Ranked #5295

Afro-Ken

Afro-Ken is certainly a weird little OVA; it's not really about anything in particular, and yet still manages to be entertaining. Based on a line of toys by the people who brought you Hello Kitty, Afro-Ken is about a cute dog with an afro and all of his friends, most of whom are also cute dogs with afros. The "story" introduces the different dogs and features silly little elements of their lives... and that's it. It's not really a story at all, but it does what it needs to do: look cute and advertise toys.

And look cute and advertise toys it does. Afro-Ken covers dozens of unique character designs, but features little else in the way of characterization. On that note is the way these characters appear: the entire OVA is done in 3-D, but rather than going for a more realistic look, the animators appropriately chose a simplistic, silly style. While not particularly remarkable, (the movement of the dogs is often choppy) again, it does what it has to.

That's not to say that Afro-Ken is without it's merits. The first lies in the music: the one prominent song (used for both the opening and closing) is fun and extremely catchy, with silly lyrics such as "there is a dog with a big afro / that follows me around wherever I go / my daddy says it don't exist / but I can see it in the sky and even in my rice bowl dish". You gotta love it.

The other good point of Afro-Ken? It is dang fun. You can't help but crack up at the jokes or "awww" at the cute little dogs with crazy hairstyles and their antics (my personal favorite is probably Afro-Ken swimming across a photo of the Statue of Liberty). As a matter of fact, this is one of the only anime that my three siblings and I all enjoyed, and it left us all wanting Afro-Kens of our own. It's certainly a pointless experience, but it's one of those shows that satisfies your need for the bizarre and the cute all at once, without confusing you or making you feel like you need more. And at one episode of less than thirty minutes, how can you deprive yourself of that? read more

Afro-ken is the manifestation of three of Japan’s most bizarre cultural obsessions: animation, cute things and a popular western hairstyle from the 1970s.

You could say Afro-ken is an eccentric or peculiar creation, but to do so would risk making it sound interesting, which it isn’t. In fact, this anime is so brain haemorrhagingly-dull and mindless that you may end up in a coma before the end of it. And if not, it should leave you with intense feelings of contempt towards Japan. Not for allowing such pathetic drivel to come into existence in the first place; but for making it popular enough to warrant a thirty minute advertisement highlighting it’s unprecedented success.

And its success certainly is unprecedented- Japan, we had expected better from you.


But let’s not be so hasty as to simply dismiss this OVA without giving any analysis. No, that would be letting Afro-ken off too easy. Not only this production of poor quality and without purpose, it reeks of the crass commercialism that is endemic in ‘kawaii culture’.

Afro-ken is essentially a thirty minute long advertisement for a ‘cute’ little dog with an afro. His name is ‘Afro-ken’ which is Japanese for –wait for it- ‘Afro Dog’.

But it’s not just any afro; it’s an afro that can change its size and colour, and can even be manipulated to resemble a tree, a brush or anything else that is fluffy and/or bouffant.
He’s not the only one either. There are a whole host of other characters in there, each with their own specific, individual, distinctive... hairstyle. Oh, and some stick men.

‘Afro-ken’ is the magnum opus of designer Mr Aimi Tetsurou, who came up with the idea after eight years of hard graft as a designer of cute and/or adorable things for a company by the name of San-X corp. Included in this 30 minute long OVA is an exclusive interview with him, in which he discusses his life as an artist and his unreasonable expectations for the future.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Mr Tetsurou is neither very interesting nor very amusing. One would hope his overly-ambitious aspirations for Afro-ken’s success is totally sarcastic and self-depreciating but his atonal voice makes it difficult to measure just how firmly his tongue is pressed against his cheek.

His appearance in the show is actually rather depressing; he certainly doesn’t seem even remotely excited about being interviewed, nor does he seem proud of his creation. The whole thing affair just feels forced and awkward. To make matters worse, you just know that he has been working hard for years, spending every spare moment of his whole life drawing, pouring his very heart and soul into it- and he will only ever be recognised for creating a dog with a silly haircut.


To make matters worse, Afro-ken’s design isn’t even that creative, with no real detail to speak of or anything to distinguish it beyond its exuberant hair. The other characters all feature the same base and the only variation shown is their hairstyles and the colour of their coats. The base design is incredibly straightforward too, and the entire show is drawn in a very basic 3D art style that doesn’t appear to be any clearer or more detailed than the 3D productions of the nineties.

The animation is also very straightforward- the characters seldom move, beyond bobbing back and forth slightly as a signal to the viewer that the DVD isn’t frozen. The characters tend to stay in one position rather than walk around; when movement is unavoidable, the camera tends to avoid the legs and feet of the dogs and focus on the head (or more specifically, the afro).


Static cameras are used to excess, and changing the position of the camera is unanimously favoured over changing the direction or angle of the shot. Not only is this lazy, but incredibly tedious to watch. One of the main benefits 3D over 2D animation is the ability to rotate the camera around the subject easily; yet Afro-ken’s animation is so basic it could have been released as a flip-book.

The soundtrack, much like the animation, is very basic indeed. It’s simplistic, unremarkable and repetitive. Straightforward rhythms, basic instrumentation and almost no variation in style; utterly uninspired.

The theme song is quite an oddity, and unintentionally amusing. The opening verse is done entirely in English. Surprisingly the creators opted to get a native speaker of English to record the vocals (or at least someone who can enunciate the words correctly), something that even well-produced anime often neglect. Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten that being able to sing is also an important step; the result is a song that sounds authentic but also amateurish. The vocalist’s hopelessly flat delivery is laughable and the few changes of pitch in the song occur at completely inappropriate times; for example using a key change to emphasise a word that occurs in the middle of a sentence. Ultimately, the song just feels awkward and you quickly realise why this guy wasn’t getting much work back home.

The chorus of the song is done in Japanese, seemingly by a different singer. The sudden language change is rather disorientating and –much like the key changes- feels poorly timed. One might hope that using the native language might encourage some increased lyrical depth, but in fact the Japanese portion of the song is even less inspired than the English.

The voice acting isn’t great either- the narrator seems to be in a desperate struggle to sound enthusiastic, even though he seems to be suffering from haemorrhoids. His one-liners offer are comprised of some very bad puns to compliment the images on screen, along with a few words of wisdom that even a child wouldn’t find insightful.

The only way I can describe a production as uninspired and asinine as Afro-ken, is ‘devoid of content’. In the thirty minutes it lasts, it achieves absolutely nothing. It doesn’t make any kind of statement nor provoke any kind of reaction; its tedious dullness is beyond all comparison.

But what I really take issue with is what ‘Afro-ken’ represents. It is safe to say that this was not a labour of love; the work of inspired people with a desire to see a concept brought to life. It was the product of a board of executives with a desire to cash in on their latest success. Beyond Afro-ken’s afro-clad facade, there is nothing- no brain, no heart... no soul.

One could argue that the nature of advertisements is something of a hindrance to creativity; admittedly their goal is not to create a work of art, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be, or even that they shouldn’t try; there are many advertisements out there that manage to be creative.

Japan’s obsession with the cute aesthetic is widely known and well-documented; many consider it to be little more than harmless fun, getting all excited about a stuffed rabbit or a dog with silly hair. But it’s worth remembering that relaxing image is little more than a pretty face for an altogether more sinister figure.
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