ICHIGEKI!
"Can Gogo overcome this impossibe[sic] challenge? If so, will she wish for a big, like REALLY big hambrguger[sic]? I hope so!"
—The first episode's description
PUNCH PUNCH FOREVER!
(パンチパンチフォーエバー) is an online animated web-series created by speedoru along with Japanese voice-acting group RASH A1M, released on July 15th, 2023. It is an Affectionate Parody of 1990s Shōnen Fighting Series, presented as if it were a lost VHS and being in Japanese with English faux-fansubs.
The series follows Gogo Matsumoto, an 11-year old martial arts prodigy living with her Mother Mama, her Half-Demon sister Nono and her pet frog Coolfrog. Gogo enters the Infinite Tournament, a contest set up by the Akumagai Demons who now rule Earth, in hopes of receiving a single wish from the demons' leader, Emperor Koro.
After its release, Speedoru confirmed that they would be working on more episodes in the future.
Tropes used in the series:
- The '90s: The series is made to feel and look like it came from the 1990s.
- Action Mom: The intro to the show depicts Mama wearing a wrestler outfit doing a back body drop on a demon.
- Affably Evil: Emporer Koro is menacing and constantly says how he enjoys humans dying graphically, yet he isn't actually shown doing anything evil. He even wishes good luck toward humans and objects to an entire team of demons fighting against Gogo for being unfair. Also, when Mama tells him to put on his glasses, he actually accepts her advice without complaint.
- Apocalypse How: As the intro to the first episode shows, Earth collided with the Akumagai Realm 200 years prior to the series, which allowed the Akumagai Demons to rapidly take over Earth and set up the Infinite Tournament.
- Art-Style Dissonance: The series is drawn in a cutesy style similar to a 90s anime, which is what they're parodying, but the actual content is a bit more mature, especially Gogo's first gory match in the tournament.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Gogo is seen on this in the intro. Emperor Koro looks on frustratedly while Mama is beaming with pride.
- Bland-Name Product: The first episode is sponsored by "SNEPIS", an obvious corruption of Pepsi with a similar logo. The segment is accompanied by an animation of Gogo aggressively slurping SNEPIS through a giant straw while giving a thumbs-up.
- Bloody Hilarious: When Gogo manages to pull back the Umpire demon's visor back so far that it launches his brain out of his skull and flying into the air, the last surviving baseball demon acts on impulse and hits it with his baseball bat. He manages to knock it out of the park, complete with a point addition to the scoreboard and a stadium sting.
- Brick Joke: Mama kicks Nono's computer monitor out her room's window to get the latter to go to the tournament in the first episode. The monitor ends up killing the last baseball demon by landing on his head.Nono: Oh there it is.
- Cartoon Bomb: One of the baseball demons has one. It blows up in his face and kills him instantly right after he wondering out loud why he brought it to the fight, without even, say, tossing it at Gogo.
- Clark Kent Outfit: When Gogo removes her karate gi in episode 1, a few frames show her to be utterly jacked shocking the baseball demons.
- Deliberate VHS Quality: The series is presented in this fashion, including being entirely in a 4:3 aspect ratio. However the effect doesn't stand out much aside from the brief fast forwarding and skipping commercials.
- Disaster Dominoes: This is pretty much almost entirely how Gogo's fight with the baseball demons go. She only kills two of the demons directly. The rest of the deaths are basically the result of accidental friendly fire from chaos that ensues during the fight, with the exception of Nono's monitor killing the last one.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Emperor Koro is against having the baseball team of the first episode compete against Gogo for being unfair, until he realizes he didn't read the sheet fully before accepting them in. Though it could also be outrage over potentially robbing the demons of an entertaining fight, since one-sided fights would get dull pretty fast.
- Eye Catch: In the style of 90s anime, the first episode has two eye catches before and after the skipped-over ad break. The first shows a still image of Nono (scantily-clad) being annoyed by Gogo, and the second is a short claymation of Gogo karate chopping Nono on the head and running away.
- Eye Glasses: The entire Matsumoto family wears glasses, Nono isn't shown wearing hers in the first episode but does indeed have them. Even Emperor Koro, who is heavily hinted to be Nono's father, puts on a pair in the first episode.
- Failed a Spot Check: The fact that Emperor Koro didn't notice that the name for Akumugai Ogre's Team was being partially hidden by his thumb is almost borderline Epic Fail.
- Family Theme Naming: The Matsumoto family all have four letter names. Mama, Nono and Gogo.
- Fan Sub: The series' English subtitles are provided by one in-universe. Unusually, the first episode mostly averts common tropes associated with them (Spice Up the Subtitles, Too Long; Didn't Dub, etcnote ), although the end of the "VHS tape" of the first episode has a fake copyright screen with deliberately bad spelling and over-the-top threats of violence against internet pirates.Copyright Line: Subbed by: xX_geocitiesSUBCREW95_Xx WE own the copyrites to thiws SUB so if anyone reposts this on anywhere that isnt outr official geocities page then F*CK YOU!!!!!!!! -DarkGod87
- Fantastic Racism: In episode 1 Nono is called a freak by a human and told to go to the demon section of the tournament, she berates him and violently uses his hand to cause her to sneeze, showing him her human form.
- Fun with Subtitles:
- The series has the subtitles frequently be used for jokes, like when Gogo says "Maji de?" which means "Really?" or "Seriously?" and the subtitles translate it to "Forreal homeboy?".
- The ending of Episode 1 also includes a gag where the fictional subber says they own the "copyrites" to the subs and "Fuck You!!!!!" to anyone who reposts anywhere that isn't their official site.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Nono doesn't wear her glasses like the rest of her family in the first episode, likely out of style. She does indeed have a pair, confirmed in official art by Speedoru.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Nono is Half-Demon, though only appears as one form at a time until she sneezes. It's rather blatantly hinted that Emperor Koro is her father, though these obvious hints fly right over Gogo's head.
- Head Pet: Coolfrog usually sits on Gogo's head or shoulders, though they are removed when Gogo fights in the tournament and when Nono hits Gogo.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Episode 1's description seems to imply that Gogo and Nono's mother's first name is Mama.
- Idiot Hero: Gogo isn't a smart kid, though she makes up for it with her fighting prowess.
- Made of Iron: Gogo, usually played for slapstick, but she can easily withstand otherwise lethal attacks with barely even a scratch. This includes getting shot in the face with a gun. She also easily withstands a strike from Akuagai Ogre's bat, the same weapon shortly after easily kills three of his teammates by accident.
- Medium Blending: Live action segments are sometimes included, such as the brief commercial segment and when "The Emperor of Japan" is shown. A 3D animation of a low polygonal character also appears on Nono's computer.
- Parody Product Placement: The first episode's sponsor is a soft drink called Snepis, along with many of the advertisements in the background of the tournament being parodies or self-inserts by the creator.
- Stunned Silence: The entire audience's reaction to the conclusion of Gogo's match, before the referee declares her victory, being a mix of amazement and horror. Considering a human has never won the Infinite Tournament, such a one-sided bout in a human's favor has possibly never been seen before.
- Tournament Arc: The bread and butter of the story is the main character joining a tournament, dubbed the "Infinite Tournament", in order to have her wish granted.
- Would Hurt a Child: The "Infinite Tournament" seems to have no age requirement, Also the Demons in this world have no problem with straight up killing a kid. Considering the tournament is kinda obviously meant to be a blood sport primarily for the demons to lord over humans, that's not particularly surprising.
