Pachi's Anime Review - Meganebu

It's a double review Sunday! Next up is the colorful escapades of the most eccentric school club, Meganebu!  Again, as per the new design, please expand this post to see the full review.

Originally there were going to be three more reviews for the 2013 Retrospective, but in light of the Winter '14 season about to come to a close and to lessen my load, I'm only going to do two more. The remaining Retrospective reviews will be of Watamote and Beyond the Boundary, both of which I hope to have up in a week's time. No promises, but I'm going to do my best!

Akira Soma loves glasses more than anything. In fact, he loves glasses so much, he created a school club dedicated to all things glasses-related and open to all prospective glasses-wearers. Along with his four friends and club members Mitsuki, Takuma, Yukiya, and Hayato (who wears fake glasses because he likes the look), their goal is to spread their love of glasses to the world and use their know-how to make technological and practical leaps in the glasses industry for the good of all mankind. Just as soon as they stop blowing up their club room.

The world of Meganebu (Glasses Club) would tell you that all you need is G L A S S E S, but really all that you need is passion, creativity, and yes, glasses. I don't wear glasses, so already I'm at a disadvantage. Maybe that's why my favorite member of the club is the one who wears fake glasses. Hm.

Anyway, Meganebu was an intriguing entry of last year's Fall Season in part due to its production team. The director is Soubi Yamamoto, a talent only known previously for the "This Boy..." OVA projects. Now I haven't seen these OVAs, but from what I've heard they're characterized by bishie character designs and cinematic eccentricity. Meganebu marked Yamamoto's first official weekly television series, and he brought along his unique, atypical style to the plate.

  

Meganebu is a comedy through and through - it's about a bunch of boys who all harbor a deep love and care for their glasses just hanging out at school and doing shit. In other words, it's a gender-swapped KyoAni series with the hook being random glasses trivia. But unlike KyoAni, which buffs up otherwise boring premises with an animation budget that consistently raises the bar, Yamamoto buffs up his show with a constantly free-flowing grab-bag of fully realized directorial styles and an ever changing palette of colors and gradients for every occasion. When Meganebu switches up the on-screen aesthetic for a joke or scene-by-scene stylistic choice, it doesn't do it half-assed. It possess masterful comedic styling in the same way Ouran Host Club possess masterful comedic timing. Yamamoto throws every ounce of flair and pizzazz in his being into every scene's composition - it keeps the show going at a constant, entertaining momentum even if in reality the characters are just standing in a room for minutes on end. 

Where Meganebu falters is in its overall content: there's next to nothing. The breadth of original content that precedes it consists only of a series of audio book, which means the characters are fleshed out but the story they take place in is practically nonexistent. Oh there IS a running story thread - Glasses Club president Akira Soma's dream is to invent a pair of glasses that can see through clothing. Why? I'll give you one guess. So they can use them to see girls naked. Your guess was right!

As irritatingly piggish as this sounds, the show makes it clear these boys are chasing a pipe dream and will never attain that petty satisfaction. Every time they think they've completed their X-Ray Glasses, a slight error causes them to function in an impossibly comedic matter, or to explode, and thus they must start all over again. Will they ever achieve their goal? Is it ever explained what pseudo-science these high school kids have conjured up that makes constructing X-Ray Glasses on a teenager's budget seem within arm's reach? The answer to both these questions is a hearty chortle, and no.

Meganebu is bursting with flavor, but on its own it sounds like all flair with no substance. Normally I'd agree, but what kept me coming back was the characters. How come, Pachi? You just admitted you don't even wear glasses - what emotional connection could you possibly hold to these boys? To that I'd say, even a love you can't relate to can touch your heart if powerful enough. And these boys don't just love glasses; they eat, sleep, and breath glasses. The level at which they "give a shit" about something so trite is staggering. I wouldn't even call it fanaticism. To them, glasses is their religion. They believe in a world where everyone knows and loves the joy of glasses; they believe glasses can make a person's soul shine bright and reveal their greatness to the masses, to break free of glasses-less conformity. 

Now I don't believe for ONE second that this level of what I can only classify as "mania" is healthy. But gosh darn it, their love is so special. They possess the kind of dedication and love you see in creators and engineers who share their love with the world. And that's exactly what the Meganebu boys are trying to do. They may be trying to invent X-Ray Glasses to see girls naked, but they want to share them with everyone! In them I saw the youthful spark of ingenuity that, when they grow up past their high school delinquency, could be put to excellent use in the world of......glasses......innovation. Hey, it's an important business! Lots of people wear glasses! And I seriously believe these kids have the passion necessary to change that world.........once they grow up. As they are in Meganebu, they're just children having fun and dedicating their indomitable spirits to that which they love, even if they are ultimately a posse of bumbling fools, and I'm all for it. It's funny, it's harmless, and it's charming. After all, even mundane facets of life we take for granted need some lovin'.

You can currently find all subbed episodes of Meganebu streaming online courtesy of Crunchyroll. The series has not been licensed at this time.