2014-01-28

Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu

Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu (The Jungle was always nice/sunny/Hale and then Guu) or Hale + Guu is a 26 episode comedic anime that aired in Japan in 2001 and is based on the manga of the same name,

    Hale is a 10 year old boy with a lot of problems.  His irresponsible lush of a mom doesn’t let him play all the video games he wants.  His teacher is narcoleptic.  His classmates are a rag tag cast of weirdo’s and the chief of his jungle village is in love with his own chest hair.  If he thought his live was hard previously, when his mom adopts a mysterious girl named Guu his world gets turned upside down.  The fact that Guu can swallow things whole and has them live inside of her is only the start of what’s wrong with her.  Her appearance in the village is only the start of real trouble in Hale’s life.  Soon more weirdo’s arrive, causing him to live on the verge of a mental breakdown.  Can he figure out what Guu is and why she showed up?  Can he also figure out why all these people that are somehow connected with he and his mothers past keep showing up in the once peaceful village?

    This is a pretty funny and off the wall series.  It’s unfortunately from a really bad period in anime production so the animation is sub-par.  The comedy is spot on though, with plenty of sight gags and insane monologues.  Though, about half way through it starts to lag quite a bit and I was starting to lose interest.  I knew there was some sort of over arching plot and it just seemed to flounder around uselessly for a while not really going anywhere plot wise.  That got taken care of in the last 7 episodes and the series ends on a cliff.  So that can be a bit annoying as well.  They did however make up for that by releasing two OAV series to continue the story of these crazy jungle dwellers.  This is a good comedy though, even with its faults.  If you are a fan of break neck speed comedies like Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei this one will be right up your alley.

    The series and the first OAV set are licensed in North America and are available on DVD from Funimation.  There must have been little interest as the second and final OAV set does not appear to have been licensed…shame.


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