Generally, there’s this trade that occurs when introducing an anime:
“Have you ever seen this present? It’s wild.”
“What’s it about?”
“Y-you’ll simply need to see.”
And the above doesn’t occur since you have been attempting to prank them, or as a result of the present was merely about stunning plot twists. Quite, it’s as a result of the present in query simply retains throwing one curve ball after one other, and no matter conception you had of the collection initially will get tossed out the window.
Anyway, have you ever seen Turkey? It’s wild.
Turkey! Time to Strike (because it’s known as in English) facilities across the 5 ladies of a highschool bowling membership who, whereas coping with some drama that threatens to tear the group aside, find yourself in a state of affairs none of them might have ever anticipated. If that’s sufficient to persuade you, go watch it now, as a result of there’s a main spoiler in Episode 1 that kicks the collection off for actual.
For many who’ve determined to stay round: An intense match between two members all of the sudden goes awry when lightning strikes, one of many bowling balls glows, and the ladies all get despatched lots of of years again in time. Shock! It’s really a time journey story. After rescuing a younger and good-looking warrior from the battlefield they discover themselves on (via the ability of bowling, after all), they find yourself dwelling along with his household. Now, they’ve to regulate to dwelling in a world with out electrical energy whereas attempting to determine methods to return again to the trendy day, and within the course of study concerning the household of siblings which can be caring for them?
(Turkey, by the best way, is the time period for while you get three strikes in a row. Time to Strike was presumably added to the English launch as a result of whereas having simply the phrase Turkey written out makes an affect in Japanese, it could not have the identical impact in English).
If this collection have been merely about time displacement hijinks that swap a DeLorean for a bowling ball, the present can be fairly weird and memorable already. However what pushes it far previous the road is the truth that it really places some severe thought into the execution of its premise. “No, actually—What if a bowling group wound up in feudal Japan?” A few of it’s about educating a technology previous concerning the pleasure of bowling or studying the essential politics of the interval, however then the present will get starkly severe at occasions. It’ll go from teenage ladies utilizing the thundering sound of bowling balls as an enemy distraction, to discussions about tragic lack of household and deep private emotions of guilt, to the ethical variations within the act of killing between eras, again to wacky bowling enjoyable. Tonal whiplash doesn’t even start to explain what’s happening right here.
However someway, the group behind Turkey managed to tug it off and create an emotionally highly effective present that makes use of bowling as an unlikely conduit for therapeutic and remedy throughout time. Throughout 12 episodes, the anime by no means stops stunning, and it even ends in each a satisfying and sudden method. It takes the “ladies doing a particular exercise” idea so perennially standard in anime, and hits on each the slice-of-life and drama ranges in ways in which really feel incongruous, but in the end harmonize.
