First off if you particularly like tsukkomi/boke comedy stop reading and just go and watch this show, a huge amount of the comedy is based on this. For anybody you can recognise a bit of Japanese you'll notice about a fifth of Hare's sentences end with a variation of tsukkomu (most subbers translate this as something like 'jab'). If you have no idea what I was talking about for the past two sentences keep reading…..
Story
Plot development really takes a back seat in the anime. From what I understand there is more in the manga, but this is a review for the anime. To be fair this doesn’t really make much difference, you’ll be watching this for the comedy and not the story. There is some progression but any attempt at seriousness invariably falls flat, you will just be left hanging on a retort from Hare or Guu eating people whole in the background, which brings me to the one of the best parts of this anime…..
Character
As there isn’t a huge amount of story there isn’t a lot of character depth, however this is more than made up with by the character diversity. There are a lot of characters, and they’re all insane…..
Firstly Guu who is…Guu, her character is never explained, what you see at the beginning is what you’ll know by the end. She basically exists to put Hare in ridiculous situations, and then proceeds to break him in to little pieces….and then put the little pieces in a shredder…then sets them on fire. Godly powers abound she is comedy central for this show, even when she’s not stage front she’ll be dancing/swallowing/pick verb of choice in the background. You will also never see her walk normally for the entire show, odd point but always funny.
Other characters includes a lovesick (hilariously possessive in later seasons) Mari, drunken mother, playboy (sort of) father, demon barber, eternally laughing boy, chest hair (let’s say manly) village chief…..with more to come through the series. There are even some brilliant in-universe creatures introduced from the first episode that thereafter provide background jokes for the rest of the season.
Art
Considering this was made in the yonder year of 2000 (well that was ten years ago) the art is really quite impressive. It won’t be anything to blow your mind away after the recent HD feasts we’ve been provided with, but it doesn’t let itself down either. The characters are nicely expressed, background scenery isn’t too bad….etc… should however point out that it’s just as crazy as the comedy in this show, the only thing I can really think to compare it to are some of the old Gainax OVAs (FLCL, Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai)
Sound
Well I watched this is in Japanese, and unfortunately the seiyuu cast does let the show down a bit here. You will get used to it after a while but some of characters (I think it was Mari I was really put off with at first) aren’t particularly well acted. Watanabe Naoko does a brilliant job with Guu and Aikawa Rikako doesn’t go wrong with Hare, but beyond that no one is going to stick out and some may even annoy.
I also tend to like shows more for good opening/ending songs which this show doesn’t particularly have. You’ll listen to each a couple of times then start skipping. For anyone who watches in to the second and third seasons these have really good ending themes, but not much stands out in the first.
Overall
So some semblance of a conclusion: you will mostly be watching this for the comedy, which will largely influence your enjoyment of the show. I mentioned in the art section that it was somewhat similar to the old Gainax OVAs, in fact this doesn’t stop at the art. I’d recommend this show if you liked FLCL, the craziness level is nearly up there (well it’s not as crazy as FLCL that’s impossible), it is however geared for a slightly younger demographic and the story is nowhere near as good.
Overall if you’re looking for a bit of craziness, something to give you a giggle give this a watch. It’s largely episodic so you can come and go from the show, in fact you may need to in order to prevent brain implosion.
I think that’s about everything, feedback appreciated, good or bad, especially seeing as this is my first review (really didn’t think it would be for this show but what the hey)
Enjoy
