Directed by the infamous Nabeshin, this is exactly what one should expect from him, with a twist. This is the first ever anime musical comedy. While fans of the typical Nabeshin screwball comedy will love it's off the wall flavour, it was also the pioneer of a new subgenre. Unfortunately...the pioneer was drunk off his ass and ran his covered wagon into many a ditch.
Story:
The show does have a basic plot that tie all of the events together. Hideki, Ichiro and their cousin Mako have big dreams of building a concert dome on their daikon field in the suburb of Nerima, where they will perform for sold out crowds of adoring fans. The problem? The brothers and cousin are perpetually broke due to freak acts of nature, evil corperations, and Mako's horrible spending habits. The plot, believe it or not, can be heavily paralleled with 'The Blues Brothers' and the main characters even dress similarly to Jake and Elwood Blues.
In all actuality though, the series is actually a scathing political commentary on Japan in the year 2005. Nobody is safe from Nabeshin's satire. Issues dealt with within the series include privatization of land, the Japanese health care system, partner abuse, police corruption, sexual harassment, homosexuality, the horrors of the music industry, the Korean Wave and gambling, to name a few. Some political and social figures are even spoofed. The Prime Minister, Michael Jackson, and Johnny and Associates are all satirized. The political commentary was very clever, but is now unfortunately outdated, and fairly irrelevant to American viewers.
Art:
It's...Nabeshin. So expect a lot of eye poping, over the top visuals, and for stuff to literally come out of nowhere. The laws of physics do not apply. This is far from the fluid animation of animes like Fullmetal Alchemist, or with the detailed scenery of Le Chevalier D'Eon. It's zany, cartoony, and it fits. Scenes and visuals are routinely recycled along with musical numbers, which gets slightly grating. Charicatures of real people are often diformed and discoloured (Michael Jackson's counterpart 'Yukel Hakushon' has purple hair, yellow skin and a detachable nose.) There are also plenty of visual references and puns, though with quite a few of them you need a basic knowledge of Japanese, which the English language team tried to adapt, sometimes ineffectively.
Sound:
Hideki's Japanese voice is perfect for the lead singer of a blues band. The Japanese crew has a much better balance than the English crew, but the dub still manages to convey all the humour of their Japanese counterparts. One main complaint the fandom has is Mako's Southern Belle accent (she speaks in Osakan dialect in Japanese). It can get fairly annoying after prolongued viewing. Another complaint is that the songs, while pretty good, and catchy, get repeated from episode to episode, with different lyrics. Remember what I said earlier about the pioneer for this genre drunkly driving the covered wagon? Well...this is probably a mistake future anime musicals can learn from.
Character:
If you knew them in real life, you'd probably want them institutionalized. Since this is an anime comedy however, all disorders can be forgiven for the rule of funny. Hideki wants to marry his cousin Mako, who repeatedly lies to him about how the Japanese constitution bans first cousins from marrying (it doesn't) while Mako herself is in love with Ichiro. Ichiro in turn loves a panda found in the daikon field. A female police officer Yukika 'inspector gadget' also falls in love with the panda, but is torn between her love of the fuzzy panda and the fishcakes found in ramen. And that...that's just the main love tri...octa...love plot.
Characters have a lot of negative traits, though most of these are played for humour. What makes them more sympathetic though is that they are constantly being ripped off and stolen from by larger corperations, clearly making the Brothers underdogs. The one problem is in the later part of the series, the writers try to create drama and tear jerking situations in a Nabeshin comedy, creating mood whiplash at times. It's hard to genuinly feel sorry for someone who was just involved in a high speed chase on a unicycle.
Enjoyment:
I loved this anime for it's political satire and clever pop culture references. The musical aspect too to an extent, but once songs started to be repetedly recycled, it got kind of old, even annoying. My personal problem was that this series tried to do too much. It tried to be a scathing commentary on the times, a pop culture riddled comedy, a screwball random comedy and a musical. While it was still a fun anime, it just felt like the show could not decide what it wanted to be. At any rate, anyone interested in a social commentary on Japanese life might want to have a peek at this, but keep the internet on hand so you can understand all the references.
Warnings: Nudity (some sexual positions are displayed in the art in Ichiro's Host Club) foul language, bestiality, cousin-love, mind rape (it's Nabeshin) sex based humour and racism against Koreans. Also, cue a pink Darth Vader just for added wtf-value.
