Igano Kabamaru

I am, and thousands of other people I met in my life, a big fan of this series. I might be a little biased since I come from a generation that grew up watching this but the truth is that the story, the characters and the soundtrack are still some of the best in the genre.

Story:

Kabamaru's story is a comedy from start to finish with laughs guaranteed at every episode. It is reminiscent of Ranma 1/2 in many ways but it has its own unique flavor. It has it all ninjas, school romance, comedy, impressive fights and did I mention ninjas. Without giving too much ... away I would only like to add that the story is two-fold. One story revolves around the schools rivalry and the other story focuses on the friendship of the two ninjas.

Characters:

The problem with Kabamaru is that all characters are likable. Even the evil ones are just too funny to hate. All play their part very well in this story and every episode links them closer and closer together. You can't help but laugh at the simple minded Kabamaru and his everlasting hunger that is tied to his strict grandfather trying to make him a better ninja. After you watch this you will think of him when you are starving for some food after a long day. Mai is the adorable kind girl that everyone loves and keeps Kabamaru in check through the series. Shizune is odd by having a kind face that hides his cruel mind. The two grandmothers are like day and night but equally funny and with their own stories contributing nicely to the whole plot.

Animation:

The anime is quite old so the style of drawing reflects the 80's period with simple lines and not much variation in color. The simplicity actually makes it appealing and makes the comedic faces stand out much more.

Soundtrack:

While nothing special it is very memorable. I still can't help smile if I hear the OP song somewhere. Try googling "Kabamaru OP" and tell me if the music doesn't get stuck in your head. Classic 80's. I thought the filler music is plain but very well suited for the variety of situations it is used. Too bad there was no variation.

Overall

It is definitely something worth watching. There are no filler episodes and none of the characters are wasted. I would highly recommend it if you can find it. There is nothing like it for sure.

Kabamaru is, to put it lightly, a cultural phenomenon in my home country, Greece. It's referenced in tv shows and the soundtrack get sampled for music, it's actually kind of crazy how popular the show is in comparison to it's original Japanese viewing, which is supposedly kind of not noted at all. In my opinion, this love for Kabamaru is more than nostalgia over a really bad dub, it's honestly one of the grandaddies of 80s anime.

Considering most of my enjoyment for the show came from the twists and funny moments it had, I would like to not talk about the story in detail. ... Really, all you need as an introduction is the description given on the page and the wikipedia article. Everything else is up to you to watch the show.

The sound design is that of the typical 80s anime, with standard sound effects and such. It does it's job, but once you get to the music, you get some awesome bangers. Ontop of the calming background music, a few notable tracks are Yakisoba Ondo, which has both a fully voiced rock rendition, aswell as a standard, more calm version. Yeah this is Kabamaru's theme, it's named after Yakisoba, and for the "wink wink" dub viewers, yakisoba is what the Japanese dub calls makaronada. A nice and upbeat theme, but the soundtrack excells even better with it's sad tracks, the most notable being Igano Koiuta. Fun fact, the sad song in question has been sampled by greek rapper 12os pithikos (literally 12th ape), did I mention this show is a cultural phenomenon in Greece yet?
In terms of the voice acting...well. I watched the Greek dub (of course), but I did spend some time analysing the Japanese dub too. In conclusion, the Greek dub is almost hilariously badly edited, with them repeating the voice clips to match the lip syncing sometimes (though sometimes they get away with it, as "emmphasis" on the current subject, ya know?), and while the translation is mostly fine, one instance is just fucking hilarious! The show was translated from japanese, to english, and then to greek. Now, this works, but some words have very different meaning depending on the language, and that is the case with the word "bat". In english, bat means both a blood sucking mammal with sonar and wings, while is also means a weapon used by punks, thugs, and baseball players. In Greek, the word bat does not have this double meaning, so when someone gets hit with a bat, they say "he was hit with the bat (animal)", I shit you not, it's one of the most well known fuck ups in the dub, it's hilarious. Beyond that, the Greek voice actors are actually really good, some even better than their original Japanese counterparts (Sorry Frieza, I'm truly sorry, but greek Kabamaru is the best, I can't give him up for nothing). All except for Hayate, he's mostly fine, but he fucks up some shouts and screams in there. The original dub's editing is of course way better, although not as charming in my opinion, though I am mostly biased. Some choices in voice directions are better in the Greek dub, though one of Shijune's brothers sounds too girly (he's the more feminine of the two homoerotic siblings), as his voice actress didn't get the gist early on, she does try to deepen it a slight bit to give out the whole "flamboyant bald man with homoerotic tendencies and a love for dresses" vibe better.

The animation is just what makes this show what it is. Kabamaru wouldn't be the same without the classic facial expressions, My profile picture IS one of them, so I'd know. They are very creative, the definition of squash and stretch, kinda dissapoint me how this style of expressions has straight up dissapeared in more modern japanese animation, it would really be an epic comeback for "PROFILE PICTURE, THE SHOW". Beyond the amazing facial expressions, Kabamaru is just overall animated quite well for an early 80s television show. Never did I stop and say "okay, that looks like shit, they saved up the budget", because it is overall well animated. They do find ways to reduce animation with creative techniques, which would help in today's animation industry, instead of, ya know, making it look like fucking ass. The animation is perfect with a capital PERFECt.

In conclusion, this fish out of water story of a ninja leaving the mountains to live in the city is just a total blast to watch. It's quite down to earth, yet at the same time exagerrated and insane. There's a reason this show became a huge hit in Greece (and apparently Saudi Arabia?), it is an accidental hodgepodge of Japanese and Greek culture. Kabamaru straight up looks like Σταθης Ψαλτης, a classic 80s actor. Everyone in the Greek community agrees that he'd do a better job than the actual actor who played him in the Kabamaru movie (yeah that exists, it's very different though), though he too does a splendid job. Remember that mention of "makaronada" at the sound section? Well, that's because μακαροναδα is essentially pasta, so essentially yakisoba. You see, there is a scene where Kabamaru eats makaronada after many years of first tasting it in his childhood, it is the scene EVERYONE remembers, as it is what defines the anime in a single scene. Action, facial expressions, really bad yet charming dub, and Kabamaru eating food. Yakisoba Ondo's first and most popular youtube upload is even named "makaronada song" for fuck's sake. It's a happy little accident of an anime, that you wouldn't expect to get so much more attention outside of Japan, but it did, and it is a classic because of it. Here's the link to the makaronada scene, I mean to be honest you're probably Greek yourself if you're reading this, why else would you look up Kabamaru on my anime list? Arabic? Good, now you get what I mean by happy little accident. Live on, Kabamaru. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcTQoL2WwsE

Igano Kabamaru's relatively high score seems to derive from the fact that only a small number of people have seen it and they must have remembered it fondly but what they see in it I just do not get as by all accounts this is a very average show.

Another factor might be like Evangelion people hold it in high regard because it was a trendsetter in tropes because almost all the usual suspects of stupid anime trope's are present in this show.

The Titular character Kabamaru is super annoying they try and play it for comedy that he is a super glutton and all he cares ... about is food. Towards the end, they might hint that he might be starting to be interested in girls but boy howdy is the ending anti-climactic.

The last episode itself is a real fever dream. I don't know what they were smoking but it must have been some good shit.

There are some good things, The OP is an absolute jam, the older animation style is also somewhat endearing. I suppose the exaggerated faces were fine but they did not add to my enjoyment.

In summary, there is nothing too special about Igano Kabamuru. Save yourself some time and find something else to watch