Warau Hyouteki

Takahashi, the "Queen of Manga", is best known for her long-running and influential series such as Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku. Hundreds upon hundreds of episodes spanning four decades. It is these comedies that are the mark of her career.

But, in the deep shadows of these giants, Takahashi has also done a handful of dramatic/horror stories, such as this entry in the Rumic World series. But since all the money and all the fame went to the funny shows, these little gems are almost forgotten.

It's a shame, because I prefer her more ... serious works. Laughing Target is a single-episode, self-contained OVA, about two teenagers reuniting after having been promised to each other in their youth, and the insane supernaturally-charged jealously that is the result when the story doesn't start with "happily ever after".

While it's nothing exceptional, it is a good, tight story with some chilling scenes, the standard Takahashi character designs and mid-grade eighties animation. And for the modern anime viewers that are always looking for those hard-to-find 'yandere' characters, this will fit right up your alley.

"For people used to "older" fictions in general."

Story :

"Laughing Target" is an adaptation of a one-shot written by Rumiko Takahashi. I have read the manga years ago, but my memories of it are rather vague, the only thing I can say is that the Anime is toned down in violence and gore, in comparision. But it has to be confirmed as it could just be my imagination.

For the story itself, I have two three things to say that appear odd and convenient to me (like the protagonist going to read a book with photographies in the middle of the night). But overall, I wasn't ... too particularly bothered.

Overall, I appreciated the "old story telling style". As a work of the 80th, it didn't follow the now modern trend of "telling", prefering to "show" iinstead. That lack of "holding hands" (which has become too common it seems), though, could be an issue for people not used to it. For example, not realizing that the 2-3 first minutes basically "shows" you how one chara is possessed, or "showing" you what the ghosts (introduced in the same 2-3 minutes) represent and are. Now, it should be pretty self-explanatory, it isn't like it is even trying to be subtle about it, but some people seem to need to be told everything through words nontheless.

In an era where "horror" mainly rhymes with jumpscares and gore, watching an old style horror felt really good. It might not be for everyone though.

As a last warning though, if you're familiar with Rumiko's work and expect something different, the answer is "no" ; it uses components you can find in most of her work, not only when it comes to story and characters, but also chara design.


Characters :

Another "old style" thing here, or rather "archaic" in comparision : some of you might be aware that, in terms of literature, "psychology" and "chara development" are at the same time recent and not an obligation. It solely depends of the aim of said work. You nailed it, this story possesses function-characters ; so it's useless to expect any type of psychology or chara development.

My only real issue is that the chara design are too basic in the sense they could be mixed with other charas she created. And I shall continue on the art departement in the next part.


Art :

When it comes to the art and animation, they have aged. That's for sure ; and I had sometimes issues with it (though it's a personal issue and not a formal issue).

What is well done though, is the "filming" : the choices of colours, contrast, the angles chosen, they all serve their purpose well. The flashback scene is especially memorable, starting in white and black only and later on red taking over.


Sound :

Once again, the treatment of it might appear outdated to some as silence has a much bigger place in old animes (and visual fictions in general) for nowadays standards. The sounding is effective, overall, but the soundtracks are quite forgettable, they just do their job.

The voice acting is ok, neither outstanding nor bad.


Overall :

A nice horror OVA. No, really, that's all I have to say about it. But as I pointed out, it isn't for everyone, because of its age rather than the concept itself, which is quite amusing, in a way.

Back in the mid '90s, I got a catalog in the mail from The Right Stuf International, which was a mail-order smorgasbord of all of the anime they had for sale. There was a ton of artwork and stills throughout the hefty book, with some amazing looking stuff, and I wanted it all! Of course, being 13 years old at the time, and also having a comic book and video game habit, I could only afford to occasionally make an order, as anyone that was into anime at the time can attest to, this stuff was expensive.

Laughing Target was one that had always caught ... my eye when I browsed through the catalog, but I never pulled the trigger on it. Now having finally seen it, it was somewhat of a letdown. Granted, this may be my own fault for having built up a massive amount of hype for it over the years in my head (the same happened when I finally saw Genocyber on DVD in the mid 2000's, yet upon a revisit not too long ago, I kinda liked it), but even so, the story here is pretty damn predictable and it doesn't do many different things to break out of its tried-and-true narrative. I can't deny however that the animation is excellent, it captures a nice atmosphere, and there are some well-done moments of suspense and mystery here and there. There is nothing wrong with this whatsoever; it's a perfectly good anime. But taking into consideration how I had yearned for seeing this way back then and imagining how awesome it must be as I stared at the artwork and screen-shots, mid-'90s me is feeling the disappointment of it being "just" good.