Noobow: Kieta Medal

“Noobow: Kieta Medal” is an odd little 1-episode OVA for kids starring a cookie mascot who enters a pie-eating contest with its friends. There’s little to no setup for the story (who are these characters and why are they here?); character motivations are paper-thin; it has a lackluster ending with a questionable moral lesson, and the technical aspects all feel cheap.

The gist of the story is that the titular Noobow, a pure-hearted yellow blob, is called on by its friends Louis, Pico and Sam to enter their village’s pie-eating contest. The kids and Noobow devour several whole pies by hand, with their sights set on ... the prize: a shiny medal. Some of the other kids cheat, and they’re very open and vocal about it (why didn’t they get disqualified?), but Noobow ends up winning. Noobow and its friends sleep under a tree and when they wake up, both the medal and Sam’s scooter are gone! Could the culprit be the wolf boy who lives just outside the village? The blob and the kids go on an adventure to find out and retrieve the items, but danger lurks...

Background information is not given for who these characters are, where they live, or much else — we just know that they seem to be friends and their village is holding a festival. Noobow is a mascot for a kind of cookie, but that isn’t referenced here at all. For some reason, the plot likes to slow down and focus on little “detours” that seem unnecessary, before picking back up and returning to the main story. This OVA is only about 25 minutes long, but this happens several times. Also, the conclusion feels rather forced and silly, with an insultingly simple lesson tacked on at the very end.

With the exception of Noobow, the characters aren’t memorable at all. They don’t really have any distinguishing characteristics other than their height and gender. Noobow’s friends are basically just the tall boy, the girl and the short boy. The wolf boy is confusing (is he part wolf, or is he just wearing a wolf’s skin?), and his background isn’t explained. Most of the adult villagers are very… round, probably because they eat so many pies. The two cheating kids are just your typical bully and his underling.

The animation and art look cheap. There’s lots of reused animation, and it’s rather choppy. There are some awkward scenes that seem to linger for way too long on a character’s face before moving on to the next scene. The all-instrumental soundtrack is forgettable. The voice acting isn’t that great, although a number of top voice actors appear in this. Minami Takayama stands out in the role of Louis, but she sounds almost exactly like Conan Edogawa, a role she would take on a few years later, and her voice doesn’t fit this character.

There isn’t really anything objectionable in this OVA, other than the questionable moral lessons it tries to impart.

Overall, I would not recommend watching “Noobow: Kieta Medal.” It’s not good for what it is — a short for kids — and it’s not particularly entertaining, either.