Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? | Episode 3 and 4 Review

Episode Three and four THoughts

Episode three was all about dieting. To be completely honest with you, I thought this episode was okay. I’m still adjusting to this ‘new’ (even though the episode aired in 2019) style of anime. Educational anime such as Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? is all about finding that balance between education and entertainment. For episode three, in particular, you can tell that it was split up into two parts, the first half of the anime being informative. Machio explaining how you can still exercise even if you’re sore, all you just have to activate a different set of muscle groups. Followed by Akemi explaining how a proper diet helps you lose weight and all the in’s and out’s of that. Then we have the second half of the episode where they’re at a convention place, where people sell their manga, cosplay and do all that sort of thing.

While I am still in the early episodes of the anime, I could tell that the primary source of the show’s comedy is primarily through one person, Machio. With his over-the-top explanations, insanely ripped body and the shredding of the clothes whenever he flexes, you can tell he’s the source. The second source is Hibiki’s determination to have a summer body but through the laziest way possible and with minimal effort. Both sources are okay, but they do not really feed into each other. Furthermore, something else I would like to mention is that although a lot of the episode was informational, I appreciate the attempt to make it all somewhat entertaining by way of Hibiki reacting negatively to whatever was said. However, I kind of felt myself grimacing when they tried to mix both comedy and education together; it just didn’t feel natural. It could also be because I’m not someone who finds education particularly entertaining or exciting. So mixing the two would be a mixed back for me as the viewer.

While episode four is almost identical compared to the previous three episodes. I liked it a little more than episode three, and that’s because Akemi is starting to grow on me. She has all these weird quirks about her, and I find all of them to be pretty entertaining, especially the muscle obsession that seems to get her really excited. She’s that wealthy friend who is weird in many ways but intelligent at the same time. I quite like that type of character. Akemi reminds me a lot of Fujiwara from Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai.

But anyway, yeah. Having now watched three episodes in relatively close succession, I can tell that the anime as a whole is starting to drop off for me. In large part because it feels very repetitive. What do I mean by this? As one of the goals of the anime is to be educational at the same time, you see the same segments in the first and second halves of the episode. In the first few minutes, you’ll have Machio’s educational piece, then later on in the episode, you’ll have Akemi’s educational session, with everything else effectively serving as a filler between the segments. Is that something I like? Not really. I assume that it’s a reoccurring thing for the anime, and that’s something I’m not really looking forward to.

Alas! I will finish the anime though, that will be a goal of mine.