Mahoujin Guruguru (2017)

Nike was a simple boy from Boering Village, and the last thing he ever wanted was to become a hero. But when a sign appears from the king of Ainshent Castle Town recruiting heroes to slay the Demon Lord Giri, Nike's father enthusiastically forces him out the door. Along with Kukuri, a member of the Migu Migu Clan, Nike sets out on an adventure to become the legendary hero that the world needs.

As Nike and Kukuri travel across different continents, they attempt to learn the secrets of Guru Guru Magic, a strange but powerful type of magic used to seal Demon Lord Giri's power. While reluctantly taking on their assigned quest, the duo does not fail to acquire new comrades and have fun along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kukuri Main

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Nike Main

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Eldol, Udberg Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Shunamur, Jujuku Supporting

Taichi, You Japanese

Gipple Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Reido Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Toma Supporting

Fujii, Yukiyo Japanese

Miucha Supporting

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Bajani Supporting

Kanemitsu, Nobuaki Japanese

Sappari Fairy Supporting

Taichi, You Japanese

Fukudome, Shun Producer

Yoshitake, Shintarou Assistant Producer

Ikehata, Hiroshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Reviews

Dec 19, 2017

Unowen

Recommended

Mahoujin Guruguru (2017) is probably one of the most vivid and frenetic titles to have arrived in recent times. As the year in its name implies, it is a remake of a relatively popular franchise in Japan back in the 90s, that gave birth to a manga that spanned for more than 10 years as well as two anime series of 45 and 38 episodes respectively. Packing into 24 episodes a story that was originally fit into that much material undoubtedly sounds like a recipe for disaster. Therefore, how does this show manage to work (besides removing fillers)?

First of all it is important to ... note that Guruguru is a goofy but clever, frenetic and never-stopping comedy. It’s a story based on a classic quest to save the world, adorned with constant RPG game references and tropes, which main purpose is making fun of itself. It’s probably the only type of narrative that can manage to move faster than what it used to, and yet only take advantage from it.

When it comes to the main protagonists, they benefit from the fact that they’re both as important and relevant to the whole picture. They also care for each other in an organic and noticeable way, which is rare for this type of shows where the characters tend to be quite flat besides their counted quirks (in plain terms, they're one of the CUTEST couple/duo in anime as a whole).

In regard to the art, Mahoujin depicts an overly colorful world with an updated but faithful approach to its original character designs. These are peculiar in the sense people appear to be quite short and young, which might be appealing by itself after a while, but also help to transmit emotion and gesticulation in a more fluid manner. Really well animated to keep up with the inherent rhythm of the series, it does take some extra liberties like momentarily portraying the characters and world in a pixellated 2D version, as if they were part of an early 90s Final Fantasy game.

Most anime of this kind has a major inconvenient: it gets boring fast. Gags repeating over and over, hit-or-miss episodic approaches, annoying secondary characters one always wants to ignore but can’t... Surprisingly, Guruguru is seemingly free of all these issues, affording the viewer a nice variety of lovely side characters and even villains that work nicely with the main duo, as well as a storyline that both for obligation and determination, moves in the hastiest of paces.

Who knows if bringing back gems like these is an attempt to capture nostalgic people, or simply to make old works available for the newer generations. What is clear is that, if all results were to be like this, nothing left to say but welcome!

Note: Even though this remake adapts the whole original manga and story, since 2012 a sequel manga has been publishing. Considering what the series hinted at the end, there is a possibility we get to see this in the future.

Thanks for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 19, 2017

Tyumace

Recommended

From the promotional art of this show it looked like it wouldn't be more than a boring kid's show, however, after seeing the (2017) besides the title, meaning this is a remake and the original is probably quite popular in Japan and after seeing it's rated PG 13 and after reading the synopsis of the manga I decided to give it a try.

What I expected, as the synopsis suggested, was a cute and somewhat fun show about video game tropes. However, what I got was a show that was far less focused of video game tropes or being cute and much more on comedy...good comedy. ... This show is absolutely hilarious! In the beginning of the show the parents of MC tell him to become a hero and, when the boy refuses, shoot him of with a giant slingshot! Who thinks of this stuff? This show is comedic gold! And it isn’t just a good joke occasionally; this show is funny constantly. This anime is a remake of a 45 episode show from the 90’s and a 38 episode show from 2000, but this one is only 24 episodes, so they could skim all the fat and as a result this show is dense. There are constantly jokes flying left and right and you’ll find yourself constantly entertained.

The show mostly advertises itself as a show about RPG-tropes, but you don't actually need to have any interest in this subject. Sure, being into old jRPGs helps, but the meat of the story is the personality driven comedy. Old RPGs aren't the subject matter, but the theme. It can be fully enjoyed as a comedy show or even a fantasy show, without caring about RPGs.

The two main characters are a young boy and a young girl around his age (They’re 12 at the start of the story). The boy is lazy and easily seduced, but seems to at least have the heart of the traditional hero. The girl is a typical girl of around her age who is very concerned with her image and who is infatuated with the boy in a very endearing manner. The two are absolutely adorable together. Also, a lot of the comedy around these characters is based on the contrast between them being normal teenagers and the fact that it is expected of them to be capable warriors, ready to take on the big bad and any of his henchmen (which they are not).

One of the first things you'll notice about the show is the art style. The character designs look very young, which will turn a lot of people off, but if you take the time to look at it you will realize they are actually very nice to look at and incredibly cute. Also, a lot of work is put into their outfits. Half of the time they’ll be walking around in their usual clothes, but whenever they go on an adventure they put on cute outfits that look adorable and have a lot of work put into them. And also, because the designs are very simple, they are permitted to constantly be moving and often in interesting ways. The show is constantly animated and oozes style. Besides that, the backgrounds are fantastic and especially the landscapes are incredibly nice to look at. It’s a very visually pleasing show.

Despite all that, the show is still a comedy show and the main appeal of the show is this comedy. If you watch one episode of the show and you didn't like the comedy you'll probably not like the show at all. If you do find it funny, then you'll love the show as it just gets funnier and it stays funny throughout.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 3, 2018

simple_hypocrite

Mixed Feelings

Mahoujin Guruguru is an anime with all the necesarry to be a good show, a decent paicing, charismatic characters, decent comedy and an animation that remember to the retro esthetic of the first serie, but more polish; although that, the anime has some mistakes.The most evident problem are the principal cast,of the three protagonist, kukuri ,nike and the old kita-kita. The history takes to much attention in kukury and her evolution around grown and the love,which eventually becomes annoying,to the point that forget develoment the other two characters.While the old kitta-kitta is an unnecesary comic relief, since the series already possess many caracters that fulfill ... the position, nike doesnt have a propose apart of being the romantic interest of kukuri, to two share the same level of complicity with the secondary characters that appear, in at least,6 episodes like juju and kaya. In general, is a petty simple anime without big downsides and something that I recomend in case of that the modern anime dont like you and prefer the old (and always best) anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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