Wu Nao Monu

Note: there are spoilers up through episode 3. I don't think they're too big of a deal because the episodes are so short. Also, I'm not going to summarize anything because the episodes are so short that the summary on MAL does a good job (at least up to episode 3). Also, I'll note where the spoilers start and end.

I have like 400 shows in my profile, but I've never written a review before. I think it's important to understand the person behind the review in order to understand where they're coming from. Shows don't need to be masterpieces, or even good, in order ... to enjoy them. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants something lighthearted, likes goofy characters, enjoys pretty visuals, and wants something casual to watch. I think casual is a good word for it. Don't take it too seriously and realize you're not going to sink a lot of time into it. The episodes are only 5 minutes long. You're not going to enjoy this if you're the type of person that gets sweaty when someone says they like a mainstream show, you think about what they'll rate a show on myanimelist while you're watching it, or if anime is your crack and you need it to be incredibly stimulating.

A few things to take note of: the show is in Chinese, and the episodes are only ~5 min long (there are 1.5 min intro/outros). Pointing out the fact that it's in Chinese might seem derogatory, but most Chinese shows that I've checked out, no matter how big or mainstream, tend to have bad subs. Link Click comes to mind, I've been enjoying it a lot, but god damn are some of the subs really awful. Especially for a show whose second season had a premiere of sorts in the US, you'd love to see some translations that don't make the main characters look illiterate.

With any show, there needs to be a "character-content" balance. Shows with longer airtime have the luxury of being able to create deep characters and a detailed story around them, as long as they keep the pacing in check. Well-developed characters are essential for a detailed story, but developing the characters takes time - time which then can't be spent developing the story. This isn't always true, and they can be developed together, but when the episodes are only 5 minutes long, you need to know where the show's value is going to come from. Agate doesn't know where its value comes from, and it doesn't understand nuance. If you're not going to read the spoiler section: it wants to have a detailed story and well-developed characters, but it just doesn't have the time to do both, and it's hard for me to explain much more than that without pointing out examples. For one, it really likes to use text boxes to explain things while the characters are talking, which are distracting and go against the "show don't tell" idea behind visual content.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! KEEP GOING DOWN TO AVOID THEM!!

If you already watched up to ep 3 (where I stopped), imagine that you didn't. Now, let me tell you about a witch that cut off half her head and threw it in a canyon, which ended up making it to Hell, where a bunch of friendly-looking and humanlike demons lived. The top of her head that she cut off is crying, and the tears flooded Hell, causing a lot of damage and destroying a lot of buildings. The main demon guy in Hell stopped playing with his kids and went out to find the witch, and when he did, explained to her that she caused a lot of damage. Then, the witch said she didn't mean to, so she used magic to rebuild the city, and the demon was grateful for her help. Then, the demon goes back to his life and starts doing chores.

You can infer a lot from just that short paragraph. The witch didn't throw half her head into Hell to cause damage, you can tell because (1) it's crying, and (2) she fixed the damage she caused. The witch is currently trying to cope with personal trauma, given by the fact that her bubbly and outgoing personality emotionally conflicts with the half of her head that is crying enough to flood a canyon. We know the substance of the show is going to come from the interaction between the witch, who seems to unintentionally cause trouble everywhere she goes by failing to properly handle her emotions, and the demon people, who are just living their normal lives.

The fact that the demon guy casually goes back to cleaning tells us he isn't anticipating the witch to cause further trouble, which hints at his emotional ignorance (the characteristic that directly conflicts with the witch's uncontrollable emotions). At the same time, he takes pride in keeping things clean and tidy, which isn't a necessary thing to do, but it doesn't take any extra time to explain, it emphasizes how god damn normal he is, and it makes sure the audience knows damn well that they want to keep watching to find out what happens when the witch runs into this guy's everyday life like a tornado.

Of course, whenever there's trouble in a show, we can expect there to be some sort of resolution. We already have seen the demon guy be blissfully unaware of someone else going through trouble, and we know the witch is dealing with her own stuff. We can assume that the demon guy will become more empathetic while watching (and helping) the witch overcome her personal trauma. This takes care of character, and intercharacter, development. Most of it doesn't need to be explained at all.

Agate throws every piece of that into the audience's face. We need to see the demon people talk amongst themselves about how the top half of a witch's head is flooding Hell, and then explain to the witch later on about how her head is flooding Hell. We need them to tell us that it's crying, while we watch tears roll down its face. We need to watch the witch throw her head into the canyon, and then have her explain that she threw her head in the canyon to the demon guy. We need the scar guy to spell out to us how mistreated he is, while a text box tells us that people are discriminated against because of a scar on their face, right before a flashback shows us him getting the scar on his face. The show doesn't leave much up to interpretation.

END OF SPOILERS!!!!

Everything else about the show is fine. The sound is OK, and I like the stylistic choices they made regarding the animation, it definitely has a charm to it. I was actually really surprised to see the witch's magic; I wasn't expecting that level of detail in a show whose episodes are only 5 minutes long. Overall, it's not a bad show, and I can't help but feel like the language barrier is really hurting the dialog. I want to get a feel for how normal the demon people are, and I want to see the witch's contrasting personality live with them.

My rating of it:
I'm at a 6 because it's not an amazing show, but I've only seen 3 episodes and the episodes are only 5 minutes long. If it gets better, my rating will go up, or if it stays on this track, it might go down to a 4 or a 5. I don't feel like I wasted my time, and I'm willing to see what happens next.