"Janguru wa itsumo hare nochi Guu" (2001) TV series

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Tsutomu Mizushima

Writers:

Kindaichi Renjurou (comic)
Yasuhiro Takemoto (script)

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

3 April 2001 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

Plot:

A jungle boy named Hare becomes a companion of a strange girl named Guu who apparently has a strange world inside of her stomach.

Plot Keywords:

Jungle | Coconut | Fish Out Of Water | Germany | Spoof

Cast

Johnny Yong Bosch

...

Chet (unknown episodes)

Also Known As:

"Hare nochi Guu" (Japan) (short title)
"Hare+Guu" (USA) (video title)
"JungleGuu" (Japan)
"The Jungle Was Nice, Then Came Guu" (International: English title) (informal literal title)

Runtime:

23 min (26 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:TV-PG | South Korea:15

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Quotes:

Hare: Hey, do you wanna go outside?
Guu: [in a monotone] To do what?
Hare: Uh... for a tour of the village!
Guu: Okay, what's a village?
Hare: That's what's around our house!
Guu: Okay, what's a tour?
Hare: That's where I teach you where things are around here!
Guu: Okay, what's "teach"?

Soundtrack:

Love * Tropica'na

Very funny and strange anime

Hale is a normal boy living in a small jungle community with his mother, Weda, and their friends. He does chores, cooks, goes to school, and cares for his mom, who's somewhat of a lush. One night, she comes home with a cute little pink haired girl named Guu, claiming that she's adopted Guu. Hale and her get along fine initially, but the next day, Guu becomes mellow, bitingly cynical, and manipulative (in the most hilarious way possible), constantly putting Hale in situations he'd rather not be in. Did I also mention that she'll eat anything and everything in sight? Like many shows before it, Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, translated to something along the lines of "The Jungle Was Always Nice, then Came Guu," is based around a single character, Guu, and her antics. More accurately, it's about Hale's attempts to control her and keep her weird habits (remember the eating thing?) from being exposed. Guu herself is pretty much a mystery, with no explanation of who she is or where she comes from, she simply becomes a catalyst for everything strange and usually downright hilarious that happens to poor Hale.

However, the other "main" characters of the show are rather well fleshed out, making the show be less of a "Guu-vehicle" and more of a "well-rounded sitcom." Hale himself, being a kid somewhere around the age or 8 or 9, is prone to episodes of melodrama over Guu's actions, but is a goodhearted kid, it's too bad he got stuck with such a psycho. His mom, Weda, is also pretty good-natured, it's too bad she's such a lazy alcoholic. The other characters are fairly two dimensional, one of which is constantly prone to fits of hysterical laughter, or the teacher who is always sleeping, the little girl who has a huge crush on Hale and has a weird melodramatic issue with love, etc etc. However, some of them are just so out there (a nurse of Weda's who has almost a sexual love for her, which includes many, many nosebleeds, as well as severe beatings of her assistant) that one really can't turn their head away.

A lot of the humor is physical slapstick material, usually overanimated to the point of becoming psychotically violent (though in a VERY cartoonish form) and various oddball emotes. It also has a lot of more spoken comedy that ranges from plain silly to subtle to drier than this review. The storyline itself isn't bad, but entirely unnecessary. It's primarily in episodic format, so you can jump in at any time. Honestly, the only reason this review is so dull is that I haven't slept in three days and I haven't seen the show in months, but I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting comedy.