Shimokita Die Hard

Shimokita Die Hard is a bunch of short stories told by Furuta Arata to Koike Eiko. Unfortunately, there are no voice overs so you only see them before the story is told and after the story. If Shinya Shokudo is about the weird and interesting people who inhabit Kabukicho, Shimokita Die Hard is about what makes Shimokita this weird, funky cultural centre of Tokyo.

I've been to Shimokitazawa quite a few times including twice for plays and its so fun to see landmarks like the Honda gekijou and familiar streets.

Unfortunately after an ok first episode, the next three were very boring and I was close to quitting. Luckily episode 5 about the girlfriend of a musician was really good as well as episode 6 which mixes Terminator with Village Vanguard in Shimokitazawa.

Episodes 7,8 and 9 were ok and I hated episode 10 about the stupid band although it had Kaho. Episode 11 was the final episode and luckily there was a pay off although I was hoping for a better pay off in terms of how Arata knew about the stories. The way they explained it was so lame.

Ultimately, I would describe Shimokita Die Hard as an inconsistent bunch of short stories. I would say just watch episode 5 and 6 as they are the best and skip everything else unless you enjoy going to Shimokitazawa. Meh but do watch episodes 5 and 6. Shimokita Die Hard is unsubbed but someone has retimed the Japanese subs at least to episode 2.