Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
This is HEYBOT!, a 2016-2017 anime (that just ended this weekend, in fact) streaming on Crunchyroll.
I've heard of this show, but only because it aired on the same block as Kamen Rider did and for the most part I never had any interest in checking it out. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually easily amused by these types of merchandise driven shows---I mean, after all, that's what Kamen Rider is---but Heybot! just looked pretty generic so I never gave it much thought. I mean, the robot was cute looking, but otherwise it looked like a by-the-numbers toy commercial and I already have plenty of those I'm watching like Kamen Rider, Pokemon Sun and Moon, and Digimon Universe: Applimonsters, the latter which I must say is quite good and among the better Digimon series...
Well, I decided to check out an episode of Heybot! the other night when I heard it ended and, well, I was wrong...
This isn't a generic toy commercial anime. It's anything but.
Actually, I take that back---it IS a merchandise driven show, but to the point of absurdity. Heybot! is a talking robot toy that learns new phrases as it "levels up", and can combine with various robot friends pictured above in different combinations. There are also collectible Screws that you can use by screwing them into Heybot! to have "Vocabattles", where depending on the combination of screws a catchy rap song plays. At first glance you almost doubt this is an actual toy because everything it does sounds a bit too crazy, but it's a legit toy and honestly the show does a great job at selling it---but it has fun with the concept, with Heybot in the first episode repeatedly literally turning into a photorealistic image of the toy. There are also numerous scenes where someone does something "dangerous" to Heybot, like spraying him with water, and the show exclaiming that, no, you shouldn't do this to your Heybot toy. Basically, this show somehow succeeds in being a merchandise driven show while also taking the piss out of them.
The plot is also amusingly strange for such a show, ostensibly being a battle anime but with a few twists. First off the competitions, "Vocabattles", are bizarre. As mentioned above they're all about combining these screws to form different "combos", which are pretty trippy little music videos, and thus there's really no rhyme or reason as to who wins---it's all an excuse for some pretty catchy tunes to play accompanied by rapid-fire gags. The main character, Nejiru, looks like your usual shonen lead but is screw-obsessed and that's his main motivation rather than hot-blooded heroism---there's a side character who mocks that cliche---and is constantly described as a "villainous protagonist" and "screw pervert". Heybot is no better, slightly more moral but willing to break down if his favorite snack, Imochin, is involved. The cast is rounded out by a team of rival characters aiming to be the "protagonists", and are probably more suited to it; a trio of "Team Rocket" robots just looking to get by, with one of them an obsessive Tweeter; and a "cute girl" who is actually another robot wearing human skin, and has a ton of bizarre human-vehicle hybrid bodies ready to go. Oh, and a giant old-man with a screw for a head who judges all the Vocabattles. Not to mention countless non-sequitur characters who pop up all over the place.
Yeah, this show is weird. BoBoBo weird. It's not for everyone, as you can imagine, but if you love goofy gag anime you'll probably get a kick out of this---the animation is very fluid and full of quick sight gags and pop-culture references and each episode has been entertaining for me from start to finish. Now, I'm only about 13 episodes in, and it seems there is an actual plot developing in the background so it isn't total insanity, so there is a hook to keep you interested beyond the gags. It's also a bit like Gintama in my opinion, despite being aimed at a younger crowd there's a lot of off-color humor like that show and mocking of the censors. One episode ends with the protagonist slamming people in the crotch to cure a zombie virus, for instance.
I also have to give credit to the Crunchyroll subs, because they're a bit better than you usually get with these gag shows---they do a good job at translating most of the jokes to ones that work better in English, and they don't bombard the screen trying to explain every single Japanese pun. In a way they also add to the humor in places, they get a lot of mileage out of the screw puns and it fits so well since the main character really does seem to have a somewhat sexual obsession with screws. So don't be intimidated if you're worried about it being "too Japanese-y", it's crazy enough but the subs do a good job at making it easy for an English-speaker to get into it.
Unfortunately, the show's kind of a hard sell through describing it---you're probably a little skeptical, and you might not enjoy it. But you should give the first episode a shot, it goes all out right from the beginning and so far hasn't let up for me. I've watched around 13 episodes in two days.