So, imagine you live in the jungle, eating bananas and wierd looking jam filled creatures called pokute. Add to this a mother who loves to drink, a teacher with what is tantamount to a sleeping disorder, a girl who thinks she the heroine of her own tragic shoujo manga, a couple who have no shame, a guy who laughs at everything, a village leader who thinks chest hair is the ultimate sign of manliness, and various other characters.
Now, for good measure, throw in the ultimate terror on two legs in the form of a cute (sometimes), little girl, and make it so that your
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dumbass mother takes her into your home and treats her like a daughter. Add a maid who suffers from gushing nosebleeds, a man with extremely scary eyes, an apathetically perverted doctor, and the old woman hairdresser from hell.
Still following? Neither did I at first, but that's the joy that is Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu.
I honestly didn't know what I was getting into when I first saw this series. I imagined it to be akin to the likes of Dragon Half, or maybe even Excel Saga, with some surreal comedy and parody. To say that this puts both those series to shame is an understatement. Guu is like nothing else you will ever see in anime, and I still can't decide whether the creator was clinically insane, touched by God (although Satan is also a good bet here), a genius of Einsteinian proportions, or an alien.
The story, what little of it matters that is, is about a boy named Haré, who lives in a jungle village with his mother Weda. One day Haré goes out to pick some bananas (yes, I know, it's so deliciously cliched you just know something's goingto happen), when he becomes terrified by some dark and evil presence and runs home - forgetting his bananas. The next day he wakes up to find that there is a cute girl now living with him and his mother. This is Guu, and as Haré soon learns, not everything is as it seems.
Cue the madness.
It's a very simple tale on the whole. Guu wants to know about humans and human life, and has chosen Haré to teach her. Haré's biggest problem is hiding the fact that Guu isn't human, and stopping her from eating everything in sight (food, trees, people, tanks, fish, rivers, etc, etc). Each episode, whilst having this premise at it's core and delivering a bag full of gags, is almost episodic in nature, with the main focus being on something completely different to what you'd expect. The writing is done so well that it's sometimes difficult to tell if any drugs were taken during production (you know the ones I'm talking about you naughty people).
The characters are all pretty plain on the whole, although some of the parody moments have a tendency to over-enhance the detail. Haré, Weda, and the rest of the villagers are all depicted as individuals, however there is a certain chibi-like quality to everyone (even the chest hair loving village elder). The only one who is different is Guu, and I absolutely loved how she went from cute girl to Guu in the blink of an eye.
The scenery is nice on the whole but, again, is pretty standard fare. The strength of this series isn't in the quality of it's art and animation though, but in how they're used to make the jokes more understandable. Guu has some memorable parodies and jokes that suddenly appear out of nowhere, and they work far better here than they do in other shows.
As far as characters go, this series has a lot (I mentioned some of them at the start). The main two though, are Haré and Guu. Haré is a kind, cheerful and pleasant boy who is a bit overly protective of his mother. Looks can be deceiving though, as Haré is, without doubt, the most stressed character in anime. I can't think of any other character who goes through as much anxiety, disbelief, depression, rage, hate, terror, worry, etc, as him, and that's just from dealing with Guu.
Guu, on the other hand, is very mysterious. The series never actually explains what she is, but she that she has supernatural powers is evident from the start of the series (superhuman strength, underwater breathing, becoming a Godzilla type monster (complete with sound effects), having several stomach "worlds" in one of which live three people and a lot of wierd animals, whilst another is occupied by her "adult" version (last seen wrestling a bear, practicing medicine without a license, and generally making a nuisance of herself), time travel, body switching, and others). Oh, and she can cause Haré to have a mental breakdown, but that's more of a hobby than a power.
The thing I love most about her is the fact that, aside from the very beginning of the series, she never actually pretends to be anything other than herself, and her laugh with either make your ears bleed or have you in stitches. Her tendency to swallow things whole also makes for some amazingly well executed comedy, and one enduring image I have of this series is that of Guu, absent mindedly chewing, with one of Haré's classmate's feet sticking out of her mouth. Haré naturally freaks out at this, and pull his friend out of her mouth.
The odd thing is that anyone removed from Guu's stomach automatically thinks they dreamt the entire thing - everyone except Haré that is.
As much as the series has lots of characters, there is almost no development with the majority of them. Any development that does happen often comes at Haré's expense (thanks to Guu's shenanigans). That said, the show never really suffers from the lack of overall development as it's not really important for a series like this.
I will freely admit that I enjoyed this immensely. The madcap antics of Haré, and the cynical, and sometimes absent minded actions of Guu make this an absolute joy to watch. Fans of shows like Excel Saga, Inukami, Seto no Hanayome, and others of that ilk, will adore this show. Likewise those who want something a little more "off the wall" than normal might want to check this out.
This is a very good series, and is extremely funny, with a very dry and sharp sense of humour similar to that found in Gintama.
Just make sure you haven't smoked anything funny before watching it.
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, Hare+Guu
Japanese: ジャングルはいつもハレのちグゥ
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
26
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Apr 3, 2001 to Sep 25, 2001
Premiered:
Spring 2001
Broadcast:
Tuesdays at 18:00 (JST)
Studios:
Shin-Ei Animation
Source:
Manga
Demographic:
Shounen
Duration:
23 min. per ep.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Ranked:
#9472
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#3794
Members:
34,376
Favorites:
420
Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 10 / 10
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Your Feelings Categories Sep 16, 2009
So, imagine you live in the jungle, eating bananas and wierd looking jam filled creatures called pokute. Add to this a mother who loves to drink, a teacher with what is tantamount to a sleeping disorder, a girl who thinks she the heroine of her own tragic shoujo manga, a couple who have no shame, a guy who laughs at everything, a village leader who thinks chest hair is the ultimate sign of manliness, and various other characters.
Now, for good measure, throw in the ultimate terror on two legs in the form of a cute (sometimes), little girl, and make it so that your ... Apr 26, 2008
After watching this whole thing, I'm not quite sure what to say except that it's unbelievably random, which makes it pretty humorous. Really, to sum the plot up in a sentence, is to say it's about a boy, Hare, living in the jungle with a cannabalistic demon in a young, pink-haired female's body named Guu, and she disrupts his life in numerous ways every day.
Usually I don't watch that sort of anime where random and insane is supposed to be funny (an example is Excel Saga, I suppose, which I highly dislike). But the wit in this is displayed across nicely and allows for many ... Oct 17, 2012
I saw Hare+Guu fairly early on in my anime fandom, and thought it was the funniest thing ever. It’s set in a jungle with a young single attractive mother and her stressed out son, doing jungle stuff. Things start to go a bit haywire when the mother decides to adopt a cute little pink haired girl into the family, for no real reason beyond shits and giggles. Guu is a…well, in nerdy prat terms, she straddles a line between chaotic good, chaotic neutral and utterly incomprehensible. The spends most of the series goofing off in the background, dropping sly comments about proceedings, goading characters into
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Feb 22, 2010
So I was asked for my opinion on this show and figured I'd turn it in to a full blown review. By the way this is my first so please be gentle :-P
First off if you particularly like tsukkomi/boke comedy stop reading and just go and watch this show, a huge amount of the comedy is based on this. For anybody you can recognise a bit of Japanese you'll notice about a fifth of Hare's sentences end with a variation of tsukkomu (most subbers translate this as something like 'jab'). If you have no idea what I was talking about for the past two sentences ... May 17, 2011
Hare and Guu revolves around a stressed out 10 year old boy named Hare, he lives in a fairly peaceful jungle with his alcohoic youthful mother and attends a tiny school. However, his life soon changes, when Guu moves in.
The ultra cute Guu is a 'bait and switch' type of character who soon shows her true, out-of-this-world colours. Unfortunately, Hare is the only one aware of her supernatural hijinx. This is one of those obscure comedy anime's inwhich anything can happen, yet this one happens to be exceptionally well written; detailed character discriptions allow the story to take a more serious note at times and ... Nov 16, 2011
This is a personal favorite ^.^ The random comedy is golden, and it had little to no storyline. Is this OK? Absolutely! If anything, the near-nonexistent storyline only adds to the fun! To those of you who despise this trait in an anime... I have to say that I would still recommend Hare + Guu. What more could one want from an anime that involves swallowing people whole, drinking the ocean, changing faces, and firing a gun from your arm... all in one hilariously awesome person?!
... but yea, I thought it was a great watch and it was definitely something that brightened my day. Aug 6, 2013
This is the most hilarious show I have watched in a long time! Hare is really cute and I really feel sorry for him when Guu screws his life. Their personalities clash really well. Hare’s personality is a whiny little child who is always having to watch out for others and has a good grasp on reality even though he plays lots of video games. Guu… well… she lives to torture him psychologically and physically and pretty much screw with his whole life turning it upside down. Ya… that’s pretty much her soul purpose in this world and does amazingly well at that. Through the
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Feb 15, 2020
This is quite frankly, one of the most bizarre shows I have seen in my life. When I first watched Sarazanmai from last year, I wasn't too phased by how weird that show was, because way back when about 10 years ago I happened to come across this show browsing various pirate sites. Hey Anime discussions either weren't really around, or I was just not browsing them myself. I don't think I'll ever find something this strange ever again. But I still say it was one of my more entertaining experiences. The humor is surreal, certain pieces of the story
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Feb 19, 2024
A hidden gem, its like opening up an attic and then taking a tab of acid that has been hidden in an old chest
In the jungle, young boy Hare has his world flipped when his mom brings home a little girl to add to the family. Named Guu, she seems nice but within a day she becomes an absolute menace. Apathetic yet chaotic and clueless about human customs, she is like an alien masquerading as a kid. With powers like eating anything whole, her stomach being an extra dimensional space with another world inside, she can also regurgitate anything she eats. Given the story ,the ... Jun 4, 2021
NO spoilers. Season 1 review (for a good reason).
Story - 5 This is an episodic comedy, it's not story-driven, but that is not inherently a negative, and it's certainly not a bad thing on the case of this series. Character - 7 Characters are consistent, memorable (not always) and very diverse. Characters are simple, with exceptions (yet likeable, with exceptions). The contributions from simple characters are usually good, but at one point one of the characters gets obnoxious. Art - 6 The designs are better than that of the manga, to the point where the mangaka adapted the anime's design of the MC. The difference of the art's quality between ... |