The cutest Slice Of Life anime of the season, giving us five adorable girls, funny jokes and ofc - there is a beach episode!
Pon No Michi
Quick summary:
Nashiko annoys the hell out her mother and that's how she gains access to
her dad's unused Mahjong parlor. Inviting her friends over, they now have
a great place to laze around together. It doesn't last too long - first, a
sparrow manifests to Nashiko to show her the world of Mahjong. Then a
beautiful girl appears, asking her to let her play Mahjong with them. But
that girl attracts another girl!
Nashiko's peaceful days... are not over. Now she has even more friends to
enjoy her life with! Together they are playing games, cooking yummy food
and - most of all - having the time of their life!
Genres: Slice of Life
Studio: OLM
Season: Winter 2024
╭────────── · 𓆩🌻𓆪 · ─╮
╰─ · 𓆩🌻𓆪 · ──────────╯
👌 Cute girls doing ALL the cute things
Let's start with 'design'. Whole the girls' design isn't original in
the anime world, it's very beautiful. They look adorable, they have
their own personalities (even though some weren't fully explored yet)
and the author really put attention to their hairstyles and
clothes.
Yes, sure, they are wearing the same stuff the first half of the
anime, but then they start wearing more cute clothes and each time
it's a hit. The girls even had special costumes for Christmas. (I've
never seen anything like that, it was hilarious!) That covers the cute
part!
.png)
These girls play Mahjong, cook, grill, hike... we have a beach
episode, we have a glance at school uniforms, we have random
meetings... Everything we like and love is covered.
The beach episode isn't just about the fanservice! They managed to
incorporate lots of games into it and that made it even more
interesting.
Grilling & cooking was a great way for Pai to shine, the hike
& onsen visit showed us more about Haneru, Nashiko's personality
was the first thing we saw in anime and Riiche was simply genius with
her rich-girl-is-dense personality. Izumi is the only one who slips
from me - but she was hilarious.
It's not only girls though. I have to mention Chonbo - who didn't
have a lot of screen time, but was the meme of the show. He made the
show into something else just by appearing and while I think he was
just an impulsive thought of the author, I don't have any complains
about his presence.
.png)
👌 *those* shots
They deserve their own paragraph. I mean what the hell was this??
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
👌 Make your dreams come true... every morning
Sounds cliché, I know. But these girls managed to do it.
At the beginning of almost every episode, the girls had a weird dream
about gameplay - and it came true the next day with their friends.
I'll tell you... it was a bit annoying at times. Mostly because of how
unlikely that is to happen.
But I guess it was a way to introduce what the episode will be about
in a unique way!
.png)
👇 So what is Mahjong again ?
While Pon no Michi has a mahjong tiles on it's official poster, we
never learn the rules. I think they talk about it in one episode and
then just yell out various move names (I assume), expecting us to catch
one.
Despite Mahjong not being a sport per se, I would expect a better
explanation when you're dealing with a game like this. (Liar Liar at
least said 'Your usual rules' as if you were supposed to know them.)
That is something I can't glance over.
I do think the mahjong side of the show was fun, I just wish I
understood the game more to be able to get into it.
They even did a collab with an online mahjong game! And still didn't
care to properly talk about the game (rules).
Normally this wouldn't bother me, but in this particular case I am
disappointed because I always wanted to learn.
Conclusion: recommended 👍
.png)
I enjoyed Pon no Michi in it's own way. It was a great slice of life
that surprised me with it's course. I liked the anime's opening and
ending song, I live for the friendship that the girls grew with each
other, I loved the comedy of this show and I thought it looked good. It
was different from other shows.
I think this is the season's underappreciated anime!
.png){kind=link}