Nezumi Monogatari: George to Gerald no Bouken

Nezumi Monogatari is a story about two rival mice that live in a large house with a whole bunch of other mice. These two mice both have there good points and bad points which makes it difficuly for the Elder to choose which one is to become his successor, he sends them on a quest to find and capture the Dragon of Light and so they set out on a journey with a couple of close companions as they face various challenges and new friends along their road.

It appears to be set in a fantasy land but being 50 minutes long it never goes into detail about anything, mice and other animals are able to talk but any form of animal playing the antagonizing role is seen more of a beast and never speaks. The majority is set in the forest and our characters come across various obsticles including poisonous berries, an owl and a weasel.

It is very much a power of friendship show and goes with the ‘with teamwork anything can be accomplished’ and is the morale of the story.

The art is very beutiful, every scene is like a painting, the detail they put in everything espeicially the foliage as it is the main focus and thus we are treated to a richness of greens and browns. The characters being mice are a little caricature to give them personality and distinguished from all other mice and even in the large group everyone is individual and not all exactly drawn alike, they even where hats and do give a Cinderella mice feeling since they live in the attic of a large house.

Sound is great and fits well with the shows feeling and setting, background music changes from soft sounds when nothing in particular is happening to a fast paced sharpe tune for fight and chase scenes, each time adding something to that scene. Ending credit song is a lovely song to listen to and ends the show spectalually. Voice actors were great, i think the majority of the main cast were live action actors rather than specifically Anime voice actors but they made each character their own and pulled it off well.

Gerald is one of the main rival pair and personality wise is the heroic brave one that boasts his achievments, though he is always willing to help his rival when in trouble. George the other rival mouse is a friendly and kind type who always puts his friends first but during times of need can be brave. Chamberlain, Walter and Marie Lu all add to the cast as companions, chamberlain is the do everything for Gerald, Walter is the fat one and Marie Lu is the ratty snob in which George and Geral fight over. The old man Alex mouse gets them to do a lot of menial tasks such as fetching herbs and grapes but it really sets them up for their teamwork to grow.

Art and animation is the biggest draw here, they were able to add it really well making this 50 minutes really enjoyable with a cast of lovable characters and with it having a morale of friendship and teamwork. The only thing missing that would have been nice was a short epilogue but even without it it is still great.

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