As soon as I got to know that Kunihiko Ikuhara is going to direct this, I got excited for it. Kunihiko Ikuhara is a person who made his name in the industry for his uniqueness in series composition and storytelling which can be seen in his previous works such as Mawaru Penguindrum and Yuri Kuma Arashi.
Sarazanmai is also one of his bizarre works and it has one of those Japanese folklore creatures called "Kappa", an youkai (妖怪). The first kappa introduced in the series is a Kappa prince named "Keppi" whose noble Kappa Kingdom fell to the Otter Empire and now the Kappa prince Keppi has lost much of his power and became helpless against the"Kapa-zombies" whom are invisible to humans, these zombies plague the world, and are the creations of the Otters and manifestations of people's deepest desires.
One day, second-years in middle school Kazuki Yasaka, Toi Kuji, and Enta Jinnai (The three MCs of the show) get to meet Keppi by coincidence, Keppi steals their shirikodama (It translates to "butt-small-ball" it's a an organ that the kappa can extract from the butt of a person) and transforms them into kappas. "To return to your original forms," Keppi tells them, "you must fight the zombies and take the shirikodama from them." According to the legends, the kappa would drown people in the river and then extract their shirikodama. So, you'd see the MCs using the gush of water to finally get shirikodama from the zombies. And all of this might not make sense to many but it's one of it's standing points.
Art and Animation 8/10
The background art was good, character models were somewhat generic but their outfits made them stand out, however the background characters were literally silhouettes which is pretty common in Kunihiko Ikuhara's works. The animation was super fine plus it had all of the characters dancing and singing from here and there.
Can't stop myself from mentioning how the ED was literally one of the most aesthetic EDs I've ever seen! It was done by Tao Tajima, a Japanese filmmaker.
Sound 9/10
The series had 31 OSTs each character having a unique one for itself, didn't like the opening song (Massara by KANA-BOON) as much as I liked the ending song (Stand by me by the peggies) do check it out, it's pretty cool.
Characters 7/10
The series initially introduced 3 MCs: "Kazuki Yasaka", who must carry a box with him wherever he goes; "Enta Jinnai", Kazuki's childhood friend; and "Tooi Kuji", a delinquent and a school truant. Even tho they all have distinct characteristics but they do have something in common such as relations they cherish and want to protect and secrets they want to hide which are revealed throughout the series.
Then we have Keppi, the kappa prince who serves as a mascot. Sara, an idol-like person, loved by many does TV-shows. Haruka, Kazuki's younger brother who loves Sara. The gay police officer dou: Reo and Mabo, the only characters I didn't like in this series. Chikai, Tooi's older brother and somewhat his everything.
Enjoyment 9/10
I enjoyed every bit of it except the sequence where the gay police officer dou would come and dance, it was cringy and unwatchable for me. There were a lot of Japanese puns which I don't understand how they might've pulled in the dub. And it had many cultural Japanese references and references to other anime as well but none of it could stop me from enjoying it, the show deserves more praise for how much of this stuff Kunihiko Ikuhara stuffed in it.
Overall it's a solid 8 from me, only if I could understand all of the the cultural Japanese references and puns, it could've been a masterpiece to me.
