Animehouse

How do you continually up the ante, raise the stakes- create that do or die moment? Mayonaka Punch episode 3 says, “It’s easy! Just be a vampire!”. It’s a valid argument to make, but is only facilitated by the strong character archetypes on display, and a dynamic that’s able to be interrupted while in effect. Continuing to explore content creation through Shuu Honma’s boards, the episode does well to pull MayoPan out of their aimless spiral and point them in a direction they can succeed. How far they go, though? That’s hard to say.

The easy thing to say is that the series isn’t treating it as a “Let’s blow up this very minute”, which is nice to see. There’s trial, failure, lost footage, and mediocrity abound with Mayonaka Punch episode 3. It’s a great piece that helps pull apart Masaki’s personality as “the” content creator of the group, forcing them to recenter their efforts as a team. Alongside that, they start to paint her fears as something closer to an obsession. It’s no longer the negative comments that purely get to her, but also the response to their videos. Her character is built around the affirmation of a faceless mass of the internet, and seeing that previously confirmed status shatter with videos that can’t even break 1,000 views really gets to her.

Keeping on the content creation train, the decision to push viewers towards only the really important videos for MayoPan is a solid decision. If they made every video make or break, the series would move way too quick and their ascension to stardom would be a little too artificial. It does make me wish that we could see some behind the scenes and processing to fill in those gaps of experience with the videos, though. Not that I mind how it is currently, but I feel like if you want to tackle content creation as much as Mayonaka Punch wants to, you should at least get a bit of a closer look at some of the other pieces. For metrics and analytics? They’ve definitely got it. With other areas though, it’s a little thing- to be expected with early videos with low production costs, but I’m just a born worrier, you know? Either way, the balance of Mayonaka Punch episode 3 does a great job of expressing the very “okay”ness of MayoPan as a NewTube channel while still keeping the videos engaging to us viewers (no, not the NewTube viewers, the anime viewers).

And a big part of its ability to keep us engaged comes from the dynamics between our Banpai Manor beauties. The biggest thing that prior episodes were missing was the latter half of its namesake- the punch. Someone that isn’t content with playing by Masaki’s (or Live’s) rules of creation. For that purpose Tokage enters the scene to provide the wild and untamed nature of the group, derailing the very passive connection that Live, Ichiko, and Fuu share. They essentially fill the role of Masaki on the camera. Dedicated, borderline aggressive, and full of personality that doesn’t play by the rules of others.

It’s a little much to say they’re a creative well for Masaki, but I think it’s perfectly fine to say that they spiced up things more than enough to get the creative gears turning again. You need variance and a new rhythm to find something fresh to explore. Live and her girls aren’t boring or drab… but they’re more than a little happy to be putty in Masaki’s hands. Frankly, unlike Tokage their heads just aren’t in it, and you can feel that with how Tokage spins the MayoPan channel and pulls them out of that rut immediately. It’s a rivalry between a camerawoman and their subject, and it’s the kind of sharp energy that Masaki surely thrives on.

Overall, it’s a little hard to extract a “story” from Mayonaka Punch episode 3, but it’s sure as hell easy to see which way it’s pointing. The introduction of Tokage is great, but the equally interesting piece is how Shig-… er, Yuki will slot into the equation. With the girls toeing the line of using their vampire powers, Yuki’s there to keep them in check and threaten them with various tribulations- which will ultimately be filmed and uploaded to NewTube. It makes you curious to see when she’ll cave and get sucked into the group, and just how long she’ll hold out against these brainless vampires.

In addition, it very much feels like a question of “when” rather than “if” for Masaki to blow up over struggles with the channel, and I’m really curious to see how that’s managed. Considering how she’s following in the footsteps of her previous channel, the odds of struggle are very high, and with Live and others already on eggshells around her, an implosion is absolutely in the cards. It’s just how they make it past that. Certainly, it has to be the enjoyment of creating something with them, but how will they get to that point from where she stands now, obsessing over numbers on a website? There’s really no shortage of interesting pieces with Mayonaka Punch episode 3, but much like the content creation it focuses on, the idea of much of a story or arc is a loose idea that follows behind execution and appeal. We’ll still get a story, but first and foremost is these girls making some NewTube videos of them downing plates of garlic- and whatever else we might see in the next episode.