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Title (English) Jungle is Always Fine Occasionally Guu

Title (Japanese) Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu

Advertising
Fantasy Novel

Notes "The Jungle was great, but then came Guu"
Creator: Kindaich Renzyurou (manga)

Classification -

Synopsis Hare Nochi Guu is the story of 10 year old Hare who lives with his 25 year old mom in a very strange, almost Dali-esque jungle, where there are strange small animals that look like walking 4 fingered gloves, and rice balls with faces that grow on small plants ( both of which are used for food ). There are loud speakers in the jungle which announce the goings on of the occupants of the jungle, who make up a loose sort of village. There is a large, mainly empty school, where Hare and the other few students of all grades sit together in one classroom. Their young teacher likes to sleep a lot, so he usually comes in and announces an immediate nap time.
Hare's mom, who like most of the women in the show is a babe, wanders around in a small tube top and shorts all the time, likes to sleep all day, drink lots of beer and likes to party all night. Hare is none-the-less devoted to his Mom. The opening of the series showed a much younger and pregnant Mom leaving a mansion in the twilight, dragging a suitcase with her. So Hare is illegitimate and his Mom has not married. We find out within a few episodes who Hare's father is it is the pervert school doctor who spends his days reading porn in his office. Once Hare's mom finds out that the father of her child is working in her sons school, she is happy to introduce Hare to him, but otherwise neither Hare's mom nor the pervert doctor are interested in getting together, other than to occasionally share a couple of beers.
Into this odd setting comes Guu, a pretty little girl who is Hare's age. Hare's mom brings Guu home one day and tells Hare that Guu will be living with them in their grass hut. Hare is at first overjoyed to have the smiling and sweet Guu as a playmate. But the next morning, Guu looks like death warmed over, with a totally expressionless face and a grating voice. Hare can't believe she is the same person, but Guu turns on her sweet little girl face for a moment to show him, then reverts to what turns out to be her more normal self. Hare is horrified by this, but neither his mother, nor anyone else is particularly bothered by Guu. So what we get set up is a classic comedy routine, with Hare playing the harried straight man and Guu playing the unrecognized joker. And Guu certainly is a joker Hare recognizes this right off the bat and starts to refer to Guu as a trouble maker, and sure enough, Guu causes all sorts of trouble quite gleefully, and gets away scott free every time.

Review Whoa - those guys at Enix have obviously been drinking some really strong sake! I just watched the first episode of the new TV Tokyo anime "Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Mochi Guu" ( which Kaicho of "Anihabara" translates as "Jungle is Always Fine, Occasionally Guu" ) and it is the most "WTF" show I've seen since "Super Milk-chan" was on the air a year or so ago. From the ads, "Jungle Guu" appears to be running in the manga, "Gan Gan Comics". It is on at 6 PM on Tuesdays and from the ads it appears to be aimed at pre-teens, but I tell you, any kids who watch too many episodes of this series are going to become extraordinarily twisted.
What's it about? Damn good question. Let me describe the start -
A girl walks quickly down a deserted roadway in gloomy light, trees lining both sides of the road. Thunder rumbles in the background as ominous music plays. The girl looks back at a gothic mansion in the distance in which an indistinct figure stands in a window. By this point I'm expecting something to come out and eat the girl at any moment, then the opening music comes on.
Huh! It's a garish, deliberately flat, animated opening with a loud and lively calypso song playing. Various characters, including the girl from the opening are dancing and singing in super-deformed mode. We've suddenly jumped from "Jane Eyre" to "Dr. Slump" in mood and tone.
Then we switch to the actual show, in which a blue haired boy ( who looks like the girl from the opening ) is sitting on the floor playing a video game. The game appears to be a typical dungeon crawl sort of game - three characters with character stats sitting overhead are facing a huge dragon monster. The three characters futilely attack the monster with their swords. The dragon pulls out a big machine gun and blasts the characters, killing one. The remaining two characters again attack futilely. The dragon pulls out a big honkin' missile launcher and blasts the two characters again, resulting in another one dying. The last character sprinkles some magic dust upon himself and regains his strength points, at which point the dragon bashes him over the head with a folded Japanese fan.
A voice calls out to the blue-haired boy at this point and it turns out that the girl from the opening scene is his mother. Harry, the boy, and his mom, are sitting in a hut in a totally twisted jungle that makes Penguin Village in "Dr. Slump" seem like a Norman Rockwell village. The mom hits the reset button and sends Harry out to get 10 bananas for dinner.
While Harry is out picking bananas, he is first accosted by two almost indescribable "things" - I can only compare them to the old 1930's Disney routine of having four-fingered white gloves dancing around on two fingers while waving the other two fingers in the air like antennas, while alternately smiling and sneering at Harry. The sky darkens and Harry sees an enormous black version of the "gloves" come up after him, and runs home.
Harry's mom goes out afterwards and leaves Harry to struggle with his own imagination. When Mom comes home, she is a bit drunk, and has brought with her a pretty little pink-haired girl who she introduces as Guu. Harry is entranced by Guu, and happily plays with her for the rest of the evening. Harry's mom says that Guu has no parents, so she will be living with them. The next morning, however, when Harry sees Guu, he doesn't recognize her - she now looks like "death warmed over", but he is stuck with her as his mom goes off to work ( dressed in her tiger-striped tube top and grass skirt ).
Guu starts to act even stranger than she looks, although she can put that "cute smiley face" back on if she wants, but Harry now finds this even stranger and less appealing. Then, after Guu eats Harry's favorite wild bird, Harry tries to show Guu his video game, but he instead finds himself inside an even stranger world ( think Salvador Dali ). Various characters in this world tell Harry that they are actually inside of Guu, and Harry suddenly wakes up to find Guu motionless on the floor, with the scenes from Harry's vision playing on her eyes, characters and all.
As luck would have it, TV Tokyo doesn't have a page on this show yet, so I can't find any more info on it at the moment. If anyone has any leads to pages on either the manga or the anime, I would really like to find out more. As is, if you want to get an idea of the character design on the main characters, the one page I have found is
http://www.ceres.dti.ne.jp/~hso/CG/MIZ100.JPG
(Dave Baranyi)
Even more whacked-out than Sister Princess, this dadaist dream is almost indescribable in its strangeness. Its about a group of people who live in a jungle that is straight out of Salvador Dalis worst nightmares. The main characters are Hare, a young boy and his very unwanted friend, Guu, who is the nastiest little thing youve ever seen outside of a corporate board of directors. The show is non-stop madness done in a classic comedic style wherein only Hare realizes what Guu is really like and no one else believes him. Rating absolutely must see but don't expect much coherence or character development.
Warning - plot spoilers!
Hare desperately wants to have something of a normal home life. Unfortunately for him, his Mom, while being nice and loving him, is anything but a normal mother. To an extent Hares Mom is sort of like a typical teen-aged heroine grown up but not changed. She usually doesnt cook, because she really cant. The few times we see her attempt to cook something for Hare, she ends up with both hands heavily bandaged and all sort of damage done to the kitchen. Hare is no more successful in finding a father in his Dad. In the episode where Hare finds out who is his father, Guu mercilessly bugs Hare that his father is really one of the 4 finger glove animals. Hare is shocked that the pervert doctor is his father, but although Hare wants to make a go of it with his Dad, the doctor doesnt care and really doesnt have any clue anyway. For example, on Hares birthday, his Dad gives him a porno mag. Hare ( who is a bit of a prude, even for his age ) is embarrassed and outraged.
One of the more interesting aspects of Hare Nochi Guu is the time slot and intended audience for this series. Hare Nochi Guu is neither a late night nor a satellite channel show. TV Tokyo has it on at 6:00PM on Tuesdays, right in the middle of the supper time anime shows. The TV series is based upon a manga series which is currently running in Shounen GunGun, which is aimed at pre-teen boys. And some of the TV ads during Hare Nochi Guu are obviously aimed at younger kids. To give you an even further idea of how different the expectations of the audiences are in Japan, let me give another example from a recent episode that revolved a lot around Hares Dad.
One of the teenaged students comes to class one morning with his bleached hair half grown out and looking really bad. Everyone wants to ask him about it, but they are afraid that he will get mad. Eventually Guu sets Hare up so that he has to ask. Of course, the teen does get mad and is about to beat up Hare, but he is distracted by the arrival of his grandmother. Grandma is tall, gray haired, wrinkled, wearing glasses and senile. She is looking for her late husband and mistakes Hares Dad for him. This starts a chase which carries on throughout most of the episode.
That evening Hares Dad hides out in Hares house Hare, who usually sleeps in the same bed with his Mom, finds himself stuck between his Mom and Dad. His Dad starts to have a dream he is the big bad wolf and Hares Mom is granny. But when he goes into grannys room, Grandma pops up to his horror. The next scene in the dream, we see Grandma sitting up in bed, wearing a night gown through which we can see her drooping breasts, with a satisfied smile on her face. Dad, in the meanwhile, is laying next to her, curled almost into a fetal ball, quivering and moaning in misery. Hares Dad awakens from that nightmare to find himself safe, but later on is betrayed by Guu to the Grandma.
At this point, since Hare Nochi Guu is still continuing, as is the manga, I really have no idea where the relationships in it will end up. Will Hares parents grow up any and become more responsible? Right now Hare has to be the responsible one in his family. What about Hare will he start to discover love? One thing I am pretty certain about at this stage of the series is that I doubt that we will see any sort of romance between Hare and Guu. The episode where Hares mother is missing in the woods suggested very strongly that Guu is not at all what we or Hare think she is and essentially rules out romance.
Dave Baranyi

Credits

Episodes

Release

TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.

Date 2001 April 3 -

Production Shin'ei Doga

Broadcaster

Animation

References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

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Information
Title (English)	Jungle is Always Fine Occasionally Guu
Title (Japanese)	Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu
Advertising Fantasy Novel
Notes	"The Jungle was great, but then came Guu" Creator: Kindaich Renzyurou (manga)
Classification	-
Synopsis	Hare Nochi Guu is the story of 10 year old Hare who lives with his 25 year old mom in a very strange, almost Dali-esque jungle, where there are strange small animals that look like walking 4 fingered gloves, and rice balls with faces that grow on small plants ( both of which are used for food ). There are loud speakers in the jungle which announce the goings on of the occupants of the jungle, who make up a loose sort of village. There is a large, mainly empty school, where Hare and the other few students of all grades sit together in one classroom. Their young teacher likes to sleep a lot, so he usually comes in and announces an immediate nap time. Hare's mom, who like most of the women in the show is a babe, wanders around in a small tube top and shorts all the time, likes to sleep all day, drink lots of beer and likes to party all night. Hare is none-the-less devoted to his Mom. The opening of the series showed a much younger and pregnant Mom leaving a mansion in the twilight, dragging a suitcase with her. So Hare is illegitimate and his Mom has not married. We find out within a few episodes who Hare's father is it is the pervert school doctor who spends his days reading porn in his office. Once Hare's mom finds out that the father of her child is working in her sons school, she is happy to introduce Hare to him, but otherwise neither Hare's mom nor the pervert doctor are interested in getting together, other than to occasionally share a couple of beers. Into this odd setting comes Guu, a pretty little girl who is Hare's age. Hare's mom brings Guu home one day and tells Hare that Guu will be living with them in their grass hut. Hare is at first overjoyed to have the smiling and sweet Guu as a playmate. But the next morning, Guu looks like death warmed over, with a totally expressionless face and a grating voice. Hare can't believe she is the same person, but Guu turns on her sweet little girl face for a moment to show him, then reverts to what turns out to be her more normal self. Hare is horrified by this, but neither his mother, nor anyone else is particularly bothered by Guu. So what we get set up is a classic comedy routine, with Hare playing the harried straight man and Guu playing the unrecognized joker. And Guu certainly is a joker Hare recognizes this right off the bat and starts to refer to Guu as a trouble maker, and sure enough, Guu causes all sorts of trouble quite gleefully, and gets away scott free every time.
Review	Whoa - those guys at Enix have obviously been drinking some really strong sake! I just watched the first episode of the new TV Tokyo anime "Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Mochi Guu" ( which Kaicho of "Anihabara" translates as "Jungle is Always Fine, Occasionally Guu" ) and it is the most "WTF" show I've seen since "Super Milk-chan" was on the air a year or so ago. From the ads, "Jungle Guu" appears to be running in the manga, "Gan Gan Comics". It is on at 6 PM on Tuesdays and from the ads it appears to be aimed at pre-teens, but I tell you, any kids who watch too many episodes of this series are going to become extraordinarily twisted. What's it about? Damn good question. Let me describe the start - A girl walks quickly down a deserted roadway in gloomy light, trees lining both sides of the road. Thunder rumbles in the background as ominous music plays. The girl looks back at a gothic mansion in the distance in which an indistinct figure stands in a window. By this point I'm expecting something to come out and eat the girl at any moment, then the opening music comes on. Huh! It's a garish, deliberately flat, animated opening with a loud and lively calypso song playing. Various characters, including the girl from the opening are dancing and singing in super-deformed mode. We've suddenly jumped from "Jane Eyre" to "Dr. Slump" in mood and tone. Then we switch to the actual show, in which a blue haired boy ( who looks like the girl from the opening ) is sitting on the floor playing a video game. The game appears to be a typical dungeon crawl sort of game - three characters with character stats sitting overhead are facing a huge dragon monster. The three characters futilely attack the monster with their swords. The dragon pulls out a big machine gun and blasts the characters, killing one. The remaining two characters again attack futilely. The dragon pulls out a big honkin' missile launcher and blasts the two characters again, resulting in another one dying. The last character sprinkles some magic dust upon himself and regains his strength points, at which point the dragon bashes him over the head with a folded Japanese fan. A voice calls out to the blue-haired boy at this point and it turns out that the girl from the opening scene is his mother. Harry, the boy, and his mom, are sitting in a hut in a totally twisted jungle that makes Penguin Village in "Dr. Slump" seem like a Norman Rockwell village. The mom hits the reset button and sends Harry out to get 10 bananas for dinner. While Harry is out picking bananas, he is first accosted by two almost indescribable "things" - I can only compare them to the old 1930's Disney routine of having four-fingered white gloves dancing around on two fingers while waving the other two fingers in the air like antennas, while alternately smiling and sneering at Harry. The sky darkens and Harry sees an enormous black version of the "gloves" come up after him, and runs home. Harry's mom goes out afterwards and leaves Harry to struggle with his own imagination. When Mom comes home, she is a bit drunk, and has brought with her a pretty little pink-haired girl who she introduces as Guu. Harry is entranced by Guu, and happily plays with her for the rest of the evening. Harry's mom says that Guu has no parents, so she will be living with them. The next morning, however, when Harry sees Guu, he doesn't recognize her - she now looks like "death warmed over", but he is stuck with her as his mom goes off to work ( dressed in her tiger-striped tube top and grass skirt ). Guu starts to act even stranger than she looks, although she can put that "cute smiley face" back on if she wants, but Harry now finds this even stranger and less appealing. Then, after Guu eats Harry's favorite wild bird, Harry tries to show Guu his video game, but he instead finds himself inside an even stranger world ( think Salvador Dali ). Various characters in this world tell Harry that they are actually inside of Guu, and Harry suddenly wakes up to find Guu motionless on the floor, with the scenes from Harry's vision playing on her eyes, characters and all. As luck would have it, TV Tokyo doesn't have a page on this show yet, so I can't find any more info on it at the moment. If anyone has any leads to pages on either the manga or the anime, I would really like to find out more. As is, if you want to get an idea of the character design on the main characters, the one page I have found is http://www.ceres.dti.ne.jp/~hso/CG/MIZ100.JPG (Dave Baranyi) Even more whacked-out than Sister Princess, this dadaist dream is almost indescribable in its strangeness. Its about a group of people who live in a jungle that is straight out of Salvador Dalis worst nightmares. The main characters are Hare, a young boy and his very unwanted friend, Guu, who is the nastiest little thing youve ever seen outside of a corporate board of directors. The show is non-stop madness done in a classic comedic style wherein only Hare realizes what Guu is really like and no one else believes him. Rating absolutely must see but don't expect much coherence or character development. Warning - plot spoilers! Hare desperately wants to have something of a normal home life. Unfortunately for him, his Mom, while being nice and loving him, is anything but a normal mother. To an extent Hares Mom is sort of like a typical teen-aged heroine grown up but not changed. She usually doesnt cook, because she really cant. The few times we see her attempt to cook something for Hare, she ends up with both hands heavily bandaged and all sort of damage done to the kitchen. Hare is no more successful in finding a father in his Dad. In the episode where Hare finds out who is his father, Guu mercilessly bugs Hare that his father is really one of the 4 finger glove animals. Hare is shocked that the pervert doctor is his father, but although Hare wants to make a go of it with his Dad, the doctor doesnt care and really doesnt have any clue anyway. For example, on Hares birthday, his Dad gives him a porno mag. Hare ( who is a bit of a prude, even for his age ) is embarrassed and outraged. One of the more interesting aspects of Hare Nochi Guu is the time slot and intended audience for this series. Hare Nochi Guu is neither a late night nor a satellite channel show. TV Tokyo has it on at 6:00PM on Tuesdays, right in the middle of the supper time anime shows. The TV series is based upon a manga series which is currently running in Shounen GunGun, which is aimed at pre-teen boys. And some of the TV ads during Hare Nochi Guu are obviously aimed at younger kids. To give you an even further idea of how different the expectations of the audiences are in Japan, let me give another example from a recent episode that revolved a lot around Hares Dad. One of the teenaged students comes to class one morning with his bleached hair half grown out and looking really bad. Everyone wants to ask him about it, but they are afraid that he will get mad. Eventually Guu sets Hare up so that he has to ask. Of course, the teen does get mad and is about to beat up Hare, but he is distracted by the arrival of his grandmother. Grandma is tall, gray haired, wrinkled, wearing glasses and senile. She is looking for her late husband and mistakes Hares Dad for him. This starts a chase which carries on throughout most of the episode. That evening Hares Dad hides out in Hares house Hare, who usually sleeps in the same bed with his Mom, finds himself stuck between his Mom and Dad. His Dad starts to have a dream he is the big bad wolf and Hares Mom is granny. But when he goes into grannys room, Grandma pops up to his horror. The next scene in the dream, we see Grandma sitting up in bed, wearing a night gown through which we can see her drooping breasts, with a satisfied smile on her face. Dad, in the meanwhile, is laying next to her, curled almost into a fetal ball, quivering and moaning in misery. Hares Dad awakens from that nightmare to find himself safe, but later on is betrayed by Guu to the Grandma. At this point, since Hare Nochi Guu is still continuing, as is the manga, I really have no idea where the relationships in it will end up. Will Hares parents grow up any and become more responsible? Right now Hare has to be the responsible one in his family. What about Hare will he start to discover love? One thing I am pretty certain about at this stage of the series is that I doubt that we will see any sort of romance between Hare and Guu. The episode where Hares mother is missing in the woods suggested very strongly that Guu is not at all what we or Hare think she is and essentially rules out romance. Dave Baranyi
Credits
Episodes
Release
TV Showing	See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date	2001 April 3 -
Production	Shin'ei Doga
Broadcaster
Animation
References & Help	Look up the latest data on this title at: Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) , or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001). Help & further information.