Punch Line is a 12 episode anime that has a wacky premise which shows a lot of potential. The key selling point here is Yuta, whereby if he sees a girls' panties/underwear twice in a row, the world will end via an asteroid strike. This concept immediately sucks you into wanting to watch more and discovering why this is the case. Backing up, the anime starts off with Yuta travelling in a bus which ends up being hijacked by a terrorist. An accident occurs, Yuta tries to become the hero of the day and ends up falling unconscious next to the river. Next thing he knows, his body is taken over by another spirit entity while his own spirit is forced out. Returning to where he leaves, the Korai House, he meets a spirit guide Chiranosuke (more of a spirit cat though) and unsuccessfully tries to get his own body back.
Yuta quickly discovers the fact that he will be responsible for the world being destroyed for reasons unexplained (at first). The good news is that if this happens, Yuta can rewind time back to before he triggers it. Regulated to to thinking up of ways to get his body back, he gets to see the residents of Korai House, being four other female residents: Meika, Rabura, Ito and Mikatan get along with their lives and slowly bonding. With no explanation whatsoever and similar to a game, Yuta is able to manipulate and influence objects as a spirit, but needs to "level up" the ability, complete with a "Level Up" sign above his head whenever he does so. He eventually becomes stronger and is able to possess people.
Punch Line has a very odd plot, especially from the beginning where you don't know what it is trying to do. You can't tell where it is going since it seems there are various subplots in each episode with tiny episodes in a larger plot arc, yet it is hard to piece it all together. Up until the sixth episode, the plot still doesn't make much sense since it was just daily events happening with what you believe to have little significance. At the end of the sixth episode though, finally, the events up until that point are justified. What seemed like a random bunch of events strung together now has meaning and the premise is actually pretty good, if only it was set up better. Without spoiling too much, it has a main theme of time travel and gives a similar feeling to Steins;Gate but less clever and complex.
Through the big revelations, it is revealed that there is a deadline of New Year's Eve to stop the asteroid hitting Earth and it engages you via wondering how the problem will be solved in such a short period of time. Unfortunately, the weird and strange characters where the viewer has little idea of who they are or what their motivations are, ruin much of the enjoyment. Punch Line has an odd sense of humor where a lot of it is cliched and not very funny, such as Chiranosuke's cat videos. It has poorly executed fan service. It's more of an in-your-face kind of attempt with no subtlety which doesn't hold much appeal when it's done so blandly.
There are plenty of exaggerated acting even when the scenes aren't that emotional to warrant such a reaction from the characters. It seems Punch Line cannot decide whether it wants to tell a serious story or just attempt to string together random bits of humor to fill the episodes. Sadly, the majority of the anime takes place in the Korai House apartment complex and the area immediately outside it. For some reason, the apartment complex is smack bang in the middle of a large-ish empty area with a pond in front and no buildings whatsoever nearby for like 2km. This backdrop quickly becomes stale where you just want a change of scenery. Even over the course of the 12 episodes, the characters don't elevate much to become interesting in their own right. Some don't even have their backstories fully explained but rather only lightly brushed upon.
The lack of character development makes the sad ending less impactful when you don't care for the characters much. The villain's motive wasn't very motivating and it doesn't justify his actions, you feel he is more of the "I am evil because I am evil" type of villain instead. The ending also gets confusing when trying to decipher and remember which character is who since there wasn't enough time for the viewer to be comfortable and get used to that idea. No doubt the idea is neat and clever but we need more time to digest it. Overall, Punch Line is ambitious with its concept and tries to tell a deep thought-provoking story. It provides plenty of plot twists and at times, it succeeds in its mission. After everything though, Punch Line has too many flaws from the one-dimensional characters, pointless plot elements, poor pacing and confusing storytelling to fulfil its potential.
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