ぽんのみち

PON NO MICHI

Slice of Life

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
12
RELEASE
March 23, 2024
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

The anime is set in Hiroshima Prefecture's Onomichi City, where a high school student Nashiko Jippensha was kicked out of her house. Without a place to play with her friends, she learns that the mahjong parlor that her father used to run is now vacant. She fixes the mahjong parlor and turns it into a place where she and her friends can have fun, cook, have tea, and sometimes play mahjong.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Haneru Emi
Hibiku Yamamura
Pai Kawahigashi
Iori Saeki
Nashiko Jippensha
Kaori Maeda
Izumi Tokutomi
Shion Wakayama
Riche Hayashi
Yui Kondou
Chonbo
Akio Ootsuka
Nazo no Onnanoko
Reina Ueda
Ichi-hime
Maaya Uchida

EPISODES

Dubbed

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Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO PON NO MICHI

MANGA Slice of LifePon no Michi

SPECIAL FantasyJongtama PV

Cover Art for Pon no Michi: Ryuukyoku Shanyuu-hen

MANGA ComedyPon no Michi: Ryuukyoku Shanyuu-hen

REVIEWS

SenNkA
80/100
Very cute SOL anime, giving us five adorable girls, funny jokes and ofc - there is a beach episode too!!
Cute girls doing ALL the cute things
Let's start with 'design'. Whole the girls' design isn't original in the anime world, it's very beautiful. They look adorable, they have their own personalities (even though some weren't fully explored yet) and the author really put attention to their hairstyles and clothes.
Yes, sure, they are wearing the same stuff the first half of the anime, but then they start wearing more cute clothes and each time it's a hit. The girls even had special costumes for Christmas. (I've never seen anything like that, it was hilarious!) That covers the cute part!

These girls play Mahjong, cook, grill, hike... we have a beach episode, we have a glance at school uniforms, we have random meetings... Everything we like and love is covered.
The beach episode isn't just about the fanservice! They managed to incorporate lots of games into it and that made it even more interesting.

Grilling & cooking was a great way for Pai to shine, the hike & onsen visit showed us more about Haneru, Nashiko's personality was the first thing we saw in anime and Riiche was simply genius with her rich-girl-is-dense personality. Izumi is the only one who slips from me - but she was hilarious.

It's not only girls though. I have to mention Chonbo - who didn't have a lot of screen time, but was the meme of the show. He made the show into something else just by appearing and while I think he was just an impulsive thought of the author, I don't have any complains about his presence.

"those" shots
They deserve their own paragraph. I mean what the hell was this??

Make your dreams come true... every morning
Sounds cliché, I know. But these girls managed to do it.
At the beginning of almost every episode, the girls had a weird dream about gameplay - and it came true the next day with their friends. I'll tell you... it was a bit annoying at times. Mostly because of how unlikely that is to happen.
But I guess it was a way to introduce what the episode will be about in a unique way!

So what is Mahjong again?

While Pon no Michi has a mahjong tiles on it's official poster, we never learn the rules. I think they talk about it in one episode and then just yell out various move names (I assume), expecting us to catch one.
Despite Mahjong not being a sport per se, I would expect a better explanation when you're dealing with a game like this. (Liar Liar at least said 'Your usual rules' as if you were supposed to know them.) That is something I can't glance over.
I do think the mahjong side of the show was fun, I just wish I understood the game more to be able to get into it.
They even did a collab with an online mahjong game! And still didn't care to properly talk about the game (rules).
Normally this wouldn't bother me, but in this particular case I am disappointed because I always wanted to learn.

Conclusion: recommended!!

I enjoyed Pon no Michi in it's own way. It was a great slice of life that surprised me with it's course. I liked the anime's opening and ending song, I live for the friendship that the girls grew with each other, I loved the comedy of this show and I thought it looked good. It was different from other shows.
I think this is the season's underappreciated anime!
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