Punch Line (anime)

Plot

Yūta Iridatsu lives at the Korai House apartment complex with four girls: Mikatan Narugino, Ito Hikiotani, Meika Daihatsu, and Lovera Chichibu. One day, following a busjacking incident, Yūta finds himself ejected from his own body and becoming a spirit. Guided by the cat spirit Chiranosuke, Yūta must learn to master his spirit powers in order to protect his housemates from the various circumstances they find themselves in. However, if Yūta sees a girl's panties twice in a row, the Earth will be destroyed by a meteor.

Characters

Yūta Iridatsu (伊里達 遊太, Iridatsu Yūta)

Voiced by: Marina Inoue The main protagonist. Yūta's soul was separated from Yūta's body following the bus hijacking incident. Yūta must search for Sacred Tome of Koraikan in order to return to Yūta's physical body. Whenever Yūta sees a girl's panties, Yūta gains a burst of strength known as Über-fy powers, but upon seeing panties twice in succession, Yūta gains too much stimulation and loses consciousness, which somehow results in a meteor destroying Earth, though he can go back in time to prevent that. Yūta has a small amount of spiritual abilities, which increases upon 'levelling up', but can also perform more advanced abilities, such as possession, when there is cinnamon in the vicinity. In episode 7, it is revealed that Yūta was originally a boy named Pine (パイン, Pain) who ended up switching bodies with a girl named Chiyoko. As such, Yūta is biologically female, with his legal name being Yū Iridatsu (伊里達 遊, Iridatsu Yū). "Yūta Iridatsu" is a pun on the phrase "astral projection" (幽体離脱, yūtai ridatsu).

Mikatan Narugino (成木野 みかたん, Narugino Mikatan)

Voiced by: Sora Amamiya A member of the idol group "Seas May", who secretly fights crime as the magical girl Strange Juice. Whenever she is flustered or alone, she ends up speaking in the Tsugaru dialect which she picked up in her early childhood. Similar to Yūta, she possesses Uber-fy powers for her crimefighting, but these have a strong side-effect on her body which requires constant medication. It is later revealed that she is Chiyoko (ちよ子), whose soul went out of the body Yūta possesses and into the body of Guriko. When the characters in her name are read differently, her name is a pun on the phrase "ally of justice" (正義の味方, seigi no mikata).

Ito Hikiotani (曳尾谷 愛, Hikiotani Ito)

Voiced by: Minako Kotobuki A NEET who spends most of her time playing online games and taking care of her pet Muhi, a bear cub. Her name is a pun on the term "HikiOtaNEET" (ヒキオタニート), a portmanteau of hikikomori, otaku, and NEET.

Meika Daihatsu (台初 明香, Daihatsu Meika)

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya A robot who happens to be the landlady of the apartment all the characters are living in. She is also a genius inventor, and has unrivalled hacking skills. However, she has very poor physical reflexes. She speaks in the Kansai dialect. Her name is a pun on the phrase "great inventor" (大発明家, Daihatsumei-ka). She is Pumpkin Chair.

Lovera Chichibu (秩父 ラブラ, Chichibu Rabura)

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu A gyaru who works as an exorcist. Despite her profession, she does not believe in the existence of spirits. She can be temporarily possessed by Yūta when there is cinnamon in the vicinity. Her name is a pun on "chichi burabura " (乳ブラブラ, lit. "breasts dangling").

Chiranosuke (チラ之助, Chiranosuke)

Voiced by: Yuri Yoshida A talking cat spirit who informs Yūta about spirit powers and serves as a guide to get him to save the world. In episode 12, it seen that Chiranosuke is a cat that Ito Hikiotani's friend from technical school gave to her. He/she is a chinchilla, which is a type of Persian Cat.

Ryūto Teraoka (寺岡 龍都, Teraoka Ryūto)

Voiced by: Kenji Akabane The leader of the QMay terrorist organisation. He is later revealed to be Guriko (ぐり子), whose soul currently possesses Yūta's original body.

Chihaya Tomoda (友田 千早, Tomoda Chihaya)

Voiced by: Jun Oosuka Ito's homeroom teacher, who has a deranged admiration for Ito. Merging with Q-May's spirit, Tomoda becomes a masked soldier, referred to the residents as "Turtle Man" (亀男, Kame Otoko), and is able to use Über-fy powers.

Kenji Miyazawa (宮沢 賢治, Miyazawa Kenji)

Voiced by: Marina Inoue A costumed vigilante who shows up out of nowhere and possesses the same Uber-fy powers as Yūta. It is later revealed that this is another version of Yūta, who goes back in time from a previous time loop and possesses his present day body whenever the plan to save the world fails, eventually becoming an identity the present Yūta assumes when he goes back in time.

Akina Iridatsu (伊里達 秋奈, Iridatsu Akina)

Voiced by: Mariko Honda Yūta's foster sister, who found him after he had switched into Chiyoko's body. She is the one who sends Yūta the Kenji Miyazawa costume.

Production

Punch Line was first announced on November 24, 2014. The series is directed by Yutaka Uemura at MAPPA and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi with character design by Shōta Iwasaki and music composed by Tetsuya Komuro. The series aired on Fuji TV's noitaminA programming block between April 9, 2015 and June 25, 2015 and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. The opening theme is "Punch Line!" by Shokotan ♥ Denpagumi while the ending theme is "Honey Honey Honey" (蜜蜜蜜) by AyumiKurikaMaki. The series is licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.

Video game

A video game adaptation was developed by 5pb. for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The game offers multiple endings that divert from the anime's main ending. While originally planned to be released in late 2015, it was delayed until 2016.

The game was released on April 28, 2016 in Japan.