Anime: Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu

There is always at least one character in each Anime you watch that's completely annoying. Down to the bones. But none of them is as fun as Guu.

Animation
Quite good. I' not talking about the Naruto Shippuuden-level but as this series was realized in 2001 it has much smoother animations and much more interesting camera angles than most others at that time.
The background images are a little bit more out-of-a-sketchbook than the foreground ones.
The only thing I saw (or not saw) that didn't meet my expectation of a good Anime was shadows. Sure, in the ground and in specialy lit scenes you can see them, but in standard scenes most of the objects (that are not in the background image) and the characters seem not to have shadow.
But apart from that Animation and Character Motions are good.

Sound
The opening song "Love Tropicana" has become a real earworm. Even though I don't remember the lyrics well I sometimes catch myself singing "love love Turopicaanaaaa....". Combined with the opening animation this song really catches the overall mood of the series.
The normal background music is mostly happy but not very outstanding.
The ending song feels like relaxing after a hard days work and provides a harmonious end the each episode.
Voice acting is good. With exception of the main characters Hale and (especially) Guu whose performance I find very good. Hale (whose voice actress, Watanabe Naoko, also performed the role of Miyu in the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA or Puerth in Dragon Ball) as a 10-year old, always nervous is believable. So is Guu (voice actress Aikawa Rikako also did Tanaka Gen in Black Heaven or Kakimoto Nobue in Paprika).

Story
Most of the story unfolds in an unknown jungle filled with fantasy creatures (like the holy and tasty Pokute). In a small village Hale lives with his mother Weda. One day his mother returns from a village feast in the company of a cute and shy little girl who calls herself "Guu". Next morning Hale wakes up and finds that Guu... well, has slightly changed. She's neither cute nor shy of anything, does what she wants and spares noone with her merciless sarcasm. From this day on Hale won't have a minute to feel save as Guu continues to wreak havoc in his live and makes it a living hell.

Character
Main character Hale is ten years old, a single child and kind of the household maker as his mother doesn't care about doing that. Since Guus appearance his life changed into distress without end. He thinks of it as his duty to protect other people from Guus mischief.
Guu is a mysterious being. Quite plain in appearance she can change her mimic from extremely bored to happy-go-lucky in a more-than-human way. She also has the ability to swallow each and everything and in fact in (one of) her stomach there is a world filled with crazy creatures and objects. Even some people have made it their new living space. She can do every magic you can think of and always uses it to annoy Hale a bit more.
Weda is Hales mother and she likes alcohol. She originates from a more civilized and high-standing place somewhere in what is simply refered to "the city". She is very outgoing and likes to take her clothes off... well, it can be veeery warm in a jungle.
The characters are all interesting, individual and well performed (but just too many to explain each and every one of them).

Value
This is another series which you should only watch when you're only looking for a good laugh. There are no important messages, great feelings or sad tragedies in this one. It's just everyday life in a jungle warped into a comedy with a shot of fantasy.

Enjoyment
Funny, lough-out-loud, crazy if not impossible ideas around every corner and in the center the almighty Guu like the eye of a hurricane. If you don't enjoy this you've got no humor.

Hare nochi Guu is one of the better comedies out there. If you're into anime enough to know about it, you've probably already seen the better ones.

Animation:
The animation quality is subpar. This is somewhat mitigated by an art an design style that does a good job of matching the tone, but it still doesn't look that good.

Sound:
Good voice acting, and the opening is one of the best things ever (or would be if it wasn't so poorly animated).

Story:
Most of the problem with Hare nochi Guu's story is that it exists. Towards the end, a serious story suddenly interjects itself into what had previously been an episodic comedy, quickly followed by a setting change. The story is less than stellar, and it's especially annoying in light of what it's getting in the way of (aforementioned episodic comedy).

Character:
Most of the characters do a good job of being funny. The problem is that the story-specific characters aren't particularly funny or interesting.

Overall
One of the weirdest and funniest anime I've seen. Seriously, don't waste your time watching azumanga daioh watch this first.

Animation
I love the animation especially the opening sequences which looks lively and fun.

Sound
I love the opening which is so catchy as well as the ending. The BMG was memorable and the seiyuus did such a great job especially the seiyuu that did GUU. The voice fit the characters perfectly.

Story
There wasn't much of a plot, there was somewhat of a plot towards the end. But it's fine since it is a comedy after all.

IT was a bit slow at first but once it got started it's pretty addicting.

This anime is very funny and has some of the most insane plots coming out of nowhere.

Character
Guu is one of my favorite characters ever and just one of the most insane ones I've encountered.

Hale is really crazy and stressed all the time.
His mom is weird also. Of course Hale's dad is even more interesting but I can't tell who he is. you gotta watch to find out.

Pretty much all the characters are all different and quite weird.

Value
This is must-see for anyone who wants to see anything extraordinarily weird or funny.

(This review sort of goes for the OVAs as well)

First off, I want to say that this is a very very good series. I was a bit hesitant to watch this because of the weird looking animation and characters, but you will grow to love both. I can't think of a person who won't enjoy this, unless maybe you hate comedies then you should stay away from this. This show can easily be compared to School Rumble and Excel Saga. Its just that good.

I am writing this after watching this show for the second time, and it only got better. Jungle wa is original in both humor and story. Its quite a shame that only 2 groups picked up on this anime. You can find this series on boxtorrents.com though, thats were I got my version. I will definitely try to buy this if they have an American release. I would also advise to download the OVAs because they finish the story. This series is definitely something that you cry will on when over, because you simply want it to continue.

Animation/Sound

I can't honestly think of many moment where the animation failed. They might have used a few repeat frames, but that was only due to the series being a comedy. There are times where they overdo it, but most of the time it was just right. The colors were bright which suited the whole jungle comedy theme. Facial expression were simple, but classically memorable and funny as well. I could see that there was quite a bit of effort in the animation because it was sharp and a lot of characters were nicely shaded and colored, with the exception of Guu. (I am not by any means giving it a 9 to keep the score up like some reviewers usually do, which really pisses me off.)

The sound had some real good background music. When the events were dramatic you could hear pro dramatic music, and when the main character was hallucinating there was a song for that too. In general the all the sounds were mixed in well with the events. Some effects and songs even made the show funnier. However, I lowered the score because I felt that Hale's (main character's) overreactions went to far at times. That made it annoying (though it didn't really bother me, it might bother others).

Story/Characters

The story was a pretty dramatic one despite this being a comedy. In fact, it was like School Rumble in this aspect. It was a funny as hell comedy with some drama breaks. Overall I thought the plot was interesting, but it could be a little to basic for some people who are anal about story. It was never meant to be engrossing, but it certainly delivers. The show starts of with Weda as a child (Hale's mom) pregnant leaving with a suitcase. The intro starts, and next scene we see Hale playing a video game; after a hilarious scene we see Weda again who is now Hale's. Later that night Weda is drunk and brings a girl named Guu home. Guu was a cute looking girl about Hale's age, and Hale is excited but a bit surprised. The next morning something goes terribly wrong, and Guu is no longer the girl she seemed to be the day before. What could have happened? (lol)

The characters were genius for the most part. I can point out some that weren't really necessary and sucked, but the series never focused on them so I have no complaints. The series strictly focuses of Guu and Hale for 70% of the show. The other 25% were Hale's mother and father (which is funny as hell, and also extremely interesting). The remaining 5% shows some of the other characters, who are mainly used for humor because of there weird yet funny personalities.

Hale was a 11 year-old boy was always worried and very kind hearted. He wants to make everyone happy and really cares about how others feel, so basically he isn't an asshole and is the polar opposite of Guu. His mother is a drunk and is good for nothing,(that's what the series makes us think at the beginning) but when she gets serious barely anyone could stop her. Hale's personality is perfect for this series because of the way he interacts with Guu. He wants everyone to be happy and has his own naive childish ideals, and this lets Guu mess with him all she wants. He develops quite a lot and really learns to deal with Guu (though some episodes toward the end seems to show otherwise, and make you wonder). At times he does overreact and develops some serious paranoia; that can be annoying..

Guu is the infamous girl that is the source of all the problems for Hale (her origin is unknown throughout the whole series btw). One day Weda brings her home and told Hale she had no parents and that she will take care of her. Mitsuki from He is My Master is a good comparison to Guu, only she is much much worse and on a much larger scale. I found Guu insanely interesting and she one of the main reasons I gave the character rating a 10. She isn't human and surpasses all physical laws. She apparently has a whole different world inside of her stomach and she can do about anything she pleases. She pretty much cares for nothing, but does show an interesting attachment to Hale. It sometimes seems like she cares for him, but at times it seems like she only wants to use him for entertainment.

Value/Enjoyment

Nothing to say besides: watch this and enjoy it. If you like comedies your pretty much a fool to miss out on such a great show. Only about 1-3 episodes didn't have the quality the entire series had, but rest assured even they are good and funny. The value can't be lower then ten because Jungle wa Itsumo definitely achieves a certain greatness and originality, and a humor rarely felt. This show definitely belongs up there with all the first tier animes such as School Rumble, Excel Saga, Fumuffo, and He is My Master. Though it probably beats them all with the exception of SR which is a close match.

Oh and don't forget to watch the OVAs. Hope you enjoy this show.

When considering which words would cover this series as a whole these pop up in my head :
Hilarious, Mad, Manipulative, Illusive, Bizzare, Horror.

Animaton 9 :
Everything flows very well. The art is good and the animation fits the genre. The lines are soft and the background suits the title well. The animation and interaction of Guu and Hale is unique and very well done, Guu wiggling all over the place while Hale screams for her to stop also adds a certain sense of crazyness to the anime.
The expressions of the characters are suberb. You can really feel and see hale's horror written on his face at certain situations when guu is up to no good. Or guu's face turning into a malicious looking grin that really makes Hale nervous. ^_^

Sound 10 :
First of all I like the op. It suits the anime very well with it's wackyness, and the bouncing trees 'n stuff adds to the bizzareness. The ost is also hilarious and really crazy (think fushigi na jungle). The ambient and background sounds arent bad either.
The soundtrack when going "into" guu is also very wacky and adds to that extremely weird world "in there" as well.
The seiyu does a good job imo. guu really sound malicous when she's acting malicious and kawaii when she's kawaii. Hale's voice is excellent as well even though he screams a little too much ^_^;
I dont have any problems with the voices for any char in this anime so I guess that's good :)


Story 8 :
The plot/story is in 2nd row when considering the driving force of the anime. The main plot revoles around hale's mother (we see a clip of her leaving someplace at the start). In a story sense guu is only a supporting character. She doesnt really add to the "main story" at all.
I gave it 8 because the story isnt really an important part of the anime.

Character 10 :
There's a lot of interesting characters and almost all of them develop during the series (even the supporting characters). Each one is uniuque and adds to the anime in their own sense (like a teacher who sleeps all the time).

Hale is the main character. He's a what.. 9-10? year old boy who lives alone with his mother. He never even saw or know anything about his father.
He likes video games.
He does all the house chores due to his mother either getting drunk or lying around relaxing somewhere. His personality is not really simple to explain imo, He's constantly worried about guu causing harm or worse. He gets easily paranoid and takes too much responsibility on himself, Which allows guu to drive him crazy.

Hale's mother Weda is a very hot fine young woman (and she knows it!) who likes to hunt for food, getting drunk, and just loafing around. She cares a great deal about Hale and shows it quite often. She doesnt mind walking around in not too many clothes giving us fans some of the service we want. ( ;) @ kamenoko) She's (like every other character expect hale and a few others) obliviuos to guu's weird acts and treats guu like a daughter.

Then there's Guu.
She's the most special char i've seen yet in anime. She's almost impossible to describe due to the fact that it'd be spoiling too much, and I bet the impression of guu changes from person to person.. You're going to have to watch it to understand her character (if that's even possible!)

Value 10 :
This is an anime I'd watch myself even in a good couple of years from now to get a good laugh.

Enjoyment 10 :
I was almonst constantly laughing all the time.
Being a humor anime that's what counts.

This anime is very unique.
To me, it's a nice twist of originality in a time of look-a-likes and overused genres.
The things that make it so unique is the characters and especially Guu (the main girl character). Never before have i seen such a malicious, deceptive, bizzare and evil plotting girl. It's like she's made to make Hale, who's the main character, suffer and get nervous.

An example of deception would be the very first time guu is introduced :
Hale's mother just tells hale that guu had lost her parents and were going to stay with them. Hale, thinking guu was cute (and she was!) didnt mind at all. This was where I thought ; "cool! some kids romace would be nice". But the next morning we find guu with her trademark look on her face. She looks like most anime chars do when they are suspicious, instead of round eyes they are cut off to the half with their eyes trailing under that line. In this form guu's eyes are black and small while they are red big and round when she's in "kawaii-mode")

This anime requires a special kind of humor and I bet some people would dislike it... But I like like it for one.