Nanana's Buried Treasure
follows a young man named Yama Juugo. Having decided to leave home and
be independent, Juugo enrolls in a school located on an island. He's
pleasantly surprised to find an apartment on-campus that's fairly
comfortable and charging a rent that's within his means, until he
discovers too late that there's already someone living in it: Nanana, a
ghost bound to that apartment. Unable to pass on, she spends her time
playing videogames and feasting on pudding. Her presence is--to say the
least--perplexing at best and quite an inconvenience at worst for
Juugo, but as the two get to know each other, Nanana talks to Juugo
about her past life. Before she was murdered, Nanana was an adventurer;
over the course of her life she raided tombs, explored ruins, and built
up quite a hoard of treasure. This collection, known as the "Nanana
Collection", is now hidden and scattered all over the island, protected
by traps and puzzles of Nanana's own design.
Now at this point, you'd assume that Nanana's Buried Treasure is basically Indiana Jones: The Anime,
following Juugo and a motley crew of fellow adventurers as they hunt
down Nanana's Collection. Well, it is. But only sometimes. Let me get
this out of the way: Nanana's Buried Treasure is a great
show. It has a very strong cast; Juugo, though inconsistently
characterized at times, is a solid and capable MC. Nanana's a fun and
quirky character who always turns around before consuming an entire cup
of pudding in a single gulp, with a sound effect that could have been
ripped right out of an early 90s videogame. Daruku is completely
useless but might be the most flawless trap I've ever seen. The best of
the bunch however, is self-proclaimed Master Detective Ikkyu Tensai,
who usually steals every scene with a wild combination of character
traits, from brilliant intellect to her penchant for roleplaying.
Putting aside everything else good or bad, this show is worth watching
just for Tensai.
The show also has an interesting backdrop and plenty of compelling plot hooks going for it. In fact, I would say that it has too many plot hooks going on. If there's one problem I have with Nanana's Buried Treasure, it's
that it bites off far more than it can chew. What could have easily
been an enjoyable, well-paced and fleshed out story about a group of fun
characters hunting down the Nanana Collection has inflated into a show
with more going on than it has time to address in the 11 episodes
ostensibly allotted to it. We don't know who murdered Nanana. Juugo
has a past he's running from. There are characters who are connected to
him in ways the show has yet to properly explain. And in the shadows
of the plot sits a possible antagonist who has yet to show himself. And
that's putting aside any character development that has yet to be
carried out. We're more than halfway through the season and this show
is still introducing new plot strings.
To reiterate, Nanana's Buried Treasure
is a great show so far. It's paced well, it has a great cast and truth
be told, it's not like all these plot strings aren't interesting. It's
just that without a continuation, we're headed towards a non-ending
filled with loose ends and undeveloped characters. I'm not criticizing
the show; I'm worried about it.
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