Anime Review: City the Animation

Nichijou was an anime that got me and my family through the overwhelming tension of the 2019-2020 Oregon wildfires. When I learned that City, another manga from the same creator, was getting an anime adaptation this year, it became an immediate addition to my watchlist. I was not disappointed.

City is set around the titular, but otherwise unnamed, City. Rather than following two core groups like with Nichijou, it instead follows a wide variety of groups of people, from a trio of roommates, to a mangaka and his editor, to two childhood friends (one of whom is moving abroad), to an entire classroom of chucklefucks, and a family of oddballs.

These interact in various ways. The dad in the family runs the restaurant where one of the roommates works. The son is in the class of chucklefucks, and one of the daughters is the childhood friend who isn’t moving. Hilarity ensued in every aspect of the story.

And, also, like Nichijou, this series is spectacularly over-animated in some truly enjoyable ways. For example, one episode has a bit where a character is repeatedly hit in the face by an increasing number of soccer balls. This, on it’s own, can be funny, even with the same comedic timing as done in the show. However, by putting such elaborate detail into each cut of each impact, it makes a scene that could have gone “Funny -> seems to wear out its welcome again -> wraps back around to funny again” stays funny with every impact.

A multiple split-screen shot from City: The Animation.

Additionally, City was known for some of its big, Where’s Waldo-esque tableau spreads, with loads of the series’ gigantic cast combined into one scene. The series handles some of these better than others. The one for a big picnic is done as bubbles coalescing into a larger whole. This makes for a nice effect, but doesn’t quite hit as well as the big Where’s Waldo tableau. A later one for the City Race, on the other hand, is done as a long one shot, following each participant in the race. That part works very well.

Honestly, I’d consider this one of the top anime titles of the year.