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 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.
