Turkey! Time to Strike: Bowling in the Sengoku Era

A glowing bowling ball, a flash of light, and five girls land in the Sengoku era—what starts as a cozy sports setup turns into a time-twisting story about fate, loyalty, and what “winning” really means. We dive into Turkey: Time to Strike with open skepticism, genuine surprise, and a lot of laughs as a supposed bowling club anime morphs into a smart blend of sports drama and historical adventure.

First, we unpack the core tension between Mai’s “fun first” philosophy and Rena’s no-compromise drive to win. That clash triggers a supernatural time slip that drops the team into bandit territory, where their cover as traveling performers protects the timeline—kind of. From there, we meet Suguri, the “boy” samurai who’s actually a girl fitting into a role her clan demands be male, plus sisters Sumomo and Anzu, who carry the scars of past encounters with time travelers. The show leans into identity, trust, and consequence without losing its offbeat charm, even as violence flashes at the edges and the Washio clan’s threat forces the girls to choose action over safety.

And then the finale hits. The reveal that Sumomo falls through time, lives in the present as Haru, and adopts Mai spins the story into a clean time loop that upgrades the whole season. Suddenly the bowling alley they build in a feudal village isn’t just a gag—it’s a symbol of agency, of refusing “that’s just history,” and of how play can be resistance when the stakes are human lives. We talk rewatch value, the jump in our ratings, and why this series stands out: not for nonstop action, but for inventive problem-solving, a female-led cast with real arcs, and a Sengoku setting that adds texture and urgency.

If you crave something truly different—sports anime energy, time travel paradoxes, samurai-era tension, and a finale that makes you re-evaluate every scene—press play now. If you enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, share with a friend who loves offbeat anime, and drop us a review with your rating out of 10.

Text us for feedback and recommendations for future episodes!

Support the show

We thank everyone for listening to our podcast! We hope to grow even bigger to make great things happen, such as new equipment for higher-quality podcasts, a merch store & more! If you're interested in supporting us, giving us feedback and staying in the loop with updates, then follow our ZONE Social Media Portal to access our website, our Discord server, our Patreon page, and other social media platforms!

DISCLAIMER: The thoughts and opinions shared within are those of the speaker. We encourage everyone to do their own research and to experience the content mentioned at your own volition. We try not to reveal spoilers to those who are not up to speed, but in case some slips out, please be sure to check out the source material before you continue listening!

Stay nerdy and stay faithful,
- J.B.

Subscribe to "Content for Creators" on YouTube to listen to some of the music used for these episodes!

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
What up, gang?
Let's talk about a new animecalled Turkey Time to Strike.
Now, the premise, the fact theywould sit around five girls that
bowl.
Yeah, five girls.
Well, more like four since uhone of them don't really bowl,
she's small enough bench warmer.

(00:21):
But it's about this bowlingclub.
Uh about, excuse me, let mecatch right.
So the story is set at thebowling club of Eco Kukon High
School and the Gotta Prefecture.
Mai, the club captain, valueshaving fun with everyone
overwinning.

(00:42):
But her junior, Rena, pushesback saying, I want to win.
When Rena threatens to quit theclub, Mike tries to talk her
down, but Rena challenged her toa one-game match.
Suddenly, the bowling ballbegins to glow, and the five
club members are enveloped in amysterious light.
And when they wake up, theysomehow drop time travel to the

(01:03):
Sengoku area.
Now, first of all, although Ilike to have fun, Rena has a
good point.
If you're not trying to win,then what's the point in
competing?
Like, it's one thing you just gointo the bowl now, just hitting
some pants and whatnot, just forall that's that's cool.
But if you're going to entertournaments and not intend on

(01:27):
winning, I'm like, I don't know.
I'll be trying to win the goal,but if I lose, then I'm like,
okay, well, at least I try.
But you know, there's this wholetrauma that my have where she
would throw games on purpose forreasons that's gonna be explored
upon later.
Uh, we have nozony, who's justthere to be photographed and

(01:50):
discovered.
And it's funny because when themoment she said that, I was
thinking of that one scene fromThe Temptations where, like,
ain't nobody come to see you,Foodies.
But, you know, more like, ain'tnobody come to see you, Nosony.
Uh Sayri keeps throwing gutterballs despite being in the club
for a year.

(02:10):
Nanase is the bench warmer, andnobody initially wanted to be in
the bowling club or both orwanted to bowl in general.
They just, it's just that on mybegs and insisted on it.
Now, once they arrived in theSengoku period, they were being
accosted by nomadic belligerentsor bandits, but was saved by a

(02:33):
young samurai boy named Suguri.
When Siguri got captured, thegirls returned to favor by using
their bowling balls and othertricks to take out the bandits.
Afterwards, the young samuraiboy welcomed the girls back to
the village.
Now, before we get any further,Semi, first of all, thank you
for being on the show.
Uh, how are you feeling aboutTurkey Thomas Ray?

(02:55):
What was your impression umbefore diving into it?

SPEAKER_01 (03:01):
When the trailer came out, now I'm a huge sports
anime fan.
Could it go to basketball, um,haiku?
Like, I'm a big sports fan.
So when I first saw the trailer,I'm like, cool, we're getting a
bowling anime.
This looks exciting.
Like, I'm sat out to watch thisentire thing.
Because when it first came out,all we got was Turkey and we got

(03:22):
the two-minute little umtrailer.
We had no idea what was gonnahappen to these five girls.
And then when finally the firstepisode came out, it turned into
Turkey Time to Strike.
And I'm like, is this an isekaisituation going on?
Like, it was a wild turn ofevents for me when I first saw

(03:45):
it.

SPEAKER_00 (03:45):
Yeah, I would say it's more like time travel.
Time travel.

SPEAKER_01 (03:48):
I agree with you.

SPEAKER_00 (03:49):
You you could say that like it's a because isekai
means escape from reality, soit's not necessarily oh, you
died and went to another world,it's more like you're just
escaping from reality.
Uh, but this one I would saylike not really more like a time
travel story.
Thank you, Yasha.

SPEAKER_01 (04:09):
Yeah, I I agree with you in the in that in that case,
then I just thought, you know,it's this is a very interesting
premise to me, you know.
You have sports anime turnedinto time traveling um in this
world.
Like it it I like, I like thepremise of it.
It's a it's a crazy wacky idea.

SPEAKER_00 (04:30):
Right now, as we go further into the story, uh the
phone well, hold on, excuse me.
Um my notes of you.
Okay.
Uh the girls meet Sumomo andAnzu, Tsuburi's sisters.
Uh, Sumomo is kind of an airheadwhile Anzu is adorably

(04:52):
protected.
But it's to be understandablebecause she has a bad history
with a traveling performer whereuh her sister, who we're gonna
be introduced to later, wastaken away by a traveler.
And with the girls posing astraveling performers to prevent
information from the futureaffecting the timeline, that's

(05:14):
why Anzu was like kind ofhesitant on trusting them,
trying to kick them out and allthat shit.
And later that night, Mikeinteracted with Sumomo, who
knows that the girls are fromthe future, and she and she
knows this because she wants toencounter a man from the future.
And I like the analogy knows memade to Anzu, where hating old

(05:36):
traveling performers for whathappened to her sister is like a
girl dating a bad boy, thenassumes that all men are the
same.
And I was like, you know, I Ibusted out laughing when I heard
that part.
I was like, damn.
Oh I just that might have killedsome uh ladies that might be

(05:57):
listening to this podcast.
But uh the following day, Maiand Suguri and Sumomo get the
villagers to build a bowlingalley.
The girls almost went home untilRina's hang up prevents them
from jumping back to thepresent.
Uh Nozini spawns with Anzu inone episode.

(06:21):
Uh, we got Sayuri, KapraniSuguri when he and his men
killed men who have come onbehalf of Tumomo's fiance, the
Washio clan leader.
We also learned that Suguri isactually a girl and just posing
as a man because you know, likethe leader of their clan has to
be a man.

(06:42):
So since there were all girlsthere, she had uh assume the
role of a dude by you know, kindof patting her chest with if she
even had one, and you know, kindof looking more boyish, so it
can pass off as being a boy.
But uh Seb, you want to addanything on to that before I
continue?

SPEAKER_01 (07:02):
We got ourselves a Mulan.
That's what I can think of whenI saw like because I caught on
it right away.
Um I'm like, oh, we gotourselves a little moolan
situation.
Only part that I have to saythat really creeped me out is um
when Sumomo, when the messengerasked if Sumomo begin to like

(07:26):
because she's getting married,so they're like, did she
mention?
No, no, I found it a littlecreepy, but I mean to be fair,
this is uh directed towardswomen, so I guess it's fine.
But again, I've I found thatthat whole episode where it goes
to that, then Sayori finds outthat Saguri is actually a girl

(07:47):
and like called it.

SPEAKER_00 (07:51):
Yeah, because I just got this vibe that uh usually
with anime like this where thecast is mainly and only women,
it's like it sometimes comes offweird when a male comes into the
picture, but oftentimes, oh, itturns out that male is actually
a woman.

(08:11):
In fact, a perfect example ofthis, I don't know if I'm gonna
review it or not, but in caseyou heard of it, there's this
one anime called uh ValkyrieMermaid, I believe it was
called, where essentially youhave these all these girls on
this one island, uh, some ofthem can transform into weapons

(08:32):
while others can wield thoseweapons, and it was like they
were kind of beefing with eachother on this island for the
most part.

SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
But um, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (08:45):
Think of it like that, like Soul Eater.
And the thing was they had likethis leader who was supposed to
be like, oh, the only male onthe island.
But oh, it turns out not only itwas a woman with short hair, but
this woman was fucking stackedwhen you gotta take the bandages
off.
I'm like, whoa, hold on, how areyou hiding all that under that

(09:05):
suit?
Watch Valkyrie Mermaid if you'rethat curious.
But yeah, like I kind offigured, eh, like you must be a
girl because, like, I just likeI played these games before.
Let me just put you like that.

(09:27):
Uh Nasume, the older sister thatwe alluded to earlier, said to
have left with another timetraveler, came back, and we also
learned that Sumomo has a twinsister, Akebi, who wears a fox
mask and was hiding in secret.
Truth is, one of the twins wasfated to be killed while the

(09:49):
other gets married off.
Eventually, the Washiel clanfound out everything and decided
to SQ all five sisters.
Even though the Bogling Club wasable to return home, they went
back to save the sisters.
Now, at the last episode, I knowwe're kind of speeding through

(10:10):
it, but not gonna lie, most ofthe anime, I'm like, it was
alright, but like, uh, you know,a little twist and turns right
there.
I was like, okay, cool, cool,cool.
But it was the last episode thathad me thinking, you know what?
If I were to rate this anime, atfirst, I was gonna write it up

(10:31):
at another seven out of ten.
Like, it was alright, like itwas good, like at least the
characters felt like characters,so um, for the most part, I felt
like the characters carried theuh anime for me.
But this last episode, well, theending of the series, of the

(10:55):
season.
If I'm assuming that there's notgonna be a second season because
the way they ended it, I'm like,no real need to have a second
season after this.
So at the last episode, welearned that Sumomo also got
sucked into this time slip,forgot her memories, and lived

(11:15):
life in the present as Haru, upuntil she met Mai at the
orphanage, where Haru suddenlyregained her memories and
adopted Mai at that time as heradoptive mother.
So if you go back before allthis happened, you see Haru at
um first episode and whatnot.
I'm thinking, bro, I would havenot suspected that was Sumomo

(11:38):
the whole time, and that justmakes it a whole time paradox
where everything that happenedhad to happen, or else none of
it would happen at all.
That brought up to an eight forme.
I'm like, whoa, oh whoa, holdon.
I thought this anime was gonnabe mid until I saw that plot
twist.

(11:59):
But Cindy, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
Agreed 150.
I literally jumped out of myseat because this this last
episode came out on my birthday,September 24th, and I'm sitting
on the couch and went no, noway, like I shot up and like,
you're not gonna believe I waswild.

(12:26):
Like I was like, no, really, andthen I kind of had to go back to
like the first episode torewatch it, and then to come
back and be like, what?
It's like kind of like thatwhole gotta watch you back again
type of situation.

SPEAKER_00 (12:43):
Yeah, it's like attack on Titan all over again
to where once you knoweverything, it kind of compels
you to go back and rewatch itwith the information you now
have, and somehow it makes theanime even better for like
because now it's like you canlook at it from a different
perspective to where, but like Isaid, uh if my in the gang

(13:06):
didn't go back the first time,or they didn't go back the
second time to save the fivesisters from being assassinated
or executed, excuse me, none ofthis would have happened in the
first place, exactly.
It was like crazy how they madeit sound like, oh well, they
were supposed to be executed.
Um, that's just how it is inhistory.
Like, you can't change history,and then Mai was like, Fuck it,

(13:28):
we ball, we gotta go save him.
And turns out that that was whatthey were supposed to do,
anyways, because otherwise, Mikewould have never gotten adopted.
And if she never gotten adopted,chances are she probably I don't
know if she wouldn't even metthe other four girls and all the
adventures, yeah.
So I'm like, crazy that one plotwas changed my whole perspective

(13:54):
on the anime.

SPEAKER_01 (13:56):
Agreed, 100% agreed.
Because I was right there withyou with the whole seven, I was
kind of like 7.5, and then themoment I saw it, I'm like, okay,
yeah, that shot that back uplike to a whole nine for me.
Yeah, the plot just is wild,yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
So we would say like an 8.5 out of 10.
Okay, okay.
Uh yeah, that's about it for me.
I mean, I know, kind of short.
Like, I thought it was gonna belike I honestly thought we're
gonna be talking about for atleast a so it's 30 minutes, but
not gonna lie, I'm just like,it's it's kind of like one of

(14:37):
those anime that I will reviewfor anime and lightning.
This was almost an animelightning title where I was just
gonna be like, okay, uh, here'san interesting one, and I'm just
gonna spend like what five, tenminutes talking about it.
But, you know, seven you want totalk about it too, so let's go
ahead and make a full episodeout of it.

(14:58):
Or, you know, at least aseparate episode from anime
lightning.
But uh, yeah, like I would sayit's an anime where not
everybody's probably gonna likeit because you know how some
people are, where it's like, ohwell, there's no action, you
know, that type of thing.
Uh it's like almost too cutesy,you know, one of those c anime

(15:20):
where it's I don't know, like Ijust think some folks uh might
not really appreciate whathappened with this because it's
just gonna be glossed over.
But that's kind of the point ofthe podcast where sometimes I
like to watch anime that I don'thear anybody talking about, and
at the very least, I'm justgonna put on an episode where

(15:42):
okay, here's me talking aboutit.

SPEAKER_01 (15:46):
Yeah, no, like I said, the moment I saw like
because again, I I really forreal thought it was a sports
anime.
Yeah, it's kind of everybodydid.

SPEAKER_00 (16:00):
Yeah, it kind of tricked me in a way to where
they're like, okay, at first Ireally thought it was just gonna
be like a bowling uh slice oflight where it just they just
stay in the present time, andyeah, they have a drama and
whatnot, but I thought it wasjust gonna be like in the
present and just likecompetitive bowling against like
rival bowling teams.
I thought it was gonna besomething like that, but I did

(16:21):
not expect for them to go backin time and essentially resolve
problems with bowling.

SPEAKER_01 (16:29):
Yeah, because the first episode right before they
went back in time, I'm like,okay, so I'm getting haiku, I'm
getting free, eternal summer,like the swimming anime and
Kodakono basketball.
I'm getting all that mixedtogether with the bowling alley.
Again, I'm a sports animefanatic.
I love sports animes.
So turkey, bowling.

(16:51):
I'm like, yep, I'm gonna watchit because this is great.
And then I'm like, oh no,they're going to time travel.
Okay, that's fine.
I find it funny.
It's not something that youwould expect, to be really
honest.
And I think that's why I reallylike the anime itself, is
because it's so different.
I don't think I've seen animesthat are a lot of animes that

(17:14):
are like this.
You see a lot of isakai's, butyou don't see a lot of time
traveling sports animes.

SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
Yeah, see that alone made it even more interesting to
where it's like, okay, it'sabout bowling, but there's also
time travel.
And I'm saying, like, and alsothe fact that it's in the
Sengoku period, because like Iwant to say that's like, I'm I
don't know, maybe as a uh animefan, you know, like ever since I

(17:44):
watched anime like SengokuBazara and whatnot, it's like
for some reason it just seemslike I just expect something,
some shit to pop off when wetalk about the Sengoku period.
Like, especially consideringthat I every time I think of
Sengoku era, I think of OdaNobunaga, where you know, the

(18:04):
guy that kind of I mean, hedidn't really create guns, but
he's like known for being thatwarlord that capitalized on
using guns and wars and whatnot.
So there's uh bunch of anime umthat's inspired by him, in fact,
like uh Oda Nobuna and Nobunaga.

(18:28):
I might review those.

SPEAKER_01 (18:30):
That's another thing that I found is that you don't,
other than the ones that youblessed, I don't see a lot of
animes that go fully into theSengoku period.
You see a lot of animes thatdeal with like Edo period and
like that.
You don't see a lot of thingsthat are related to that period.
So I really actually enjoyedthat as well.

SPEAKER_00 (18:49):
Right.
Like you hear about the Edoperiod, the Yan period.
Yeah, like for some reason likeSengoku is like something's
always popping up when they talkabout the Sengoku period.

SPEAKER_01 (19:03):
So yeah, I found that this is a this is a very
unique anime, and if I recommendit to anybody who's like, I need
something to spice up my life,well, here you go.
Have have have bowling timetravel in a tight little
package.
This is definitely an anime thatyou want to slice it up, you

(19:24):
know, because it's a slice oflife, sports, time travel, it
does have a lot of action in itif that's what you're looking
for, like you said.
But if you're looking forsomething unique, this is it,
right?

SPEAKER_00 (19:37):
Like don't expect like high octane action, but
it's more like at least there'slike unique solutions to the
problems that they're dealingwith.

SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
I mean, they totally saw a head come off, so well, oh
yeah, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (19:57):
Like they do be like cutting people up, and uh, you
see blood and shit, like, okay,I'm not gonna discount it too
much.
Like, you do see some shit, butit's like not too much, just not
too much.

SPEAKER_01 (20:12):
But yeah, that's what I have for it.

SPEAKER_00 (20:14):
Gotcha.
Yeah, honestly, I straight upthought we're gonna spend like
30 or 45 minutes, but yeah, no,you know what?
I just didn't have a whole lotto say.
I just thought the main thingthat saved the whole thing was
the plot twist.
So, with that being said, uh,let's just go ahead and close
this one out.
Uh, Sebi, thank you for beingon.
Uh, listeners, thank you forlistening to us to the end.

(20:37):
Remember to stay nerdy and thatgreat things are coming.
Have yourself a good morning,good afternoon, good evening,
good night.
But ultimately, take it easy.
Let's go ahead and zone abouthere, Sebasti.

SPEAKER_02 (20:49):
Thank you.