Colorful

Colorful is a 16 episode mini sketch comedy show that aired on TV in Japan in 1999 that is based on the manga of the same name.

    The best way to sum up this oddball sketch comedy series is by saying it shows men behaving badly and receiving divine intervention for doing so. This quirky and perverted series deals with male perversion and the lengths men go through to look down a girls shirt or see some panties. While there is no central plot or central characters there are a number of reoccurring characters through out the show. Among the cast of odd balls are two college students, a perverted high school gym teacher and an expatriate looking for the perfect ‘upside down Mt. Fuji’. The series resembles to some degree and flows much like the old MTV show Liquid Television, with the exception that everything in Colorful is by the same people and deals with innocent male perversion. Each episode is made of a number of various length shorts. Between each sort are odd avant-garde intermissions. Animation quality in the series changes at will from finely detailed to childish. Standard effect techniques are employed and a vast knowledge of Japan is not needed to understand the series. While everything takes place in Japan perversion is universal in modern society.

    This short, each episode tops in at around six minutes, quirky and insane series is easily enjoyable and relatable if your male. The animation is somewhat high quality for the time period, which tended to be a low point in quality, but it’s nothing compared to today’s standards. With how short it takes to go through the series I can’t find much to complain about aside from the disappointing final episode, which wasn’t really funny and actually pretty stupid. Aside from that there are many memorable moments for this show. The length is just right if you are watching the entire thing in one go, it doesn’t really lag too much and you look forward to the next bizarre vignette. One thing I can say is I don’t see a point for there to be more of this show. You can only run the same cleavage glimpsing scenarios so many times before it becomes dry and stale. The creators did well to keep it the way they did, with the exception of the abysmal final episode. So if you are a fan of such shows as Golden Boy, Today in Class 5-2 or Gyagu Manga Biyori this show will be right up your alley.