Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Funimation Productions
• DVD Release Date: February 14, 2006
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000DZ95CQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,403 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Super Milk Chan this is not! Crazy and Good!!, December 3, 2005

By 

Courtland J. Carpenter (Fort Wayne, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HARE GUU:TV STARTER SET (DVD)

It's amazing the number of reviewers that will give a bad product a good review. I always wondered, especially when it comes to books, film, music, and other media what they saw in it. I had seen some good reviews of an anime called: Super Milk Chan, and when it played on Toonami, I expected something watch able. How anyone can call that kind of thing entertaining is beyond me!!

I was half expecting to be disappointed when I got hold of some fansubs of this series. Commonly known just as Jungle Wa, I guess because it take place there most of the series, I was expecting a lot of dumb antics and no storyline. The guy that gave me the DVD described this as Tex Avery characters on "crack". Now Tex Avery was known for doing zany, hyper characters like, Daffy, Bugs, Porky and others, so I got that this may be a bit over the top as an anime. From the start of the entry music, and jungle animation, I started to believe. At least it seemed more fun thus far than Milk Chan!

The plot centers around a character named Hare, called Hale or sometimes Harry in the fansub, depending on translator. He is a relatively ordinary 13 year old kid who lives with his single, alcoholic mother in a hut in a jungle community. One day he is sent to get some bananas, has a strange, and quite terrifying experience, and returns to find his mother has taken in a house guest. A cute little girl who goes by the name of Guu. Hare senses something is not right about this little girl, and the next morning she looks like a completely different person, think Mandy of the "Billy and Mandy" cartoon series. She's slightly mean looking, and talks all depressed, and sort of arrogant. The strange thing is only Hare seems to notice. Whats more is this "girl" can apparently consume anything, and what she eats is transformed into an extra-dimensional world.

Along the way despite instigating an endless degree of trouble, Guu eats, and later spits out, "at least some of them", various animals, Hare, Hare's classmates, the better part of an ocean, and a number of other things. She also seems to have other "powers", not the least of which is always seems to know whats going on, and the ability to charm anyone by instantly changing her face to that charmingly charismatic little girl, Hare first saw her as.

Oh yeah, plot, and a fairly serious one is behind the craziness. Hales mother was a sickly child taken advantage of as an underage girl by a certain "doctor", who plays a prominent part in the series. In the second half of the series, it changes locations back to the city where Hare's mom came from, and Guu serves more of a help there as opposed to her usual meddling role. If you do the math, you'll realize how old Hare's mom is, and his age make for a very young mother. This whole seriousness would generally be lost, or at best feel out of place in most anime of this type. Somehow it all seems to work here. I'm half guessing they may water a bit of this down for American audiences, so you may want to leave the subtitles on, at least if you play the dubbed version.

I can't speak here for the quality of the dub or extras, I'm still reviewing from the standpoint of the fansubs. I an say it's a very vividly colored animation, and the music is bright and catchy. Plus this is one of the few series that you'll not really be able to tell what's gonna happen next. That in itself is worth the price of admission!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the cover fool you, August 7, 2006

By 

H. Hagopian (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hare + Guu, Vol. 1 (DVD)

I'm not usually a fan of the random "weird" or abstract animes, but Hare+Guu is consistently funny, entertaining, and worth watching every minute of. I won't write about the story itself because I'm sure you can read about it almost anywhere else, so I'll say just a few short things about the things I did and didn't like about it.

The timing and pacing of the episodes are almost flawless, the exact same way that good stand-up comedians must execute their jokes without going too fast or waiting too long for the punch line. Also, you can't go more than one minute without laughing, they've paced the jokes perfectly to keep your attention and entertain you.

I'm also surprised at how good the English dubbing is, I didn't feel like I was listening to a random group of voice actors just monotonously spewing out the lines because they felt it was too 'childish'. These guys really got into it and you could hear each of the characters' personalities expressed in the voices.

There are two things I didn't like, one is that the first several minutes in episode 1 don't really draw you in and give you the feel of the series. To draw you in, the creators probably should have gone with a better introduction to keep your interest. The other problem with Hare+Guu that I found, was the cover of the DVD. The cover could not be more misleading as to the content of the DVD itself. As soon as you start watching this show, you'll know exactly why it's misleading.

The DVD also comes with some random bonus features like the a production gallery, English voice acting bloopers and Mr. Lazy's lessons on translation. Of all the bonuses, I'd say the lessons on translation were the best, but maybe that's because I enjoy trivia. It basically goes through each episodes and tells you about cultural significances and all the Japanese pop culture references made in the show. The voice acting bloopers were pretty funny, and the production gallery could have definetely used more sketches.

Basically, first impressions aren't Hare+Guu's strong point, and if you want to laugh and be entertained, this is a good way to go.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy!, April 16, 2006

By 

R.Wight (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hare + Guu, Vol. 1 (DVD)

Hare and Guu will make you smile! A wonderfully random anime that kept me laughing. Hare, who liven in the jungle with his Mother, now has a new roomate that never ceases to baffle him. One minuit she is a charming charismatic girl, then next she puts on a moody, somewhat frightining face and is eating everything from the T.V. to his bird/best friend Hee. Poor Hare has to try and figure out whats going on with his new roomie before she eats him as well! This anime is perfect if you need something that will entertain a large group of people with diffrent tastes in anime, because if there is one thing that everyone can agree on, its comedy!