Tottoko Hamtarou: Anime Dechu!

Question: does anyone here remember Hamtaro? Because I do! Alongside Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and many other shows, Hamtaro was one of my favorite shows to watch when I was a kid. I would always try to watch it whenever it was on. However, when new seasons started coming out, practically every day, I found myself missing a bunch of episodes because at one point in fourth grade, my parents signed me up for some after school program that required me to stay there until four. I can't remember why, but I remember being really pissed about it. Then, Hamtaro wound up getting pulled from Cartoon ... Network completely, and I thought I had lost my chance to watch all the episodes I had missed. Thankfully, others saved those episodes on various sites, I just haven't gotten around to actually watching it yet. I really ought to though. I later found out that Hamtaro ran for a total of 296 episodes, with only 104 getting dubbed into English and airing in America, so we never got the last half of the series. As of now, Hamtaro still hasn't gotten a complete home video release save for a few scattered DVDs containing some episodes. However, Hamtaro was one of the first anime that exposed me to the concept of anime as a whole, whether it was discovering its Japanese theme song completely by accident, or learning that the Hamtaro movies were never dubbed and released over here for whatever reason.

But what some of you may not know is that before the TV series came about, there was actually an obscure OVA that was released on VHS in 1999, titled Tottoko Hamtaro Anime Dechu!. It was advertised in a magazine, but the VHS itself wound up not being made publicly available for some reason, only being sold to members of the production team at Shogakukan, the company that created Hamtaro. Because of this, records of the OVA's overall existence was considered extremely rare, almost considered lost media. Then, on July 17th, 2017, a video tape appeared on a Japanese auction site and was bought by the admin who created the famous Hamtaro fan site, Ham-Ham Paradise. The admin, along with some other members of the site, got together to digitize it, fansub it into English, and put it up on YouTube for all to see, saving it from eternal obscurity! So what exactly is this OVA, anyway?

Well, for one, it's nothing like the TV show. Instead of being owned by a 5th grade girl named Laura, for those who have seen the Cartoon Network airings, this version of Hamtaro is taken care of by a possibly 2nd/3rd grade girl named Natsumi. The OVA mainly consists of short, five to eight minute vignettes featuring Hamtaro doing various things, like finding new places to hide or getting into adventures with the Ham-Hams. Oddly enough, Hamtaro is never shown talking, but his thoughts are fully voiced. None of the other Ham-Hams talk or have any spoken dialogue, leaving the animation to tell the story. Plus, for those who have seen the TV show, you'll notice a lot of things are different. Boss and Stan aren't present, Maxwell wears a blue suit, Penelope, whose Japanese name is Chibimaru, is a boy in this rather than a girl, Howdy's apron is blue instead of red, Snoozer actually does something beyond just sleep and give philosophical ramblings in his sleep, the Ham-Hams have a dog friend who goes unnamed (Not Brandy, who is called Wanta in this and is pure white instead of having brown and white fur), and whenever Hamtaro hangs with the Ham-Hams, he wears a red shirt, even though in the scenes where he's at home with Natsumi, he doesn't wear a shirt. Plus, Hamtaro is much more mischievous and more of a sassy gremlin than he is in the show.

In all honesty, there isn't really anything special about this OVA, other than laying the groundwork for the TV show to come later. The animation is nice by late 90s standards, if a bit simplified, though for some reason, the animators didn't want to animate Natsumi's mouth moving to match her dialogue. That felt rather jarring to me. But again, this isn't the show. There's lots of still frames, a lot of time is spent on Hamtaro messing around, the backgrounds are blurry and brightly colored, and everyone's fur and color schemes are rather muted compared to the TV show. I can probably chalk this up to the video quality coming from an old VHS tape and it never having gotten a cleaner, more modern release on DVD or Blu-Ray. In contrast, the music is surprisingly loud. Definitely not bad, but the soundtrack makes use of a lot of loud trumpets and acoustic guitars. Then again, considering most of the characters don't talk, it's just easier to notice in this case.

You won't find an overarching or compelling storyline here for sure. This OVA just consists of Hamtaro getting into mischief and hanging out with the Ham-Hams a couple of times. Mostly harmless fun you can use to have your toddler sit in front of the TV for half an hour. Another thing you'll notice that in this anime, Hamtaro is played by a different voice actress, Naomi Nagasawa, rather than the lady who would voice him in the TV show, Kurumi Mamiya. There's no English dub for this, only the Japanese audio. However...I'm not gonna lie, Nagasawa was terribly miscast as Hamtaro, mainly because she always sounds like she can't be bothered to make Hamtaro emote, like she's reading off a script than actually acting. She always keeps the exact same dull, deadpan, can't-be-bothered tone and cadence throughout the entire OVA. This is especially egregious because near the end of the OVA, there are scenes where Hamtaro gets visibly angry and emotional, but Nagasawa absolutely refuses to raise her voice or put any emotion into it whatsoever. Hamtaro always sounds bored, and it really broke the immersion for me. Sorry, but Kurumi Mamiya was clearly the better choice, and I'm glad they recast Nagasawa when the TV show got made.

So yeah, it's nothing that'll bring the house down, but if you're looking for a nice, wholesome time killer, feel free to check this out. It's a cute prelude to the TV show that would come later. Also, for the love of God, somebody PLEASE release the entirety of Hamtaro on DVD or Blu-Ray!! I want to own the series and relive my childhood!! It deserves to be seen in full so very very much! Yoohoo, Discotek, this anime has your name on it and would be perfect for you!!