Literally day after finishing Shadar i decided to go back iven further, to the year of Astro Boy, Fall 1963, one of 4 series that have been aired back then, Ookami Shounen Ken (rest 3 will come shortly after this one, I started already infamous Sennin Buraku). But let's comeback to the main title for today. And it's even tougher to review. The anime perfectly shows how our world has changed in last 6 decades. For better or not is up to you. It's tough to review because it was... good. Here's why.
STORY: 6,5
For starters - it's a mix of Tarzan, Jungle Book and some classic african tales. Story bout boy raised by wolves who's fighting evil people and animals and protecting his family, nature and his place. He's accompanied by two small wolves Chi Chi and Po Po during the whole show. Nothing original you may say, yeah, now keep in mind that we're talking bout 56yo anime. It's one of the oldest available online animes u can actually find. And still pretty good. Whole story, plots and main arcs are basically written over 86 25 minutes long episodes. And that's perfect size, not boring and definitely not too long/short. Plots are interesting, funny and educational. Perfect kids anime and great piece of animated history.
ART: 6
Wow, that's high, yeah. Probably even a bit too high, but I don't actually care. This black and white animation is suprisingly smooth, detailed and apart from it's age - suprisingly neat. Backgrounds are decent, character designs great, various and reliable. I loved as well pretty decent location planning and design. Yeah, there's few big flaws, like cutted animations, broken sync, using the same shots few times, but hey, this time I can justify it using it's age.
SOUND: 4,5
Yeah, as u already know, sound mix and editing wasn't the strongest part of animes back then. However I need to say one thing - I LOVETHIS BLOODY OP. Can actually sing it now. The voiceworks are decent however there's constanly visible problems with the voice sync and placing. Music is nice, but quality of the sound is terrible but this time I can at least hear themes. Nothing more to add here.
CHARACTER: 7,5
Strongest part ot the show. The Wolf Boy Ken is a lovely character, brave, smart, very catchy and funny. His helpers, amsll wolves Po Po and Chi Chi are just typical helpers with humour, some decent gags in the back and nice backstory. Rest of the whole family of the wolves are just hilarious, from the old wolf to the one-eye scaring one. All second plan characters are reliable basically, starting from bad white-men, stupid black community (I'll explain that later) on dangerous and lovely animals, both good and evil. Gallery of characters is huge and very nice. Psychology and all of the motives are clear, not complicated and visible. Nothing hidden,. No darkness and shocks.
ENJOYMENT: 6,5
Yeah, I enjoyed it to the point I spend another 32 hours watching the whole series without any rest basically. All 86 episodes in one go. And promised to myself that will finish this kind of watching. Well, I lost. Series is very entertaining, funny and lighthearted. Provides some proper nature-oriented education and teaches bout love and friendships. Didn't even felt that so much time had passed during watching.
OVERALL: 7
Yeah... but... now a bit bout controvery that this title can bring with it nowdays. It's very... racist. Unintentionally and of course nothing wrong, it's mostly the times when it was released. Strong race-fueled conflicts were popular all around the globe. That's why I wrote that above. Black people are mostly treated bit... harshly, sometimes u can even think that they're retarded. And even it's not that common it's still clearly visible and manny today can complain. This is kind of anime that would never came out today, even in Japan. Still great tho.
There's many downs but for every weaker part comes two strong and/or funny ones. There's not much deep or big pacifist speeches, it's just celebration of freedom, love and nature at it's finest.
I loved that much more than expected and hope for more suprises like that. It's after all typical adventure feel-good anime that will make u smile the whole screening.
Great anime 56 years ago remains still pretty good today.
I'll see u on track with another 1960s anime very soon.
