Synopsis

When a child genius decides the Moon is reachable without burning a single drop of fossil fuel, his solution is to use four struggling pop idols as test subjects. that's the setup for Wandaba Style, a 12-episode 2003 comedy from TNK that runs almost entirely on absurdist energy. Tsukumo Susumu is the child prodigy with the lab coat and the wild theories. Mix Juice, Himawari, Yuri, Ayame, and Sakura. are the broke idol group desperate enough to go along with his increasingly unhinged experiments in exchange for a shot at fame. The goal is to eventually hold a concert on the Moon. The path there involves a lot of failed launches, creative misuse of physics, and four women who did not sign up for this. The show has a retro aesthetic that feels distinctly early-2000s, and Mix Juice actually performs songs throughout, each one pulling from a different genre. It gives the whole thing a variety-show looseness that works in its favor. If you liked Excel Saga's commitment to comedic chaos or the anything-goes weirdness of FLCL, this hits a similar frequency. It's not as aggressive as either of those, though, Wandaba Style is more relaxed, more episodic, content to just set up a ridiculous experiment and watch it fall apart. Think of it as a low-stakes sci-fi sketch comedy with an idol group stuck in the middle of someone else's dream.