Gamba no Bouken

Gamba no Bouken is a fantastic little adventure piece directed by Osamu Dezaki during the turning point in Dezaki's 70s series. Dezaki had largely focused on directing sports series like Ashita no Joe and Ace wo Nerae in the early part of the decade, shifting to classic book adaptations with Ie Naki Ko and Takarajima in the later half of the decade. Gamba represents a mid-ground between these two eras stylistically, with an art style shift away from the more psychedelic style of the earlier towards the bright colors and fantastic high detail backgrounds of the later.
Visually Gamba ... is very split, with the main cast tending to look cartoony and rounded in character design, allowing for some more fast paced motion for the time. Antagonists are drawn heavily shaded and detailed, much closer in design to actual animals, leaving a contrast that makes both sides pop against each other. Humans tend to be drawn from an interesting perspective, tending to cover any face in shadow, keeping them as some large, mythical creature, furthering the size difference between the gang and humans. I'd say that overall this series looks quite nice, especially with its recent blu-ray release.
In the sound department Gamba uses a solid jazz soundtrack from the venerable Takeo Yamashita, well known for his work in the original Lupin III series. The opening is a bouncy, roaring fun romp, reflecting our main character rather well, with highly stylized visuals. The ending is a slower, more somber matter with a slow pan of a heavily detailed picture of our group facing on the antagonist, showing that their final struggle still looms ahead.
At its core Gamba is a fun children's adventure show with a surprising amount of violence and strife. It could in many ways be compared to a Redwall book. The series focuses on the adventures of a small group of mice adventuring to their destination, filled with comedic moments, and lots of enjoyable action. The characters are not full of depth, generally more archetypes (strong, smart, drunk, stubborn etc.) but are all acted well and full of vigor. I'd say that anyone looking for a solid adventure series with stylized 70s visuals and a fun cast should look no further. Enjoy!

This is less of a review and more of a public service announcement that this anime has potential, has finished airing long ago, and still doesn't have it's deserved fansub. However, one episode got a fansub in 2011 and hasn't seen any updates from that person since. This review will be of that single episode.

So "Gamba no Bouken", or "Adventure of Gamba", is what appears to be - and probably is - a children's show. That guess comes from the type of dialogue that happens and the simple-mindedness of much of the cast - not to mention the simplistic art style and the fact that ... every main character is a talking mouse. This show, however, seems to have taken the mature-minded viewer into mind as-well though as there feels to be a dark underlying future to the plot, the show even presenting a wounded and bloody mouse in this episode. Of course that would be more mature in the way of violence, but I also see that violence as carrying psychological aspects into the cast of the series that will change them. Without even seeing the villain of the show yet, the mice already cower in fear to the mention of him, giving off a menacing atmosphere. The mice also are living around the human landscape, at least in this episode, and the humans also are presented in a dull and eerie fashion as if they live on a higher plane - not even acknowledging the existence of the mice. Even so, it's still clear they'd be a threat if they did notice, and the scanning of their flashlights around makes for another quite dark moment.

I did say before that the art style is simplistic, and I wouldn't take that statement back, but what I feel it makes up for that with is it's creative animation. It's somewhat clear that there isn't too big of a budget in this show, but even so the simplistic characters allow for a fair amount of good animation that is enjoyable to watch. The characters are yet also what I would consider simplistic in this episode, but they all feel as though they serve a specific role to a group mentality. The group all has the same goals and fears, and each member has to add their own skills to do what they're setting out for in the future (but that's just speculation since only the first episode is subbed). The characters do feel as though they could fit into a slot, like the main character could almost be of a shounen, but the dark atmosphere of the story already feels as though it's changing them by the end of this one episode - the shounen mouse maybe later being similar to a Rick of Walking Dead (while I personally don't like Rick - so not a great example). I see that the main mouse will end up taking on a leadership role and face tragedy along the way, forcing him to think in a more grim and realistic mindset - as in this episode he doesn't even know of the villain's race and how apparently deadly they are (according to other experienced mice).

Overall, this show has potential, and I'm already surprised how much I enjoyed this one episode. I expected that I wouldn't think much of it from the art style, but things look much more pleasant when you watch it in motion. The actors are also good and help in making the characters likable. Give this episode a shot and, if you like it, there'll another person who knows and wants another episode. Maybe one day when this show is then known enough it'll get a complete subbing job. Til then, I tap my pen.

What can I say ? I have no words for such anime WOW just WOW this anime was just incredible ! It's been a long time since I didn't get so amazed by an anime the story,the characters,the art it was so delicious from begining to end !

This anime was not a basic happy adventure,it was tragic,there was sorrowness,deads and it was so violent the appearances = tricky ! This anime would disturb any kids watching it.

I just loved the characters and their bravery every characters was useful not only one character made the whole story each characters got their abilities useful to survive ... and help each others that's just absolutely magnificent,fraternity between characters was so well done and touching

It's deplorable that nobody know this materpiece I think that more people should watch it I can tell you this anime is such an addiction a beautiful,magnificent addiction trust me !