From the Dead of Night: A Mayonaka Punch Review. 400https://www.escapistmagazine.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/06/MayonakaPunchYouTubersfromposterartowork.jpg Mayonaka Punch is unique and that might be an understatement. If I told you the one sentence summary was Vampires make videos with a cancelled YouTuber to reach 1 million subs you might think I was taking the piss here. Despite that MayoPan delivered a fun emotional story that wont pull punches pun intended with its lovely visuals and diverse cast of characters. Yet again P.A. Works has pulled off another great anime original. The series centers around Masaki Sonoue a recently cancelled NewTuber this worlds version of a YouTuber after she punched her friend and comember of a successful NewTube channel on a livestream. Forced out Masaki will need to establish her own channel to achieve her longtime goal of reaching one million subscribers. Unfortunately the backlash from her scandalous departure has led to Masaki becoming depressed and frightened to ever show her face on camera again. However in the dead of night in an abandoned hospital she meets Live a vampire that has recently awakened from a 20 year slumber after dreaming of sucking the blood of a girl that looks like our main character. In this fateful confusing meeting Live strikes a deal with Masaki: She will appear in videos on Masakis NewTube channel and in return she wants to suck her out once the channel reaches one million subscribers. From there the channel Mayonaka Punch is born and would soon be joined by Ichiko Fu and Tokage longtime vampire friends of Live. Despite this new windfall of luck Masaki is still terrified of being in front of a camera and becomes a producer behind the camera as the group of vampires and human face the obstacles of video content creation. 600https://theglorioblog.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/07/mp0102.jpg Masaki has a damn good right hook. At the beginning and for much of the show Masaki is a terrible person: being a selfcentered greedy and erratic individual that at times overworks her vampire comembers for the sake of views and subscribers. Despite these shortcomings its hard to not show empathy for Masaki. Her confidence is shattered from the constant online hate she receives and while she is at times rude to the vampire group shes well intended and only wishes success for both them and the NewTube channel. MayoPan sets up her character from the beginning as a journey to learn from her mistakes and ironically become more human learning from the experiences she has with her vampire comembers. Throughout the show we learn more about Masaki and her life through bits and pieces and makes for some touching moments between Masaki and the various vampire characters. Her selfish actions and blunders along with the clueless group of vampires makes for a funny dynamic that never ends up being too annoying or random. I applaud this show for making the most interesting character in MayoPan the only human of the group that never shows her face on camera despite the vampires being the main stars of the fictional Mayonaka Punch channel. Its a shame though that while MayoPan valiantly tries and somewhat succeeds to fit its story in 12 episodes I do think the show needed a bit more time to fully develop its characters and story and with the trend of P.A. Works doing one and done series I think we wont see any new movie or season that would be very much welcomed for this anime. What should instantly stand out to people about Mayonaka Punch is how colorful the show is. The use of a pastel palette in contrast to how vampires are usually portrayed as dark and gloomy makes for a unique and lively style. The characters are very expressive throughout using faces and actions to drive comedic points once again never going too overboard or random with its funny moments. The show also has some surprisingly good action scenes showcasing some punchy pun also intended animations. While its overall visual design is nothing to write about several aspects of its direction make for a great watching experience. What also stood out to me was MayoPans fantastic voice acting and voice direction. Ikumi Hasegawa previously of Kita fame in Bocchi the Rock does an excellent job as Masaki with her extensive voice range. But the seiyuu that truly stood out was Ai Fairouz voicing Live in arguably one of the best voice acting roles Ive heard. She perfectly sells Live as a character and I was often left impressed by her acting performance throughout the show. MayoPans OP and ED are fantastic in both their unique ways. The opening sequence is a complete love letter to YouTube culture and videos with eyecatching visuals a catchy song and hilarious references to mukbang or Japanese foil balls. The ending sequence is beautifully animated and has a peaceful vibe complement by a great vocal performance from Ikumi Hasegawa. 600https://i.ur.com/Q7tYO5V.jpeg hilarious Bob Ross reference here. MayoPan isnt perfect and while I think it needed more time to develop I still thoroughly enjoyed the ride this show gave with its ridiculous premise. P.A. Works set out to create 3 anime originals this season and while I think they mostly failed to meet expectations with Sakuna and Narenare Mayonaka Punch was a surprisingly great show that ended up flying under the radar this season. After all content creation is hard whether youre an anime studio or a YouTube channel: but being unique can go a long way in making something truly special. 600https://cdn.chest.com/files/j7mmcpg5v97.png Mayonaka Punch