultimately, and perhaps surprisingly, this is a series that reminds us, as we live our lives, the world spins beneath our feet. We can try and stay in place all we like. The town still turns.

  ---

  Continue on AniList
• 

  saulgoodman

  90/100
  The mundane and the absurd

  At this point in time, Studio SHAFT has well cemented itself in the hearts of many anime fans with its peculiarity. That is, with their anatomy-defying head tilts, love of symmetry and vectors, avant-garde artistic direction, and the list goes on. Recently, I wondered, does my perception of SHAFT's reputation hinge on simple novelty or genuine quality? Is the so-called Shinbou style a dull one-trick pony or remarkable ingenuity?

  Well, I concluded that, does it actually matter? Regardless if there's dissonance between originality and experimental, I've come to love the idiosyncratic nature of SHAFT. The departure of some of their talents in the last few years has left me uncertain of their future, but the groundwork they've laid in the past couple decades is entrenched with numerous classics certain to keep their soul fresh for years to come.

  One of which, is a lesser-known and quaint slice-of-life of which you're presently reading a review on.

  Spoilers ahead. Skip to the end for a short, spoiler-free review

  ---

  

  ---

  The Detective of the Century

  Along with the Monogatari and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series, Soredemo Machi was another source material that perfectly synchronized with SHAFT's eccentricity. Typically, slice-of-life doesn't scream eccentric, chaotic or disheveled. And yet, the town moves Soredemo Machi is just that. With "mystery in mundanity" at its core, the mystery, supernatural and slice-of-life coagulation was a match made in heaven with Shinbou's insatiate peculiarity, still running high from overseeing Bakemonogatari the previous year.

  Speaking of Monogatari, perhaps fans will find these two series swimmingly striking from the very get-go. That is, that Tomoyuki Itamura was the episode director of the pilot so it'd make sense to see some resemblance between his work on Monogatari and the very first episode. But enough with finding excuses to go off on a Monogatari-esque tangent about Monogatari, I still haven't delved into the actual story of Soredemo Machi, haven't I?

  Rather than exposing the overarching plot, it's more meaningful to first introduce the peculiar high-school detective, idiot savant maid named Hotori Arashiyama. Less of a character, more of a condensed personification of a natural disaster; Hotori drives the episodes wild with her cluttering antics and dopey personality. The poor souls that encounter her for even a brief moment are in for hell. Policemen's testicles be damned and math teachers' sanity forsaken, this maid detective whirlwind ensures any situation to be blown out of proportion for the sake of the viewer's entertainment. Then there's also Chiaki Omigawa, who sold 80% of her character for me, with her childishly whiny voice bringing Hotori's dumb nut self to life. Central to the entire series, you'll be hard-pressed to enjoy Soredemo Machi if you don't find Chiaki's lovably annoying voice appealing.

  It's a bit as if Hotori herself invaded Shinbou's and the individual episode directors' minds during the creative process of the show, whispering childishly sweet nothings into their ears as they excellently breathed exaggeration and dumbfounded peculiarities in the direction. Dramatic close-ups, overemphasized motions, weird in-between breaks of Hotori's pet racoon Josephine spouting random nothings and much more. Well, these all just sound like typical SHAFT, though. Nevertheless, these all largely contribute to constructing the narrative of mundanity coexisting in absurdity, and vice-versa.

  ---

  

  ---

  The Appeal of the Mundane

  What is this coexistence of mundanity and absurdity, you may ask? Well, just look around you. The Soredemo Machi manga was in anachronistic order, which the anime went further and selected episodic plots in no particular order. The irony of this chaotic order, is that it best resembles our mundane daily lives. That is, there's no particular structural order to the events and situations we find ourselves in. Shit happens, maybe for a reason or maybe not. There's no resemblance of a solidified plot line in Soredemo Machi, it's simply a barrage of antics on antics. Though, the wackiness does simmer down at times to alternatively offer the mundanity with a comforting sense of tranquility. There's Hotori and Sanada skipping school for a "date", Hotori and her younger brother sneaking out for a midnight stroll and Hotori's little brother and his classmate's secret "date". These occasional switches in tone serve to remind the variety in Soredemo Machi.

  While variety is of the topic at hand, the supporting cast does its best to carry the show, and succeeded well. Hotori's main clique, comprised of the tsukkomi Toshiko, heart-stealing Kon and comparatively-scarce-yet-entertaining Haribara, are logical rebuttals against her often irrational remarks and actions. There's also the ever-entertaining head maid Uki, often the trump card when Hotori's friends fail to keep her in check. And if I may add, their voice actors were just as remarkable as Chiaki's. Kon and Uki's, especially stood out to me. There are several others who make their imprint on the show, as it generously allocated the spotlight in some episodes to them, rather than Hotori. For instance, Uki's late husband wanders around town as a ghost in a fit of melancholy, though ending on a lighthearted and humorous note at the end. Though that episode was overwhelmingly supernatural, it and other episodes shining the spotlight on the supporting cast upheave the presence of the town, of community and of life. After all, isn't life about being surrounded by people?

  ---

  

  ---

  The Appeal of the Absurd

  As mentioned before, there's a supernatural aspect imbued in Soredemo Machi. The aforementioned episode of Uki's late husband's ghost is one such example, but there's also the time-traveler candy episode and dimension-warping aliens episode, as well. Certainly, I won't attempt to cram these into a box arguing that these happen in real life, as well. They're stemmed from fiction, rather than mundanity.

  For the absurdity stemmed from mundanity, it's present in almost every waking moment in the show. Otherwise normal conversations turn into hysterics and drama. Moriaki's lecture to Hotori turns into a psychological mind game of choosing the correct chair that wouldn't be out of place in a Kaiji episode. A simple ping-pong game turns into Shinbou's brief rendition of Ping-Pong: The Animation. Rather than rattling of every instance of normal situations turned strange, it's shorter to say that when Hotori's in the room, you're guaranteed to see the barriers of normalcy shattered. Perhaps it's here that you'll find the most striking resemblance to the Monogatari series, with their listless conversations somehow turned extravagantly peculiar and dragged out (Alright, Monogatari tangents are banned from hereon out).

  ---

  

  ---

  Home, Sweet Home

  The last episode in particular hit me with how great the chapter selection choice was for this adaptation. Featuring the least antics and comedy typical to the show, a much more subdued tone of melancholy is presented when the plot centers around Hotori being fucking dead.

  Detached from the mundane, Hotori travels to heaven and slowly realizes that she's dead after being hit by a truck. The highlight of the episode, possibly the entire show, is her silent witnessing to her family and friends' reactions to her comatose state. Her friends in denial of her death, the pop-shop owners in anger at the truck driver, her father bargaining to the gods with shrine offerings to return her back and the general depressive air hanging around the town; everyone encompasses different stages of grief upon the news. The spectacular voice-acting from the supporting cast has the perfect chance to outshine here, and successfully does so. And Hotori's usual cheery tone is gone, her still squeaky voice now penetrated by the verge of tears and overwhelming sadness. The soundtrack accompanying everyone's lines is just as fantastic, supporting the already melancholic tone to its full extent.

  But Soredemo Machi is simply not the same without the enigmatic maid detective, so Hotori is unsurprisingly revived due to God's mishap. Brought back to life, life is well and the show gracefully ends on yet another comedic antic.

  This particular episode might be seen as completely out of left field, even considering how quirky the show already is, and too jarring of a tone switch. However, I loved every moment of it. I think it encapsulated the final, overarching theme of Soredemo Machi. That is, the town keeps moving. Life keeps moving. Regardless if you, the main protagonist in your own life, were to disappear and regardless of how impactful your presence was, life doesn't bat an eye and keeps moving forward. It isn't as simple and straightforward as a linear path, life adapts to whatever change happens and branches off in innumerable branches. Perhaps it's too bitter of a thought to entertain, but it's an unforgiving truth. Though the resolution here was much more forgiving and favorable, life is too busy of an entity to stop its track for one person.

  Regardless of what occurs in your life, life all over the world will keep moving. The world itself could end, and yet, the town keeps moving.

  ---

  ___ #__Conclusion__

  Life is an unpredictable whirlwind and not even God himself could permanently stop it in its tracks. Soredemo Machi condenses this idea and dips it in sauce flavored with absurdity and mundanity. Maid detective Arashiyama Hotori faces the world headstrong, with nothing able to halt her as she manages to force normalcy into peculiarity everywhere she goes.

  Shinbou's creativity litters the entire show. Offbeat cinematography, lively character animation and uncanny monologues/offsides point to a single thought, "Ah, that's definitely SHAFT". Soredemo Machi was a perfect chance for Shinbou to shine the spotlight on his ingenuity. 2009 was Bakemonogatari, 2011 was Madoka Magica and 2010 was Soredemo Machi.

  Featuring a cast with strong and rich voice acting, the characters are sure to hook you in with their just as strong distinctive personalities and chemistry with one another. Though, this chemistry is mostly everyone acting as the tsukkomi to Hotori's boke. Mundane situations are turned absurd and supernatural situations are turned even more absurd.

  Though, at their cores, these episodes are mundane and that's what makes Soredemo Machi appealing. Despite its surface-level absurd antics, there lies a surprising genuineness to the show. Surely enough, it's all spelled out in the title, too. Whether we change or not, whether we disappear or not, whether anything happens or not; the town keeps moving.

  If you decide to watch and finish, please also check out the original source manga, too! I've written a review for that, as well.

  ---

  
  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ANIME

  ComedyNatsu no Arashi!
• ANIME

  ComedyJoshikousei no Mudazukai
• ANIME

  ComedyTamako Market
• ANIME

  ComedyArakawa Under the Bridge
• ANIME

  ComedyIchigo Mashimaro
• ANIME

  FantasyIsekai Shokudou 2
• ANIME

  ComedyBlend S
• ANIME

  ComedyWORKING!!
• ANIME

  ComedyWWW.WORKING!!
• ANIME

  ComedySenpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi
• ANIME

  ComedyHidamari Sketch
• ANIME

  ComedyKaichou wa Maid-sama!