Sushi Police

ZephSilver★ 2

Sushi Police was a satirical social commentary that's based on the actions of the Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who, upon eating at a place he deemed unauthentic for serving sushi alongside Korean BBQ, proposed an idea that would see to it that a dispatch unit of undercover inspectors would go around secretly evaluating sushi to determine its authenticity. Those that pass this secret inspection would receive the approval to be listed as "authentic," as well as sponsorship deal on a Japanese government website. And like this ludicrous idea that received huge media backlash in 2006, this too was equally panned by the fewanime viewers that saw it. The anime turned the real-world incident into a big, dumb, nonsensical spoof that saw these "Sushi Police" do exactly as this proposed idea would suggest: inspect sushi. This then led to non-comedic hijinks, espionage, and sushi-zilla... or at least that's what I vaguely remembered when I was picking my nose. Sushi Police desperately try to lampoon Japan's nationalistic sense of pride but don't know how to do so without being on-the-nose about everything in the worst way possible. It's a show that becomes a self-defecating satirical piece with as much integrity as the Korean BBQ that launched its inception. Do I suggest this? No. Even with those that are aware of the events that surrounded the creation of this anime, the actual product was still drab. It isn't funny, it isn't insightful, and it isn't going to encourage any sort of discussion. However, what it will encourage is a nice 3-minute nap. It was simply 2deep4me bruh. After I watched it, cried, self-defecated all over my couch, curled up in a fetal position and I rocked myself to sleep.

literaturenerd★ 4

A show or movie based on a very simple premise or pitch is called a "high concept piece". This is a 13 episode anime entirely based on mocking a stupid quote by a nationalist Japanese politician. Sushi Police takes thin premise to a whole new level. On the surface, this could be a clever, little satire that mocks the growing wave of Japanese nationalism and calls for rationality through comedy. However, this would have worked better as a 5 minute SNL sketch. At 13 episodes that are 3 minutes, this is 40 minutes of the same fucking joke done OVER and OVER until they pretty muchforget the satire and make a Godzilla spoof because even the show writers realized they were trying to stretch too little material over too long a running time. A defender of Sushi Police could point out that One Punch Man is beloved despite basically being the same joke over and over. However, One Punch Man actually had a massive art budget and fight scenes that aesthetically looked cool. It wasn't just, "I'm early, better think of a Superman...Superman! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBLspvxgTdQ