Acro Trip – Episodes 1-2

What’s it about? 7^th grader Date Chizuko has moved all over Japan thanks to her mother’s job and gotten plenty used to being on her own, until she pays a visit to her grandpa in Naniga City and finds something to ignite her jaded heart: Berry Blossom, Naniga City’s very own magical girl. Chizuko might be Berry Blossom’s biggest fan…so why won’t the forces of evil stop trying to recruit her to their side?

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If you tried out Gushing Over Magical Girls a few seasons back and thought, “boy, I love this premise but wish it weren’t so slaveringly horny for barely pubescent middle schoolers,” I have good news. Acro Trip is “a magical girl fangirl is better suited to playing the villain” as filtered through a shoujo lens, and it’s a shot of joy straight to the arm.

I don’t want to belabor that comparison—Acro Trip isn’t really interested in exploring kinky sexual awakening and while Chizuko is definitely nursing a crush under all that “admiration” I’m not sure how much or even if the show intends to unpack that fact—so let’s nod to the baby domme in the corner and continue on our merry way.

Acro Trip has the warm glow of a parody that loves its subject matter. The monster minions are just big bears that yell “BEAR” rather than “gao gao”; footage of Berry Blossom vanishes almost the moment it gets uploaded online, but there’s a mysterious glut of merchandise for the local heroine all over town. Chizuko keeps getting surprised whenever Berry forgoes magic and goes in for a good old fashioned punch (a playful dig at Precure I have to assume). Villainous organization Fossa Magna is just one dude, failvillain Chrome (civilian name “Kuroma”), and his imposing evil lair is headquartered a crawlspace.   

It’s determinedly tongue-in-cheek, but it takes Chizuko’s passion for magical girls very seriously indeed. Like most shoujo adaptations, Acro Trip isn’t working with the most optimal suite of resources, but first time Series Director Kotake Ayumu knows where to put the oomph: into making Berry Blossom look as cool as possible through Chizuko’s eyes. I suspect Kotake’s work with Studio TRIGGER is coming in clutch here, as there’s some really nice boarding to get around moments where movement is less-than-dynamic, but the script—by Inotsume Shinichi, who hasn’t done series composition for a shoujo title since Yona of the Dawn—deserves credit too.

This is not a story interested in playing its hand too early. The manga ran for five volumes (the perfect amount for a cozy single cour), and at the end of episode 2 Chizuko is still steadfastly refusing that call despite a few starry-eyed fantasies about how good she’d be at pushing Berry to her limits (to maker her look more awesome, of course). Her dynamic with Chrome, who declares himself an eeeevil adult as he tries to con her into making competent evil schemes for him to carry out, could be creepy in a different series. But the execution is so goofy and cartoonish that Chrome comes off like a loser high schooler trying and failing to act grownup, more Sir Simon Milligan than Akio. Even when he alludes to getting a masochistic kick out of losing his fights, it’s a moment of dialogue that translates into zero horniness during the fight scenes.

No, all the awkward flustering is saved for Chizuko’s meltdowns at the thought of her idol noticing her, which is downright adorable. I like this kid an awful lot. She’s withdrawn and deadpan but all-in on her fangirl moments, prone to falling flat on her face only to make the situation worse while trying to land a recovery. She’s very middle school, in other words. I’m a bit resigned to the series not digging into her relationship to Berry beyond the “intense friendship with even more intense subtext” genre standard that’s common from Precure to SHY. But there’s also time to turn into FLIP FLAPPERS. Just putting it out there.

Even if the queerness stays in the realm of subtext, I’m excited to follow this one. It’s got good comedic timing, smart direction, and a lot of love in its parodic elements. Normally the sight of a double premiere drop is a serious drag, but these episodes flew by in no time at all. Plus, I’m genuinely on the hook for how Chizuko will navigate her Lex Luthor-y potential while finding out more about Berry. This one’s an enthusiastic “let’s go!” from me.

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