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Am I the only person who likes Animal Yokocho? A short discussion on East Vs West children’s pop culture

Posted on | August 26, 2006 | 7 Comments |

For me, anime for kids has always been a very defined brand. It mainly occupies the extremes of the genres shoujo and shounen; for example, cheesy mecha, never-ending collector type shows like Pokemon and YuGiOh and contest type shows like Prince of Tennis or fighting shows like Naruto or Bleach. The shoujo end of the scale is mainly taken up by infinite mahou shoujo shows like Pretty Cure and Ojemajo Doremi.

More often than not, shows tend to be in a copypastable format with story arcs lasting up to 30-40 episodes or more. Large proportions of shows are spent going over matierial covered in previous episodes since it is designed to be watched so that you can come in at any point in a story arc and know what is going on.

My childhood memories of childrens shows that I enjoyed are nothing much like this genre at all. My fondest memory was of an English childrens show that aired in the ’80s and ’90s called Dangermouse that was voiced by David Jason (of Only Fools and Horses fame). Looking back on it now it is still fantastic – a very British cartoon with slapstick humour and really random jokes and puns that were sometimes probably aimed at the parental audience rather than the children themselves.

Most Western cartoons are standalone affairs where each episode only requires you to know who the characters are and not what has gone on in previous episodes. American cartoons such as all Hanna Barbera (The Jetsons, Top Cat, Yogi Bear etc.) take this rule seriously. Episodes are like sketches in which a particular idea is turned into a joke, but is completely unrelated to the previous episodes. (though I don’t hold these cartoons as dear as Dangermouse, by any means)

Animal Yokocho (Animal Alley) is probably the closest anime I’ve found that mimics that genre. Instead of an ongoing storyline, it has slapstick and random jokes and puns. It also has a level of random weirdness that one can only find in the warm embrace of niche anime. It has no fighting (unless you count the IYO-PE BEEAAMM!), no guns, no mechas, no sports and absolutely no car racing (well, not more than part of one episode, anyway ^_^)

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that its sponteneity and unusualness appeals as much to an adult audience as it does to kids.

The basic foundation of the show is that 5 year old Ami moves into a new house and her room appears to have a door that leads into the mysterious world of Animal Yokocho, the inhabitants of which seem to only number 4: Issa, the gentle panda and Kenta, the insecure bear with the scarf are the two “relatively normal” characters who usually only do things within the bounds of reality. Iyo, the rabbit, however, seems to be able to transcend the rules of time and space. Oh, and she can shoot lasers out of her ears (IYO-PE BEE~AMMMM!) All the bit parts and general boke-roles are played by weird horse/man hybrid Yamanami-san.

| This is so disturbing I don’t know where to start…
The format of each episode usually starts with Ami mentioning that she is doing something or that they should play something and then Iyo suggesting that they do it the Aniyoko way which usually involves randomness, puns, near-brushes with death and Kenta being fried with the Iyo-Pe Beam. Highlights of the ones I;ve seen were; Shiritori where you actually go to the next word said and the 1000 odd card pack of Aniyoko playing cards O_o.

In short, Aniyoko is adult random abstract comedy mixed with boke/tsukkomi stand up and a children’s show format, and turns up absolute genius. The OP and ED are also awesome, and although it is being subbed by the laudable [a.f.k.], it seems that relatively few bloggers are watching it…or am I wrong? Although I do know that albert from memo/moetry is a huge fan. as well as Hung from Basugasubakuhatsu and Hazel…

In conclusion

  • Watch more Aniyoko
  • Bug [a.f.k.] to sub more Aniyoko.
  • The world needs more cartoons/anime like this
Category: Animal Yokocho, Anime, Comment, Editorials

Comments

7 Responses to “Am I the only person who likes Animal Yokocho? A short discussion on East Vs West children’s pop culture”

  1. Sasa
    August 26th, 2006 @ 3:53 am

    Hmm, I love the manga which is just as funny and random as the anime, and cuter, imho. Especially since the animation of the anime is rather bad while the drawing style of the manga is pretty good.

    After 2 episodes, the animals just started to annoy me ^^;; I couldn’t stand their mean behaviour to poor Ami, even though I knew that it’s all for fun. Even though they do the same thing in the manga, it doesn’t annoy me that much. I simply can’t explain it ^^;;

  2. rabidkimba
    August 26th, 2006 @ 4:24 am

    I know I posted about translation just last entry you made, but my whole circle of friends that I work on projects on wanted to do this, except we all decided that to properly translate a pun-heavy comedy anime like Aniyoko was just beyond our capabilities. We all love the show, but it’s a pain in the ass to properly sub. Haven’t watched the afk subs in forever, but I remember them being good, so there’s always hope they’ll pick it back up now that haruhi is over, I suppose?

  3. Galen
    August 26th, 2006 @ 4:56 am

    Dangermouse is mostly available on DVD, with the last seasons scheduled for release in Sept, 2006.
    -Galen

  4. Necromancer
    August 26th, 2006 @ 5:42 am

    I love AniYoko, really wish it would start getting subbed again.

  5. omo
    August 26th, 2006 @ 8:18 am

    Not a fan of Aniyoko but I know as a matter of fact we just don’t see a lot of children’s programming from Japan here, and of the ones that I saw most left me an impression that they’re not really all that different than ones we get here. Also because a lot of the shows you like (and a lot of the anime-viewing crowd like, as their childhood favs) that are really dated compared to Aniyoko, so I don’t think the comparison is all that solid.

  6. Hung
    August 26th, 2006 @ 9:59 am

    Animal Yokocho is freakin’ awesome. It’s so funny and random. Japanese kids really have it great. Besides the cram schools and whatnot.

    Also, I think Matthew likes the show too, because he (used to?) do summaries on the raw episodes he watched.

  7. Hopeless
    August 26th, 2006 @ 2:43 pm

    Yes, it’s hard to deny the show’s greatness, and I only wish there was more of it subbed. As it is, I think there is a fairly substanial potential fanbase for the show in the West, but majority of us lack the necessery knowledge of Japanese to become fully-fleged fans.

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