Chi's Sweet Home and Other Short Shorts

Chi is not pleased that I left him out of my first impression posts...

Chi's Sweet Home was actually the first first episode I watched of the Spring season but that was back home when I was still busy freaking out packing to come all the way here and my then stressed anime starved mind needed that 3 minutes of fuzziness that only a show about a kitten could bring. I kind of forgot about it once I arrived here in Osaka though, but after sifting through so many series this season, I think it's about time I watch more of Chi and his fuzzy 'adventures'. It's the perfect way to chill out after a long day of seemingly endless lessons -_-" Seriously, you must be an extreme cat hater to not feel you day brighten up at least a little bit after watching Chi :P He's like a smaller snarkier version of the incredibly adorable Grey from Sketchbook (Another must watch for cat-lovers. Personally, I don't have a preference between cats or dogs. Or kappas =P).

But if cats aren't your thing (or penguins) and and you have like 5 minutes to burn without anything to do or watch, here's a couple of 'short short' titles you could consider:


Kappa no Kaikata or How to Raise a Water Imp is a short short in that each episode is only 4 episodes long but there's 26 of them so you could technically finish the series in under 2 hours of you wanted to. It's about a guy who decides to get a water imp (kappa) as a pet, which may sound bizzare to us since these duck-billed turtle-shelled creatures (remember Pani Poni Dash?) don't actually exist (or do they...?). But in the realm of the show, which is your otherwise average modern-day Japan, they're the new hottest pets since... whatever the last hottest pet in Japan was. Basically it's 26 episodes of 'Watashi's (so ANN refers to him. The main human character doesn't have a name) forays into taking care of his new pet Kaatan, who turns out to be quite a handful (feeding kappas horseradish seems to be a very bad idea...). Other recurring characters include various other kappa owners and their kappas who do pet-owner-like stuff like dress up their kappas in human clothes, take them out for walks/swims, use them as replacement family members, etc.

The show kind of ends on a "uh-oh, this may turn serious" note, but it turns out to be a "eh? that's it?" ending. Still as a whole, Kappa no Kaikata is a fairly entertaining light hearted watch. The stories are fairly episodic save for a few 'story arcs' like the one about the humanoid kappa 'Hercules' who can glare the sh*t out of anyone (lol). And yes, before you ask about the pic, all of the human characters in the show are literally faceless - possibly to put the focus on the kappas instead of their owners. It's an... interesting gimmick to say the least (about as mildly disturbing as blackened out faces in Minami-ke: Okawari), and at any rate a cost saving one (which is probably why it's been employed it in Itazura na Kiss -_-").


Also at 4 minutes per episode (but only 16 of them) is the over the top and slightly NSFW Ippatsu Kiki Musume. The show is about a China musume Kunyan who has a penchant for getting herself into ridiculous life-threatening situations and the absurdly unpractical (though they try to cast it as perfectly feasible) methods that she is forced to employ to escape out of them. Oh, and she is often naked/becomes naked in said situations. For instance the episode where she slips in her bath tub and her hair gets sucked into the drainhole such that her head is stuck underwater and she almost drowns. Or when a conveniently parked truck traps her in a phone booth on a hot sunny day and she is forced to strip to stay alive in the oven-like cramped space. Unorthodox and not really recommended methods of averting disasters from the show include making a tissue paper rope ladder to escape out of a tall building and using a condom water balloon to put out a fire (no joke, there's actually a 'live action' portion in the episode where they demonstrate how to make one, lol).

Of course the show's not meant to be taken seriously at all, and is really quite hilarious in a warped kind of way (the narrator often tries to put real life physics into the equation whenever Kunyan assesses the situation, wtf). The art is crud of course and I'm not sure why they wanted to waste their budget on a blah OP sequence at all, but if you're looking for someone to laugh at/pity for a good hour or so, Kunyan may be a 'safe' bet (warning for partial frontal nudity).

Even in peril out at sea, Misato-bunny (bottom right, voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono) still looks good XD

Now if you have a little more time to spare, like say 12 minutes, there's always Zenryoku Usagi (which I can't believe I'm still pimping out XD). Okay, so it's probably the kiddiest show of the lot ignoring Chi's Sweet Home, but it's still a pretty lulz show with good clean humour (with a slight tendency towards violence XD)... But if you're too busy laughing at bouncy boobies and fox girls (or MAID GUYS. GAR!!) then nevermind...

Bunny-service???

The last title I'd recommend is probably the only actual 'short short'. At only 6 minutes and the one 'episode', Ame to Shoujo to Watashi no Tegami is actually a worthwhile freelance work by an independent CG artist about an aspiring writer who writes a love letter and... Well, saying anymore would spoil things, lol. The art may not be BONES or Madhouse or KyotoAnimation, but for a one person job it looks pretty good and rather funky in a good way, and the story may be short, but still cleverly amusing in its own way. A feel good way to spend 6 minutes if anything =P

Well, that's it for short shorts that I can think of off the top of my head for now. Save for Ippatsu Kiki Musume (which is mostly mindless humour XD), they're all good examples of how a show's entertainment value isn't always in proportion to its running length, and they all make the most of the short time span per episode, which is always preferable to dawdling about for a god part of 24 minutes without getting anywhere (I'm thinking of you... err... can't remember the last show I dropped for being too filler-ish).

Continue reading...

Hide full post

ZENRYOKU USAGI 2: Bunny goes GAR!!!

Hah, this episode seals it, I am SO watching this show to the end, Chinese subs be damned! (Had to watch this episode twice, once to understand the gist of it off from the Japanese, the second time to slowly read the few Chinese characters I could manage to confirm anything I didn't fully understand and had to guess during the first watch. Admittedly I didn't GIVE IT ALL I GOT since I was too lazy to grab my Chinese dictionary, but I assume I managed well enough) =P


Zenryoku Usagi is obviously my current 'innocent pleasure' of the season (which offsets the fetish-fest that is KimiAru =P), and this episode shows that the show manages to pull off simple humour with the characters' worksite interactions. Like Misato-bunny above, I'm already quite smitten with little Minarai's klutzy/moe-emanating antics, but the LOL factor in this episode is watching Minarai go GAR when provoked! Well, considering who the show is aimed at, I doubt it's a performance that would qualify him for the next SaiGar tournament (but it would be absolutely WTFBBQ if Minarai actually got nominated XD).

"Vote for me WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT!!!"

Short summary: Basically tough-chick bunny (Ojou) gets tired of Minarai getting off easy at work using his moe-waves, so she teams up with the foreman bunny to try to crack the little guy and toughen him up. The megane-bunny screws up the number of lunch bentous for the crew by one (this I guessed off the subs, someone correct me if I'm wrong), which leaves poor Minarai hungry ;( Megane-bunny offers Minarai his own bentou out of guilt, but the foreman bunny steps in and takes it for himself instead... Which almost cracks the little guy up, but he maintains his "pity me" state. Megane-bunny sees a bond with Minarai, both of them feeding off the bottom of the GAR-scale at work.

Foreman bunny quickly surmises that lack of food should be the right trigger for their plan, so while Minarai partakes in beardy-bunny's bentou, Ojou snatches the food from the hungry little bunny, which finally cracks the kid and unleashes GAR-Minarai. After flaming up for a while, which impresses foreman-bunny and Ojou, Minarai goes back to normal work mode, only to be told by beardy-bunny that if he worked any slower he'd have to deduct his pay (I think). With horror, Minarai realizes that less pay equals less food (a thought process I can easily relate too :P), so he goes back into GAR-mode again...

"Kids, don't try this at work..."

In the end, the worker bunnies are impressed by how GAR Minarai has become (except poor megane-bunny who feels he's lost a comrade, aww... Maybe all he really needs are some marker eyebrows, lol). Ojou even lends him a waterproof marker when it starts to rain ('cos you can't stay GAR without some GAR-brows!).
However, there seemed to be one more little problem at the end of the episode. Unfortunately, my noobness caught up there, so my best educated guess is that despite all of Minarai's GAR work, he had neglected to follow the plans and was digging up the wrong place or something to that effect (if someone has watched the episode and could follow exactly what went on, it would be a great help if you confirmed/disconfirmed this :P).

Definitely will continue following the series, with any luck it might improve both my Japanese comprehension and sorely lacking Chinese reading ability XD.

Continue reading...

Hide full post

So today I watched... ZENRYOKU USAGI 1

Ever wondered what Animal Yokocho (Animal Alley) really looks like behind that trapdoor? Unfortunately I have no idea whether or not this is revealed later in the series since I've no means of watching it thus far :(


Well, whatever it is, there's a good chance these guys here were the ones responsible in constructing/deconstructing/reconstructing the place (And you wonder why in Animal Yokocho Iyo, Issa, and Kenta spend so much time in Ami's room? Besides to torment the girl, of course). Zenryoku Usagi (Give It All Rabbits), this season's offer to the kiddies (and the kiddy-at-heart-otakus *ahem*) is a show about bunnies GIVING IT ALL THEY'VE GOT in construction work. And GIVE IT ALL THEY'VE GOT is what they do, be it their morning dance/warm-up routine, the construction work - or the inevitable deconstruction and reconstruction that follow.

They're even asked to GIVE IT ALL THEY'VE GOT when they're pissed at one another and have to bust each other up on the site! This being a kid's show after all, they naturally have to make up afterwards WITH ALL THEY'VE GOT as well.

Our main bunny is the spunky but fragile Minarai, who doesn't leave for the worksite without his trusty pen marker-ed eyebrows (LOL!). He tries to GIVE IT ALL HE'S GOT on the worksite, but most of the tasks prove too difficult for him, so he usually ends up emitting moe-waves when he's distressed(double LOL).
The other bunnies on site include the old geezer bunny who's constantly telling everyone to (you guessed it) "GIVE IT ALL YOU'VE GOT", the foreman who's tough on the outside but a mommy's boy at heart, the tough-girl bunny, the lovesick nee-san bunny (voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono, which makes her the Misato bunny =P) and the Kouki Miyata megane bunny (which concludes today's 'spot' the seiyuu game). They're all in the first pic of the post and should be easily recognized, otherwise you can read usagijen's post =P.

There's also this guy here who may or may not be an actual bunny considering that he(?) has jet propulsion and the ability to multiply itself at will. It'll be awesome too he shoots beams out of his ears as well =P
So yea, Zenryoku Usagi may not be on the typical healthy 18 going on 19 year old's viewing diet... At a glance the show's 'kiddiness' is probably on par with Animal Yokocho, and it also begs the question of whether or not kids in Japan actually watch series like these considering the jokes are probably a tier higher than you're average episode of Doraemon/Shin-chan (Would they actually follow Misato bunny's cement mixing love rant this episode? 'Twas pretty WTF). But I'm obviously a fan of all things zany and at least a little off the beaten track, so what the heck =P

Zenryoku Usagi may lack the awesome punnage and unpredictability level of Animal Yokocho, but it's still a bundle of good 'clean' fun, and I just can't help thinking that every one of the Give It All Bunnies has a part of their bunny cousin Iyo from Animal Lane in them. XD (Though on second thought this show reminds me more of Sweet Valerian than AniYoko... yet another reference that will probably earn me very strange looks =P). And what with my relatively light watchlist right now, the only thing stopping me from following this show is my combined noob-ness in listening to raw Japanese and reading Chinese subtitles! No worries, so long as they don't pull out any fancy puns, I'll just have to...

GIVE IT ALL I'VE GOT for now (=P *dodges smelly fruit*)

Continue reading...

Hide full post