Atasha Kawajiri Kodama Da Yo

Life is so unfair! Well, don’t worry if life is being a dick and making things hard! (Pun not intended). Because there are ways to lifehack stuffs to make them bearable. Life might not be a bed of roses to many but you sure don’t have to go through living hell. And so this is what Atasha Kawajiri Kodama Da Yo is supposedly about. A lazy girl who lives out her unhealthy lifestyle by binging on alcohol and everything greasy, salty and sweet! Ah yes, the life that I’ve always wanted! Screw all those healthy lifestyle living! I want to know how to live this kind of lifestyle without having to fork out a ton of money.

Episode 1
Kodama Kawajiri introduces herself. Yup. Working at home as a mangaka who draws about her daily life before releasing it onto the internet. Her favourite food is anything greasy and then washing it down with beer. Eat, drink, sleep. Rinse and repeat. The best life. Then she starts thinking how similar her life is throughout the ages. Took you this long to realize you’ve been living this aimlessly, huh? Too late to think about the meaning of life!

Episode 2
Kodama ate too much for breakfast and decides to lie down. But she slept too long and it is already night. So to make up for lost time, she eats a lot for dinner. But same problem again. Yup. Ate too much. Time to go lie down. More time passed. The need to make up for those meals she missed. Stomach hurts. Go back to sleep. Rinse and repeat. This goes on for some time until she doesn’t even know what day it is! But what the heck, she continues eating anyway.

Episode 3
Kodama loves the salmon bento at Inageya. One day she meets her old college friend, Oono who turns out to actually live 5 minutes away from her home. Oddly, he lives in this town and doesn’t about Inageya. He asks for recommendations so she suggests all the greasy fried yummy stuffs. Sorry, Oono doesn’t eat all that crap! Eventually he bought some sushi and went home. Sushi’s not bad either…

Episode 4
One day, Revelation Cat pops up before Kodama and claims eating chasiewmen is good because it has both protein and carbs. And so she switches to this diet and all her meals is basically just chasiewmen. A few months later when she meets Revelation Cat and tells him she has been keeping up with this diet, the feline doesn’t know what the f*ck she’s talking about!

Episode 5
During her walk, Kodama stumbles into a shabby Chinese restaurant. Her guts tell her it has good ramen. As she enters the rundown establishment, she sees all the typical signs from its display samples to the manga on its shelf. She then enjoys the ramen before leaving. Then back home she realizes the ramen wasn’t that good to begin with.

Episode 6
The day before Valentine, Kodama goes to shop for chocolates. She finds all of them cute and buys the entire store. Then she goes home and eats all of them by herself. Yup, definitely the best. It’s the best day to buy the best chocolates! Yeah, who needs a man when these chocolates can do the job better!!!

Episode 7
Kodama buys a few drip coffee. She has never had them before but after experimenting in it, she is hooked on this beverage. Heck, she can’t tell the difference and can sometimes drink it black too. As long as she enjoys her cuppa. Next day, she sees one on sale and is slightly cheaper than her usual coffee. What a bargain. But back home when she starts to make it, she notices its stinking smell. Even more so it tastes like sh*t! Yeah, there is a difference…

Episode 8
Kodama buys some fried chicken. She feels assured to know that each time she looks at it, that tasty treat will be there for her. Yeah, gets her through tough times. After she eats it, then she goes into some extreme snack mode as she puts salt on the tip of her tongue to salivate even though it doesn’t taste salty. Then she washes it down with alcohol. Fun?

Episode 9
Kodama realizes her productivity is going down. Her solution to increase it? Why, sleep! Theoretically it is supposed to work like a charm but she sleeps for several days as productivity hits rock bottom and maintains at status quo. So when the same problem occurs, she does the same thing. Of course, same results. Now that’s what you call sleeping on the job. I think.

Episode 10
Kodama calculates the amount of work she needs to finish before the deadline. She makes some effort but there are days when her body feels so stiff she can’t work and she regresses into a baby. Right before the deadline, she thinks of taking a short nap. She sets her nap in a way to prevent from entering a deep sleep. But she slept for 6 hours and her body is now stiff as a board.

Episode 11
Kodama wants to clone herself so that they can do various stuffs. However her clones see her being lazy as the best option and so they too laze around like her. Great. What we need is even more lazy Kodama! Later all those reminder frogs bugging her to get her tasks done. What she do? Drink till she is drunk until they disappear! Only… IT DID NOT WORK!!! The bugging ribbit continues…

Episode 12
Kodama shows us how to eat and enjoy packed sushi. Of course don’t forget to wash it down with alcohol! Next she tells us how to eat those pricey scallops that are of the soft and moist type. Put them in your mouth and chew, chew, chew… Before you know it, it’ll expand in your mouth. So is that explosive taste?

Episode 13
Hungry in the middle of the night, Kodama finds some dried sausages and cooks it. Then she has an idea of adding ramen. Wow, looks like the pan’s full. But what if she adds an egg! Next morning, she doesn’t feel hungry as last night she had a feast! Yeah, I guess she added more food and beer. She thinks of skipping breakfast when suddenly Revelation Cat says doing so only makes you gain weight. With that, she starts eating ramen for breakfast.

Episode 14
Kodama is making beef tendon with a pressure cooker. She remembers mom used to do that. However she looked very dramatic as she applied her pressure onto the cooker during the entire duration. Of course a young Kodama thought it was very dangerous the way mom said hot liquid is going to splatter everywhere so watch out! Hence Kodama always thought a pressure cooker was dangerous. But come to think of it now, she realizes it was all a ruse and mom didn’t put any pressure onto it.

Episode 15
Kodama introduces her to her town’s merry friends. There is this otaku guy who keeps telling others not to text and walk. Trying to make people have better handphone manners, eh? More like busybody?! Then there’s this elderly guy who stands in front of the convenience store and mumbles to himself. So he oversees the town? Sure he isn’t some lonely nutcase? Finally this grandpa who smokes while cycling. Sure he didn’t run away from a nursing home? But what the heck?! WHY ARE ALL THESE DUDES HER FRIENDS?! Oh wait… KODAMA HAS FRIENDS???!!!

Episode 16
Remember that elderly guy who stands in front of the convenience store? Yeah. Still there. Better hurry along, Kodama. Not sure what he is mumbling about. One day as she passes by, she didn’t see him but just his jacket folded over the railing. Then it soon dawned to her that it is indeed him! How the f*ck can a human fold this way?! Better move along faster! Don’t want to hang around to know why. When she returns, she now sees him standing back up like normal. Yes, he is fine like always.

Episode 17
Kodama cooks some ramen. She thinks of adding another serving but Revelation Cat doesn’t think so. It will be too much for her to finish seeing she had late lunch plus a few hours ago had some fast food too. Too bad she doesn’t listen and adds another serving. Oh, she adds more stuffs into it too! Oh my. And now she is ready to dig in this huge serving. But after one bite, she feels full already. Told ‘ya!

Episode 18
Whenever Kodama has trouble sleeping, she does this sleeping method of picking a random letter. Then she forms random and unrelated words with it. This is to trick her brain into thinking that since she is thinking about pointless things, time to hide the power saving mode. And just like that she goes to sleep. The more random it is, the easier it is to fall asleep. Note, I tried and IT DID NOT F*CKING WORK!!! Maybe I got too much anime on my mind…

Episode 19
Kodama buys a white hoodie. But soon she spills coffee over it, has ink blots over it and even splashed ramen over it. Now you remember why you don’t buy white clothes? One day she is cooking some pouched curry. As she tries to tear it open, the last bit became hard to tear off. Exerting too much strength causes the pouch to spill everything all over and onto her shirt. Why did she not use a scissors…?

Episode 20
With the deadline approaching, Kodama goes into high concentration mode. As she is now very alerted, she can stay up for a few hours. Even when lying down to sleep, she is still awake. But once all that hype is gone and is now feeling sleepy, she decides to lie down on her couch. However it is so messy and a dumpster. Too bad she just lies down on it and dozes off… Sweet (and greasy) dreams…

Episode 21
As Kodama grew up in the fields, it is no surprising that there will be many creatures and critters popping up in her house. I’m not sure about this demonic character eating with the family but oh sh*t, it’s her father?! Is that how she remembers him or is he really a demon?! Anyway, something is stomping in the attic, dad believes it is a Japanese marten. Dad’s way of chasing it away is to use the broomstick and hit the ceiling. Yeah, more damage done instead…

Episode 22
Kodama patrons a café that offer huge servings of everything on its menu. Since she is hungry, she orders shrimp cutlet sandwich with beef stew and coffee. It’s all good and nice until she realizes it is too much for her to finish. Later, she buys a personal shopping basket. Since the clerk arranged and put her stuffs so nicely, she is glad she doesn’t have to take them out to store. It is its own storage. But a few days later she realizes she needs to take them all out otherwise she can’t go shopping.

Episode 23
Noticing a new pizza place has opened up in her neighbourhood, Kodama thinks she can save some money if she cycles to pick it up from her place. It’s only 15 minutes. After making her order, she cycles there and imagines her perfect time allocation. However upon arriving, the staffs are baffled. No such order. Looking at her call history, it seems she called the wrong pizza parlour. That is 2 stations away. Cycle faster and harder now!

Episode 24
Kodama lies around the fan, cooling herself. She feels like a chicken skewer. Later she ponders what she wants for her last meal. What?! Is she going to do something illegal that will end up in capital punishment?! Anyway, she wants sushi. Followed by miso. And then beer. Oh, add some fried foods to go with that. Almost forgot the sweet desserts. And convenience store foods. Hey, there are no rules to say you can only have 1 dish as your last meal. Which means… The last meal has already started! Better eat up! Mmm… Tasty!

Living Life On The Sweet, Salty & Greasy Edge
So what are we waiting for?! Get all the foods we love and start eating them! Oh well, if only my wallet isn’t emptier than my stomach! Heh. Hey Kodama, got any lifehack advice on how to increase my money so I can buy all those unhealthy foods that will most likely contribute and lead to my death? I guess she is too caught up in her own world and problems to help me deal with mine. Yeah, got to get back to being productive. Productivity. Not sure if this word which is a huge poster in Kodama’s room is supposed to be some sort of motivator or insult. Because I’m feeling so lethargic after watching this series… And I didn’t even munch anything while watching it.

Sad to say, I am not very impressed with this series and the whole thing comes off as weird rather than funny. I don’t know, it seems the many of the jokes are a miss with me. Although the punch lines are supposedly funny but somehow I just can’t seem to laugh. Is something wrong with me? Nah! Something is wrong with this series instead! I have come to expect that there will be no sort of plot whatsoever and every episode serves as a standalone filler. Which is okay for me. However the ‘worst’ part is how freaking short each episodes are. So short that the opening credits last longer than the actual episode itself! OMFG. Is this a joke? And episode is 2.5 minutes long. The opening lasts 1.5 minutes. That’s right. Do the math and you’ll find that the proper episode is only 60 seconds long! OMG. No wonder I feel dissatisfied. Before you can warm up your seat, the episode is already basically over! I know they want to keep it short and sweet but it’s just too short for anything to connect. By the time the episode is over, you’ll be in shock asking yourself, that is all there is?! For the record, the opening theme is Nightholic by UROMT and even the singer’s voice sounds lazy.

Of course I have myself to blame because I expect to learn some lifehacks from this instead of looking for them on YouTube. Yeah. Therefore when they are just random skits of Kodama and they do not actually teach you any lifehacks, you can see why I felt disappointed. Uh huh. I guess it was my fault to misinterpret the synopsis. It did say the life of Kodama. It did not specifically say anything about lifehacks. That word only exists in the title. Even more so only the English version. So if you think you want to learn some lifehacks from lil’ Kodama here, you’d be disappointed. Maybe there are 1 or 2 points that Kodama has shown us how to lifehack something but it feels quite obscure and not just anyone can do it.

One factor that made me watch this series is Aoi Yuuki voicing the titular character. Heck, you would say that if not for her, I would not be watching this at all. The gimmick when they advertised this series was Aoi Yuuki voicing almost every character here. Technically they are not lying. But I got to warn you, there aren’t many other characters here either. You can count them all with your hands even those who supposedly have dialogue. With Aoi Yuuki narrating the whole bunch, she just sounds a lot tame and doesn’t go into any wild outbursts or anything like that. Besides, because she is the lone person doing all the dialogue, it mostly feels like Kodama doing a monologue and voicing over the other characters, that’s all. Because no big surprises either as they all sound the same monotonous character. Not that we really care, right? The only other seiyuu is Sho Hayami as Revelation Cat. But that is just very sparing appearances. I guess they don’t want us to get intoxicated with everything Aoi Yuuki, eh?

As for the Kodama character herself, not the best character there is and definitely not your role model. But there is one thing that I like and at the same time envy about her is that she is free to do whatever she wants. The most unrealistic thing is how she doesn’t seem to suffer much from her unhealthy lifestyle choices. No wonder it makes some people ‘angry’. Such perfect life. Uh huh. I think some might even want to sue for ‘plagiarizing’ their lifestyle! But the most important thing that I see in Kodama is that she is happy with her lifestyle. That is the most important aspect ever. It doesn’t matter if you’re a health freak or you’re a slob. As long as you are happy and have no regrets, that is all that matters. Don’t let others impose their ideals onto you. What is life when you can’t even enjoy the most simple of guilty pleasures, no?

Despite all that, I have to say that even though Kodama is a less than desirable character in every way, she makes the best of what she have and is living the best moments of her life, enjoying all that she desires. It might not be the best, the classiest, the most elegant, remember, it is the most basic of happiness that we all humans strive for. Kodama isn’t well off too but looks like she is having a blast. A few occasional setbacks but nothing really serious. For that and in this context, Kodama is definitely one of the best characters out there. I thought they should have put a disclaimer at the start of every episode not to imitate her dangerous lifestyle but I guess if they did, it might be an insult to us because it would show us we’re dumb enough to follow all that. Yeah. Freedom to do whatever we want but not free from its consequences. Remember that caveat of life, people.

There is not much to say about the other characters because basically there is none! All those other side characters are forgettable. Just curious about Kodama’s family because I actually really wonder if her father is some sort of demon! Not sure if her past life is strict despite from the countryside. Because if so, Kodama living her unhealthy lifestyle is the epitome of freedom from her father’s strictness. That is why he is depicted in the flashback looking like one. It would be nice to see more of her origins like if her sister grew up to be a total opposite like a health nut but I think that would need more episodes in which I believe this series won’t get renewed for another season. Why do I feel so relieved? Maybe it’s because on a side note, despite being a short series, sometimes it ran into several production issues and some episodes got delayed, prolonging the airing of this series by a couple of months. The irony of such a short show.

Then there is Revelation Cat and I am wondering if this is Kodama’s guardian angel. Uh huh. My wild conspiracy theory has me think the reason Kodama doesn’t die early in life or show lifestyle disease symptoms like diabetes, obesity and stroke is because this weird guardian angel has somehow been protecting her. Don’t know really how but I figure that’s pretty much the reason behind it. Or do you think this series needs some sort of animal mascot to go with it? Nah! Or perhaps it is all just a figment of imagination of Kodama. I mean, with all the unhealthy food, lack of sleep and exercise, this feline pops up from time to time as a result from her delusions of being bodily deprived.

The artwork and animation… Horrible! It’s like they didn’t put any effort into it since this is just a freaking short anime. That’s precisely why it sucks. Everything feels so cartoonish, sketchy and amateurish that it makes you wonder if there was any QC before the final product came out. Oh, I bet there were none. Just like Kodama’s life, the visuals here are a mess because for example when she’s thinking or daydreaming, you can see all her messy thoughts all over the screen. Also with the lack of animation, sometimes the episode feels like a slightly animated yonkoma comic strip. Oh well, the series is adapted from a web manga in the first place.

Overall, this series is definitely a disappointment. Even if it is meant to be some light-hearted comedy, it fails because it is too short for the jokes to connect. Instead of learning some sort of lifehack, it wasted our time with this messy garbage instead. I guess we were the ones who got duped into watching this, huh? Only have ourselves to blame. Yes, I believe that it is because we are jealous of Kodama living the ultimate lifestyle for poor people, the reason we are not amused with her. Who the f*ck this girl getting to do what she wants while we have to slog like hell in our daily lives with jobs that we hate! GRRR!!! But too bad I won’t learn from this since I will still continue to watch more sh*tty and disappointing animes in time to come. In the meantime I’m going to grab a few chocolate bars while catching my next anime. I deserve it! Hey, I’m only human. And I have at least that right to be happy! I’ll think about my cholesterol level later.