My Deer Friend Nokotan/Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan [ANIME FIRST IMPRESSIONS]

For most of you, there won’t be any need to introduce My Deer Friend Nokotan, as the marketing for it made it an instantly popular memetic trend, thanks to the incredible trailer, it coming from studio WIT and promising a non-sensical humour reminescent of Nichijou, especially as one of the legendary scenes in it was the “school principal VS deer wrestling match”.

The “shikanoko dance” itself made it reach meme heaven, go super-viral, as it resonated beyond well with the internet anime communities, all months before the first episode was aired and available on streaming via many popular services. And Crunchyroll.

Not bad for what was originally a fairly unknown manga by Oshioshio, author of Sakura Maimai but better known today (kinda) as the character designer for popular V-Tuber Amane Kanata.

The trailers were funny and promisingly nonsensical to the max, but i was curious to see if the actual series could work as a thing to see and not experience only via memes and gifs and such, so i waited until the third episode to properly assess what we have, if its actually any good or just a gimmicky title like the isekai vending machine anime, if it falls apart after the novelty wears off…

The premise is actually fairly “tame” in terms of comedy/gag manga or slice of life, as in there’s a new student in class, Noko Shikanoko (immediatly referred to by everybody as “Nokotan”, a girl with antlers that enters school and immediatly calls out the class’ most beloved and perfect model student (and class representative) Torako as an ex-deliquent, a secret she never told anybody.

To protect her past secret from leaking out, she basically befriends/is forced to follow her around, and weird stuff ensues, as Nokotan’s deer abilities are many and a-plenty, ranging from antlers-pouches, sniffing deer power, esplosive boomerang weapons, and she attracts the usual gaggle of weirdos, including Torako’s sister, Anko, a siscon, a yandere siscon, because of course, Meme, a glutton, as they end up joining the hastily and conveniently fastly approved “Deer Club”…

First episode i feel was a bit disappointing, a bit, because i feel could have been even better, but it gets the gist across fast, establishes things super fast for the modern ADD audiences, gets the protagonists dynamic established as well, and does get some good laughs in, especially thanks to the fuckin low quality 3D deers staring or reacting.

i wasn’t immediatly sold on the “wacky, meta narrator” that chimes in occasionally to do meta jokes, as in it’s sparsely used but i’d just don’t use him, never, maybe once per episode, two at best, i feel it’s better if you just let the non-sense flow instead of trying to do the hard and nearly impossible observational joke when the deer girl just grabbed her horns and upper skull cap to rummage through her own head. But i warmed up eventually, as it can get some nice jpke

I mean, because some jokes don’t quite land but then i’m ambushed by the ending that’s basically live action footage of deer and people manifacturing deer crackers XD

it’s a more than decent first episode, though, the animation is quite good and these first 3 episodes are fairly quick at introducing what we’re lead to assume will be the core members of the Deer, which also includes the yandere siscon little sister of the protagonist, Anko Toshi/Torashi, which is THE yandere siscon nutcase that’s ready to go for the kill if you dare ever so look at her oneechan, like, she at 100 % yander overclocked dark power immediatly, which works, she often even has the dead fish eyes that would led you to expect her juggling with a decapitated head if this wasn’t a gag manga about a girl with deer horns that’s allegedly, maybe also a deer.

In episode 3, we finally get the contest for the “shikanokonokokoshintan” dance and it’s a fuckin Spider Man 3 ref, or sure as hell might be, i’m not entirely sure, but given the kind of memery this series conjured up so far, i’m not excluding the possibility either.

We also get introduced to what the opening makes us assume is the last member of the Deer Club, Bashame Meme, yes, of course, which is prone to under or over eating and collapsing in a pool of drool (which i’m already noticing the series uses more than others as a visual joke) and is another kind of nutcase for poor Torako to be burdened with.

So yeah, first impressions for My Deer Friend Nokotan are (mostly) good, not great, i expected more but again, this is a first impressions article of the first 3 episodes, but i fear the deer absurdity might not deliver the variety of bizarre jokes it could and turn out to be one-note, and while i don’t plan to review it as soon as it ends or anything like that, i might later down the line, but so far even the recurring jokes like the “shika” chants and the realistic low def deers reactions do not feel old yet, i’m willing to stay cautiously optimistic.

Could use less “virgin” jokes, though, they get old especially fast and feel cheap.

Despite what the various memes might imply, you should understand that the overall style it’s a lot more Gabriel Dropout than Nichijou (very few things are like Nichijou), which isn’t surprising since the director is Masahiko Ohta, better known for the aforementioned Gabriel Dropout, Imouto Umaru-chan, Sabagebu! Survival Game Club and something called Yuru Yuri.