By rights, this should be nothing more than a season-end review of gdMen, but the preponderance of low ratings and confused comments about the show make me want to go a bit further. I can’t make anybody enjoy a series they don’t, and I can barely in the least make them understand its ‘objectively’ good qualities, but I hope I can offer a bit more cultural context in which to place it, which may soften the criticism borne from confusion...
What is gdgd? Literally, it’s a stylised form of ぐだぐだ - gudaguda, meaning (amongst other uses) ‘tedious, repetitive, rambling.’ As for the gd-verse, I’m unable to firmly grasp it myself - no incarnation or responsible party has been successful enough in the English-speaking anime community to warrant, say, a nicely-sourced Wiki page. A cursory study tells me it begins in 2011 with gdgd Fairies, a bizarre comedy starring three fairies having tea in a forest, chatting about anything and everything. shrshr generally introduces an absurd conversational whim, timid pkpk acts as straight-man, and taciturn krkr interjects with dark non-sequiturs and punchlines. It’s cheaply animated in MikuMikuDance, but uses its low quality to its advantage - for instance, frequently relying on terrifying stock models of old men for visual gags, reminiscent of early Garry’s Mod absurdism. In a recurring segment, the three VAs improvise captions to a brief, surreal video clip provided by the animation staff: sometimes referencing characters they’ve played on other shows; sometimes having a reference censored due to licensing restrictions; sometimes birthing running jokes later referred to in the scripted segments, as if they’ve written them into the gdgd lore. Next-episode previews insert the cast into direct parodies of popular shows; season 2 opens with a press conference apologising for this silliness, followed by a smash-cut to a Lucky Star reference. Coarsely put, gdgd Fairies does what the fuck it wants.
These are all the essential qualities of gdgd - cheap MMD animation, whole segments of VA improvisation with audible laughter, pop culture and meta-references, a general freewheeling disregard for structure and convention. Other projects by studios Bouncy and Strawberry Meets (the two sharing credit for gdgd Fairies; their exact relationship is still unclear to me) manifest this spirit of gdgd even when not invoking it by name, and have generally each tackled a particular genre ripe for parody. Chokkyuu Hyoudai Robot Anime follows three robots in the far future attempting to revive and understand the ‘humour’ of ancients - it’s incredibly dry, and deconstructs joke formats to the point that even I have trouble sitting with it. Mahou Shoujo? Naria☆Girls is a vague parody of magical girl tropes, though the ‘plot’ quickly devolves into a ridiculous string of unrelated happenings, and the majority of the show revolves around the VAs improvising off terrible prompts. It’s the worst-looking show of the gd-verse, motion-capturing the VAs into incredibly janky schoolgirl models that clip through each other (which has of course, despite its humour, translated into the lowest MAL score in the gd-verse). Minarai Diva, a copy of which continues to elude me, attempted to form an idol unit and write music on live broadcasts, similarly mo-capped and apparently riddled with technical difficulties. Tesagure! Bukatsumono follows an after-school club attempting to improve generic after-school club scenarios. And this year’s gdMen puts three male VAs in the lead for a change (sexual innuendo is much more abundant here) while riffing off isekai fantasy tropes - maybe especially funny to me, being totally apathetic towards the genre.
I’m urged to apologise for the gd-verse because I constantly see viewers repulsed by its face value, refusing the spirit of gdgd to a vehement degree. I vaguely understand why - when I finished the first episode of Naria Girls, I thought I’d found the worst show I’d ever seen. Thanks to its abysmal rating, I was entering with the assumption that it would be terrible, and the loose dialogue and poor animation are definitely qualities of terrible things. By the second episode, once the shock had worn off, its self-aware lackadaisy that had been disguised as ineptitude became wholly apparent, and I allowed myself to be taken along. I quickly realised I loved it. But I’ve seen comments that hint at viewers latching on to that initial attitude - “what is this?! It’s ugly! It’s so poorly written it almost seems improvised!” - and refuse to budge, even while staring the gdgd in the face. The initial expectation that it will conform to the traditions of anime encounters the non-traditional spirit of gdgd; in this conflict lies the absurd. The typical viewer can either accept the gdgd, or come to despise it - it is so at odds with expectations that it cannot be merely rejected. It must be destroyed.* By which I mean: I can understand initial confusion, but I can’t understand the viewer that sits through a whole season of Naria Girls and at no point realises that it’s all a big joke. People hate things they don’t understand, and it’s easier (and more fun) to hate than to attempt to reconcile yourself with something new - for instance, that animation quality isn’t the only metric of merit; or that not every piece of art is asking you to take it seriously.
Let me tell you: if you’re enjoying a guide to an obscure comedy studio that’s riffing of The Myth of Sisyphus, you’ve got the spirit of gdgd in you. If you seek to explore the gd-verse with me, I recommend starting where it all began with gdgd Fairies. Let me know how you go. And to all who may be wary, I ask you to try, if only a little, to let the spirit of gdgd into your heart. You may absolutely fucking hate it, yes. You may well be changed for life.
なーんちゃって~
*I can’t help but wonder how prevalent this mindset is. Nichijou has a devout cult following, but massively tanked on release. Teekyuu has persisted for 9 seasons purely because one Blu-Ray sale funds the entire next season. Meanwhile, a billion cute-girl 4koma adaptations are pumped out yearly (not that they’re all bad, mind you). Am I overthinking things? I know I’m touting an intersectional review blog here, but I don’t want to come off as a snob.
