Ah, the gender bender anime. Every couple of years there seems to be an entry into this sub-genre of Japanese animation, popularized in the 90’s by the classic series Ranma 1/2. Now it is Gonna Be The Twin-Tail‘s turn to pick up the torch and see what entertainment value is left to be mined from this genre. It turns out there’s quite a lot left, even if much of it isn’t entirely “new.” Gonna Be The Twin-Tail! seems to take its mantra from “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Dare To Be Stupid,” running wild with it. You won’t find any meaningful insights into gender identity or human psyches, or even just consistent logic. This show isn’t concerned with that. Its only concern is to be dumb entertainment, and at this it is quite successful even if this won’t win it any awards.
To be honest, with its setup, it’s for the best that the show doesn’t take itself seriously at all. The story follows a young man named Souji Mitsuka, who has an extraordinary love (i.e. fetish) for pig tails (or “twin tails”). Out of the blue, a young woman from outer space named Twoearle appears in front of him, while monsters from another world called Gildys begin to attack in the name of taking the Twin-Tail Attribute, apparently the most powerful form of love and energy in the entire universe. Twoearle then half-tricks Souji into putting on a special bracelet that transforms him into a female warrior named Tail Red, and off we go. Eventually Souji’s best friend Aika and the class president Erina both become Tail Warriors as well (Tail Blue and Tail Yellow, respectively), forming a team that embodies both magical girl and sentai elements while they mow down aliens left and right.
It’s a simple, contrived setup that would not work if there wasn’t a consistent tongue-in-cheek approach to most of the scenes. The few times the show does try to take itself and its characters seriously, the drama completely falls flat. The inane background information about fetishistic Attributes powering every individual in the universe makes it impossible to take any drama about it seriously. Thankfully, those moments are few and far between, and every character, especially Twoearle, are much more effective bouncing off of each other with reckless abandon. Many of the gags are stuff that’s been pretty played out in anime at this point (Twoearle wanting to jump Souji, Souji’s mom approving of Twoearle wanting to jump Souji, Aika being mocked for being flat-chested, and a whole ton of slapstick violence), but the execution surprisingly actually works due to how the characters interact. Twoearle is a troll, so there’s no chance of feeling sorry for her when she’s the victim of Aika-induced slapstick violence. The Gildy aliens shout some of the strangest last words in anime history before they die (“LITERATURE!” “THAT’S SO ADORABLE!” and “I LOVE SWIMSUITS!” are the tip of the iceberg here). Souji’s love for Twin-Tails results in some ridiculously sincere speeches that read like a parody of every declaration Naruto, Luffy, or Ichigo Kurosaki have made. Most surprisingly, a bit of literal toilet humor near the end of the series actually manages to spin something unexpected out of a played-out gag.
Even towards the end of the series, with the introduction of Dark Grasper and a surprise status quo change for Souji, Gonna Be The Twin-Tail doesn’t really let up on the humorous aspects. Dark Grasper wants to popularize the Glasses Attribute, and one of her threats to both Souji and Twoearle is forcing on a pair of dorky glasses that will never come off. It’s a level of camp I have not seen outside of 80’s cartoons. Each and every time Twin-Tails! embraces that sincerely stupid side of itself often leads to entertainment gold. However, outside of a surprisingly deep explanation for why Aika puts her hair up into twin-tails by her own will, the attempts at drama and heartwarming emotion just don’t work. Erina’s struggle with her mother over having to wear her hair in a specific style just can’t be taken seriously for even five seconds. Thankfully, before we are dragged down into true stupidity instead of funny stupidity, Souji winds up interfering and lifts us right out of that plot, and he basically does the same in every other instance the show tries to be more ambitious instead of sticking to dumb, funny entertainment.
And yes, the surprise status quo change for Souji doesn’t go as deep into the change as you would expect. Souji just does not wrestle with his identity. He knows who he is, and what he likes, and if he turns into a girl to protect the sanctity of Twin-Tails, so be it! Anyone looking for anything deeper than that will be disappointed, and possibly even angered, but Souji just is the type of character that has no conflicts other than anything regarding the twin-tail hairstyle. By the time the show gets to this point, we know this, and the show expects you to accept it. It’s just how it is.
The animation was maligned for its inconsistency in the original TV run, but the frames were corrected for this DVD/Blu-ray release. While it’s not the most fluid production, the animation is mostly decent enough to support the show in everything it tries to do. The budget is conserved for the action sequences mostly, and there are a few bits of stock footage for transformations and special attacks, but those are minor grievances at best. Comedy is a tricky thing to balance, and director Hiroyuki Kanbe (a veteran director and animator) understands how to execute comedy without using any more frames than necessary to make it work. The end result is serviceable, but won’t win any awards for presentation. The sheer creativity in the broad variety in the Guildy aliens should be noted, however.
Yasuharu Takanashi’s score plays it surprisingly straight, with only a couple of true silly/comedic cues in an effort that feels lifted from his Pretty Cure and Sailor Moon Crystal soundtracks. This is to the show’s advantage, however, and Kanbe shows a surprising comic genius with using Takanashi’s score to create dissonance for more comedy. Watching the Guildy villains play Jenga to decide who’ll fight Tail Red next makes a pretty good comedic scene on its own, but Takanashi’s menacing orchestral chords underneath make the event downright hilarious. Villains may capture a little girl to a heavy metal cue to make them seem threatening, but then they give the girl a couch full of dolls for her to play with while the heavy metal cue keeps going unabated, transforming the scene into unexpected oddball camp. It takes true comedic inspiration to use a sincere score for comedic dissonance and irony, leading to some of the funniest moments of the show.
Less inspired are the opening and ending songs. “Gimme! Revolution” by Maaya Uchida (the Japanese voice actress for Twoearle) is as generic as they come, sounding right out of a Pretty Cure show, and matched with fanservice-y visuals. I think this was another attempt at dissonant comedy, but it just didn’t work for me. “Twin-Tail Dreamer!” by Sumire Uesaka, Yuka Aisaka & Chinatsu Akasaki (the Japanese VAs for Tail Red, Aika/Tail Blue, and Erina/Tail Yellow) is an even more generic pop-rock number with ridiculous lyrics about the glories of twin-tails, and that works a little bit better for what the show is going for.
The English dub, directed by Jerry Jewell and written by Samuel Wooley, is a riot. Many of FUNimation’s best acting performances come out of silly shows like these, and the dub does not disappoint. Outside of Austin Tindle as Souji, Jewell mostly casts newer VAs or those more accustomed to secondary and bit parts for his leads, and they perform wonderfully under his direction. Sarah Weidenheft provides great energy and versatility as Aika, Michelle Rojas has never sounded better as Erina’s bodyguard/maid Mikoto, and Morgan Garrett has the time of her life as Twoearle in one of the best performances so far this year. The likely greatest challenge was casting Tail Red, and Bryn Apprill manages to not only fit the role well, but also mimics Austin Tindle’s speech pattern enough so you can believe it’s the same person talking. On the villain side, Leah Clark somehow makes a nerdy lisp both ridiculous and villainous as Dark Grasper, and Chris Rager does a low rumble that works perfectly for the silly things he has to say as Drag-Gildy. Perhaps my favorite, however, is David Wald doing a Steve Blum parody as Spider Gildy that is simply perfect. The only voice that doesn’t really work is Mikaela Kranz as Erina. Too often, her voice feels forced and on the verge of cracking, like she’s put her voice in a register she can’t support. When Erina powers up and becomes Tail Yellow, Kranz’s delivery adjusts to something closer to her natural range, but she doesn’t feel completely comfortable performing the role even then. It seems like an experimental casting choice that just didn’t work out.
The dub script, while taking its fair share of liberties, hews closer to the original intent of the Japanese script than most of FUNimation’s comedy efforts do. Considering how over-the-top some of the wordings and insults were in the original Japanese script, there wasn’t much Wooley could do to punch things up any more than they already were.
The Japanese voice cast is a smorgasbord of A-list VAs, beyond just Maaya Uchida as Twoearle. Nobunaga Shimazaki is one of Japan’s most sought-after voices for young men, and Sumire Uesaka, Yuka Aisaka, and Chinatsu Akasaki have large fanbases in the otaku community as well. Not surprisingly, they do exceptionally well with the comedy in this show, Maaya Uchida in particular sounding like she can barely keep from busting a gut half the time. There’s something infectious from watching a show where both casts are clearly enjoying themselves, which helps lift the show above its peers. This is not something to be taken for granted, considering how many comedy anime have been sunk by middling performances.
The extras are thin even for a standard FUNimation release these days: a couple of (fittingly) chaotic episode commentaries and the standard textless opening/closing songs, along with trailers for other FUNimation shows. After a bunch of releases with more substantial extras, this barren release is a bit disappointing.
Overall, however, this is one of the most unexpectedly entertaining shows I have watched in a good long while. While Gonna Be The Twin-Tail! will disappoint anyone who’s looking for anything deeper than the pieces of paper the show is scripted on, this show will provide all of the amusement you’re looking for if all you want is to be entertained for a half-hour. It may not be revolutionary, and it definitely doesn’t explore the ramifications of a gender-bender situation as much as it could, but don’t let that dissuade you. This is a suitable inheritor of the torch ignited by Ranma 1/2, and quite possibly the best of its kind since Ranma 1/2‘s heyday.
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