Uchouten Kazoku

This is a story of a Tanuki who is the son of a great Tanuki. Literally, the entire season is more about his father than the main character. But let me back up a bit to explain these characters...

You have Yasaburō, the main character is a Tanuki, who'm I'll refer to as Yasa for sure.
You have Akadama, the Tengen considered a professor in this season for reasons I'm not sure of.
You have Benten, a very weird girl who is never explained.
You have Sōichirō, who is the father of the main character.
You have Soun, who is the brother of Soichiro. He's the main ... antagonist.

The rest of the characters are pointless to even mention as they have no effect on the storyline what so ever.

For some reasons I guess, the main character takes care of his professor, Akadama, who has lost his wings as a Tengen (literally) due to a reason that is supposedly partially his fault. This is never explained in detail outside of giving the accident a name (The Demonic Tree incident I think? It's mentioned exactly one time).

The story quickly goes into the character of Benten, who we quickly learn joined the Friday Fellows, captured the main characters father, and literally ate him in a pot of soup. Is she the villain? No. The anime paints her as a friend of the main character. The main character doesn't care that she literally ate his father which is frustrating in the least. As a matter of fact, he is for some reason attracted to her. Even then, this Benten character *literally* tells the main character that she will eventually eat him. And yet, he doesn't care. Okay.

Anyways, half the storyline is about a feud between the family of his father's, and the family of his uncle's (from his father's side of course). A quarter of the story is about Akadama losing his wings and him seemingly losing his sanity like an eldery person in an elderly home does (which is apparently "interesting" to other people). The other quarter is the main characters father. Notice that I didn't say the main character has any part of this story line because he doesn't. The storyline shoves in a weird tension between Benten and the main character but it doesn't develop into anything.

**SPOILERS**
The season finale is the main character and his family being captured by the Friday Fellows. They end up learning it was the working of the uncle, Soun. The end. Wait, no explanation on Ben Ten? Or the incident removing Akadama's wings? Or what happened to the Friday Fellows? Or why the main character has no remorse of his father or Benten literally eating his father? No. None of these are answered. There are no clues, there are no dotted lines to put together. I haven't read the manga (if there is one) but this is one rating train I have no intention to jump aboard.

As a matter of fact, this anime left me so wanting for an equalizer, this review is currently acting as a buffer. I feel like this really could have been a good show. But potential is not current reality. Perhaps in later seasons, they will fill in various gaps that are essential to understanding this world but as it is now, you literally don't have enough information to be able to relate to a most characters in this world. Nobody would look at someone who ate their father and not feel something. Nobody but a complete psychopath would eat someones father and not have remorse over killing the father of someone they like. Akadama is relatable but in a way that is nothing but sad, tormented by the fact that he was something great and is no longer. The father was friends with Akadama who didn't seem to give a single shit about the father's death. NONE OF IT IS RELATABLE.

I've read other reviews and some of them just straight lie. Some claim each character is explained very well and go on to say the anime helps us relate by showing their past stories. The main characters past outside of maybe sometime explaining his relationship with Akadama which is where he met Benten, is never explained. Benten's past, the most complicated character in this series, is never even touched outside of the fact that she joined the Friday Fellows and ate Yasa's father. Yasa's brother who turned into a frog is explained but it doesn't explain why other Tanuki are not stuck like he is or why he's treated like some type of folk lore. His mother's past is never explained on why she's afraid of lightning, why she dresses like a captain and plays pool. Yasa's bride-to-be is never explained. She literally saves the mother and THAT'S IT. We know the uncle cut off the marriage (who'm we later learn is the main antagonist) and the mother was upset. BIG section of important story line there just kinda jumped over. The biggest past story is the Father's. We learn why he became respected by Akadama, we learn why they were friends. What we don't learn is why Akadama is okay with him literally being murdered and eaten by some fat fucks in Friday Fellows who frankly should be powerless against both Tengu and the Tanuki. We don't learn about the Friday Fellows other than they're greedy man children who eat Tanuki for seemingly no reason.

There's just not enough information and too many gaps. It's designed as a linear story but it's all over the place.

But... at least the art and sound was well done. Later seasons might also fill in a lot of the gaps and if they do, this season could make a hell of a lot more sense. There's potential but I'm not judging based on potential here.

the show has a great sound and the animations are amazing. I would say that is a reason to watch. But there is one problem: it is boring. I could not really get attached to the characters at all and it seemed the series did not go anywhere. There is a lot of phylosophy and you will see a lot o weird quotes about the nature of life. Problem is I wanted to enjoy this series and I did not find anything compelling me to finish it besides my desire to see where everything is going. The answer is nowhere. As many other recent anime ... is just an intro to the manga and nothing more. The only thing that is interesting is the apparent love triangle of Yasaburou Shimogamo with Ben Ten and Kasei but this does not get any closer to resolution by the end of the series. Also the only characters that are not paper thin (Ben Ten and Kasei) are never explained at all. My advice is this: read the manga and if you like it then watch the anime. As I said it is just an introduction to the manga and is not very convincing. I cannot say I did not enjoy it but it is far from a masterpiece.

Eccentric family follows Yasaburou the third son of his family who also happen to be tanuki. They live in Kyoto where tanukis, tengus, and humans live side by side of each other. While the tanuki and tengu are aware of each other, the humans are oblivious of their existence. Yasaburou spends most of his days not doing much other than lazing around or taking care of an old tengu. While this is the story, the plot of the show is Yasaburous older brother being elected as leader of the tanuki, and yasaburou having to deal with a women named Benten and the Friday fellows who ... eat tanuki once a year and were also responsible for his father's death,Souichirou. The show places emphasis on the mystery of souichirous death, but not on the who since it was already obvious but more on the the how and the why.
The buildup of the show was pretty good with several amazing moments in them, but it’s the whole payoff of the show that is disappointing. The whole mystery of Souichious death was better than what was actually revealed, and even the way it was revealed wasn’t the best way to be delivered. The entire execution of the election after the reveal of the mystery was very poor as well. Since the entire family is put into great peril after the truth is revealed, but by the end they are saved in the most predictable manner possible. It’s also odd that in this world where humans are oblivious to to tanukis and tengus there are a lot of supernatural stuff that happens in front of many of them. Anyway in the end the show was decent when there wasn’t much going on, but it became unsatisfying when they had to place the plot on the forefront.

The main character or characters of the the story are Yasaburou and and the rest of his family of the Shimogamo household. Yasasburou himself is a rather carefree person who takes care of an old tengu mostly due to how fascinated he was about tengu at a young age. He is also caring about his family and tries to rescue them whenever they are in trouble. Yasaburou also has three brothers with the oldest, Yaichirou being the most responsible of the 4 and is also trying to be the leader of the tanuki. The second oldest is the Yajirou who is a frog who lives in a well because he forgot how to turn back into a tanuki, and probably anything else. Finally the youngest is Yashirou with not much else other than being young and innocent in nature. They all live with their mother who was probably the most fascinating of all the characters due to her more eccentric nature when she’s in her prince persona and also because of her mother nature. There’s more family than them since their father's brother, Souun split off to create his own family household, and they are their main rivals with Souun and Yaichirou competing to be the leader of the tanukis as well as other problems.
Other characters outside of the family is Akadama, an old tengu who is unable to fly anymore due to a certain incident. He also kidnapped a girl who now goes by Benten when she was just a teenager mostly because he was infatuated with her, to the point that he even taught her how to fly. Akadama himself is a rather stubborn and arrogant person who doesn’t really do much unless Benten is around. Benten herself is kind of an enigma throughout the show. She is first shown as a decent enough person, but since the anime has a timeskip during the first episode her personality changes to seem more manipulative. They show more about her later on, but they never really explore more into that. Finally are the friday fellows with the only member properly introduced being Choutarou mostly due to the fact that he had some involvement with their family in the past. All the character were just fine a they are even though only maybe one or two of them were actually intriguing.

The art for the show was just fine. They are simple character designs, but very stylized allowing for the personality to be shown through appearance alone. Although i did find their ears very distracting. The anime is also very colorful as well, not the most colorful thing i seen, but enough to fulfil its purpose for the show. Background art looks pretty decent as well although not much really stands out from that. The animation is pretty good, but not really anything breathtaking or anything worth notable that stood out from the rest of the show.

The soundtracks for the show was just fine. There were a few good tracks in the show. However a few of them didn’t really work well with the scene that they were playing with which didn’t really enhance the scene only that there was cool music playing in the background and nothing else. It’s still has good soundtracks but nothing really amazing or great. The voice acting was decent as well although there were times when i felt that there wasn’t much emotion put onto some of the characters during some scenes.

the show was an ok watch there really wasn’t much that stagnated or felt like a drag while watching even when there wasn’t much going on. However it wasn’t the most compelling or gripping show that made me want to watch more.

Overall it’s an ok show which tries to be different, but ends up not really doing much. As i’m writing this there is already a second season already out, and i pretty much watch this to see what people liked so much about it. Hopefully season 2 will be much better and answer questions i had with the first season

I am sorry, I really wanted to like this one. Why does a unique show with a beautiful aesthetic, great music, and some really good ideas, have to be brought down by a seriously uncomfortable romance and a story that fails to deliver?

The Eccentric Family follows the story of a family of tanukis, on a mission to uncover the secret of the father's death at the hands of humans. Now I will say that the one aspect I liked about the cast of characters is that the tanuki family felt very tight knit, like a true family. They are, well, weird, but that doesn't change ... their love for each other. In that aspect, the show did something right.

Also, giving credit where it's due, it really isn't like anything else. and the visuals, as I mentioned, are beautiful. The scenery always looks vibrant and inhabited, the animation is well executed, and the action sequences felt impactful. The music fit the moods and were very well orchestrated.

Now, the show runs into it's major issue when a bland and downright unhealthy "romance" is brought into play. Benten was a downright frustrating character, and every moment she was on screen detracted from my enjoyment. She gets everything her way, she forces herself on the main character, she proudly kills tanukis constantly, and yet the narrative doesn't frame her as a bad person at all. Yasaburo acts like such a doormat that he actually was ok with her, someone who kills tanukis and would love to do the same to him. I even felt that at some moments, the show sexualized this aspect of her personality, which was even worse. She gets no sort of consequences for anything she does, and we are supposed to accept it because "that's the way the world is".

Well, it would have been a much more interesting story if Benten actually challenged how she treated tanukis after meeting Yasaburo, but season 1 doesn't appear to have that at all, and the story delivered here did NOT make me want to watch on. Or better yet, not have a romance subplot at all! Romance doesn't need to be in absolutely every story, and The Eccentric Family's failed attempts at making me want to ship a mass murderer of tanukis with a tanuki is a prime example of a story that didn't need a romance. Even if they had taken the gloves off and made her a full villain instead of someone who constantly does bad things and yet is somehow sympathized with way too much by everyone else, the story would have been better.

So in short, when I watch this show, I get disappointed by what could have been. Maybe if you can handle the badly-written romantic subplot, you'll get more enjoyment out of it than I ever could.

Art: (6) The art wasn't bad, it was fair. Though I do have to comment on their ear shapes. It was bothering me the whole time.The characters were decent looking however.

Sound: (8) The sound was a 8. Like every other anime with good sound. The opening of the anime sounded very familiar. It was memorable.

Character: (5) The main character was a good guy. But at times his personality confuses me. In the beginning, he had a tendency to transform into the opposite sex, but over the course of the series, he did not. His brothers were likable characters. However, I don't like the side characters ... very much. They try to give off an air of being friendly, but the words they speak don't match. (especially those from the Friday group).


Enjoyment: (3) When I first found this anime, I thought it would be thrilling and exciting to watch, but over the course of the episodes, it was dull and getting gloomier by the episode. There wasn't very much excitement. There was only idle talk. Characters didn't develop very much and why the characters don't try to do things to make their surroundings better. The main character stayed quiet thru most of the anime. Though I do not know the rest since I only watched up till the 9th episode.

Overall: (5)
Overall, it was not very enjoyable, though to some it might be, but compared to many other great anime out there, this seems to be quite overrated. If you like to watch an anime with no plot nor much development, perhaps this one is for you.