Funny Pets

Funny Pets is potentially the most bizarre show I've ever seen. It presents itself like a children's cartoon on the surface, but is actually an incredibly dark, morbid, surreal show. The juxtaposition of super childish content with extremely adult content (both violent and sexual) makes it a very weird, sometimes uncomfortable watch. This is definitely a "you'll either love it or hate it" type of show. I can understand why people would dislike it, but I would also look into what the show is before you write it off. I think there are two types of people who will enjoy ... this show. Some people will view it as a 'so-bad-it's-good' situation and enjoy it ironically. Others will sincerely enjoy it because it is completely unique, trying something new, and in my opinion, self-aware and succeeding. Definitely watch the first episode (it's only 6 minutes long). By the end, you'll know what the show is about, and you'll know if it's for you.

Right off the bat, I'm going to assume you heard about this anime through director Masuda's underground cult-following hit, Popee the Performer.

In the case you didn't, I'd recommend watching the masterpiece that is Popee the Performer instead and seeing if it's your cup of tea; and if it isn't, Funny Pets is probably not for you.

In the case you did, if you're planning to go into this hoping to gain the same quality of entertainment as you did with Popee, you might be disappointed. HOWEVER, you would still get more of Masuda's crazy, creative world, albeit a different taste of it.

This review will mostly focus ... on how this show compares to Popee the Performer.

Story: (8/10)
I see both Popee the Performer and Funny Pets sharing the same quality of story. That's because... the shows share almost the exact same plot progressions. While two aliens live under the same roof with a cute lady, one sun alien impresses her, the moon alien gets jealous and tries to one up him, mostly by resorting to extremes as violence and other psychics/reality defying escapades. Other plots involve what you'd expect: reality gets f***ed, they die an episode then come back the next, and a lot of violent things you'd never expect from a kid show happens. If Popee's story's what you're after, this fits right in.

Art: (8/10)
People like to criticize Popee and Funny Pets for the art style, but I feel as if Masuda's world could not have worked without it. It creeps to that level of uncanny valley while also avoiding to look like amateur 3D animation, and the facial expressions and bizarre moments play very well to the art style's favor. And at the very least, it is good enough to not be a distraction from what can be enjoyed from this show.

Sound: (6/10)
The music and sound effects did their purpose, but Popee did both these things subjectively better. I remember nothing of what I heard from this show in terms of music, as a lot of it tends to be relatively minimalistic with a few exceptions.

Character: (3/10)
THIS, I believe, is where Popee fans might get disappointed. The characters are husks. They are what the plot demands them to be. They will show primary traits, the lady character is dumb and pretty, the sun character is kind and also a boring God (so mostly he's discount Papi), and the moon character is Robbie Rotten from LazyTown (but mostly he's discount Popee), and the neighbors who I think might be moles are... just a family of scavenging moles.

Sometimes the two aliens care for the lady, sometimes they don't. Sometimes the lady's sweet and smart enough to have ideas, sometimes she's apathetic, lacks basic depth perception and can't tell a corpse from the living. Sometimes the moon character will hunt the moles, sometimes he'll try and be nice to them. Point is, they are not very consistent, and to a certain extent, not as charming and creative.

Enjoyment: (6/10)
I wouldn't watch this again, I wouldn't really recommend it, but I was glad I saw it. It's more creativity and wackiness you'd come to expect from Masuda. The scenarios this man comes up with is unlike anything I've ever seen.

Overall, this probably won't satisfy your Popee the Performer hunger, but considering one episode is only 4 minutes not including intro/outro, I'd say it's easy to digest and see whether it's for you or not. All episodes are available on Youtube, but good luck finding the second season other than from the DVD release, which I'd recommend, Masuda deserves it.

Have you ever watched a massive dump for a few hours gather flies? I have. It’s called Funny Pets!
Funny Pets is the tale of a sun thing and a moon thing and a poor excuse for a woman doing nothing IN CGI! This anime will change your life, mainly because it with make your eyes bleed so hard that they might just fall out of their sockets. On with the review!

Episode 1 is pretty slow. Nothing happens.
Episodes 2-5 things begin to pick up, with nothing happening even faster.
Episode 6 is pretty special, with nothing happening.
Episodes 7-10 is where it gets fun, with special attention paid ... to the parts where nothing happened.
Episodes 11-12, the final episodes- It got really emotional when nothing happened. I might’ve cried a little.

I’m expected to analyze the different components of this anime, but I find that I first must go over a crucial tidbit of information before we get to the real meat and potatoes, if the potatoes were grown in shit and the cows were reenacting a scene from “the Human Centipede.”
Before someone points out that it’s a kids show and that it’s meant to be simplistic, HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SHOW. It’s so violent at times (the moon at one point rips out his eyes and accidentally steps on them, something you too can experience after watching this), the moon looks creepy as fuck (enough to give a 10 year old nightmares), some scenes are trippy as hell and the girl has large boobs. And yet the pastel color scheme, the way they talk, and the simplicity lead one to believe it’s meant for children. And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! The part where I shut up and REALLY review this thing.

First, the story.
Actually, no. There’s no story. There’s really no story. I wish I was lying.

Onto the art, you can probably guess how I feel about it. My experience with CGI and anime up to seeing Funny Pets was not pleasant. After seeing Funny Pets, my experience with CGI and anime was a horrific bloodbath of shattered dreams. The animation is something I could do better in my sleep. I am actually convinced that they walked into a preschool and had them work for fifty cents an hour (in American dollars so they couldn’t even USE the money) scribbling and drooling on the computer, and then walked out with what they called “Funny Pets”.
As for the character designs, I must say WHAT character designs. There’s a sun and a moon and a chick. Their designs barely exist.

This is where I’m supposed to review the voice acting, the opening, the ending, anything under the giant umbrella of “sound”. Haha, nope. If you can actually concentrate on the sound while gouging out your eyes, it may come as a surprise to you that they’re not speaking Japanese. They’re not speaking English either. In fact, the ENTIRE anime is spent with the three basically babbling incoherently in no language. You can turn the sound off and nothing will happen. The opening and ending is the kind of music that I’d expect to be played in the background of Rugrats or something. I don’t actually remember the opening or ending to well, considering that after hearing the dialog, my ears self-destructed with the intent of saving my mind.

Here comes the good part, the characters. The characters are the driving force of any story, but unfortunately I cannot review them because they, once again, barely exist. They don’t have any emotion, they only have this mind-numbingly frustrating blankness to them. However, the creepy moon sometimes has glimpses of a personality, but then, oh no, he’s just a blank slate.


I fully recommend this anime, if you like the self-infliction of pain. If you’re not a sadomasochist, then don’t stand within 500 feet of this anime.