Four prisoners and a setup that goes nowhere on purpose. The show knows its job is to make you laugh at absurd character contrasts, a man who breaks out of prison keeps ending up back inside, a gambler obsessed with women, a fighter who just wants to fight, an otaku in jail for anime reasons. The comedy lives in the space between their ridiculous personalities, delivered through animation that moves like a cartoon fever dream. Then around episode six it tries to get serious and the tone snaps like a bad joint; the show never recovers because comedy dies the moment you stop trusting the premise is stupid on purpose. Watch it for the first arc and the character moments that actually land.

Nanba is the most secure prison in the world, built to hold criminals too slippery for ordinary jails. The four men in Cell 13 have broken out of every other prison they were sent to. Juugo is a lock expert who has spent most of his life behind bars, and one failed breakout only lengthened his stay. Uno is a gambler who trusts his instincts, Rock is a brawler who loves food, and Nico is an anime fan whose body reacts oddly to drugs. Their daily antics keep supervisor Hajime Sugoroku busy trying to stop them from escaping. The show mixes comedy, action and drama in sparkly, silly episodes about the inmates and their guards, from regular meals to sports festivals. For these four, prison life is not so bad, and Nanba is the nearest thing they have to a home.