Monday, May 14, 2018

Clean Freak

Here's another sort of (sort of? haha) odd anime that the little dude and I have started watching. Depending on the translation, it's either Clean Freak Aoyama Kun or Cleanliness Boy! Aoyama Kun but the original Japanese is Keppeki Danshi Aoyama Kun.

So, there's a football (soccer) prodigy named Aoyama. He's also a germaphobe to the point he can't stand people touching him and can't eat out in restaurants, etc. and spends about half his time cleaning things. He's a bit taciturn and doesn't speak much, but that doesn't stop nearly everyone from being his fan. Like, seriously. He has a fan club. He's played on the national team.

In fact, many people wonder what he's doing at Fujima High when he could be at a better football school to improve his chances at a professional career as the team at Fujima is mostly comprised of complete screw ups. Generally nice screw ups, but screw ups nonetheless. So, why is he there? Er...the toilets. The school has those fancy toilets that clean your bum...

There's a cast of odd characters -- a girl who has loved Aoyama since they were young, even though they've barely said a few words to each other. Of course, he barely says any words to anyone, so that's not necessarily a deterrent. She's a bit mad and will do anything to protect him, including carrying around a baseball bat decorated with nails and kawai stickers of kitties. And a rich/yakuza(?) kid who loves football and calls his scary father "daddy" but is a pretty decent guy. A tall busty girl who is unfailingly kind that Aoyama, bewilderingly, can stand being touched by to everyone's surprise (though he doesn't seem to have romantic feelings for her -- he's just excited to be able to actually high five someone). And some three stooges-like characters, including one who has a talent for bouncing the football on his butt. Yeah.

There's more, but let's just say that they are all kinda weird characters. However, the nice thing about this anime is that each episode isn't necessarily focused on Aoyama. It's more of an ensemble thing. One, for instance, focuses on "four eyes" (the dude who likes to make people laugh by doing keepie uppies with the ball with his butt) when they wind up playing against a team that includes the guy who bullied him relentlessly through his younger years. He falls apart but -- and here's why I like Aoyama -- rather than the star of the team just tearing it up on his own, he holds back and encourages four eyes like a real team player, even though it's potentially damaging to his own career if the guy can't buck up. In fact, Aoyama is honest and trustworthy to a fault -- he's clean all the way through. He doesn't like dirty tricks any more than he likes dirt.

Kind of a nice message, I suppose. And there's so much weird to the situations they get in, which little dude loves. Glad to find another one we can watch together. Other than a couple of slightly dodgy but mostly innocent-ish boob shots of the one girl, there's nothing here that's not okay. But, man, the Japanese really have an obsession with boobage, don't they? Or is it just otaku that do? I dunno. It's forgivable here, I guess, as it isn't too gratuitous and works for the character and is just the one girl rather than a bevy of buxom beauties.

We'll probably finish it this week, since the hubster is away on a business trip and that means we can watch anime over dinner...

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