Customer Reviews

Hare + Guu Starter Set

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

Hare and Guu doesn't seem like the type of anime that mature anime fans would want to watch. But actually this is one show that can be enjoyed by fans of all ages. The story revolves around Hare and a strange pale girl named Guu. Guu shows up unexpectedly in Hare's life and throws it into a whole lot of confusion. Guu is one of the funniest, strangest characters I have ever seen in an anime. Her origins are a complete mystery. Who is she? Where is she from? WHAT is she? All questions you will keep asking yourself while you watch the show. You'll have to keep watching to find out if your questions are answered or not. The first volume starts out good enough. It introduces you to the main characters, and sets up character dynamics that will last through the series. The animation is very simple and colored brightly to reflect the vibrant jungle setting. Underneath the cutesy, colorful exterior there are some adult issues that are dealt with also. In the first volume, there are hints of the real hilarity that is yet to come. Stick around and find out how crazy and funny this anime gets. I promise you it'll be lots of fun!

Hare doesn't really complain when his single alcoholic mom, fresh off a night of getting drunk, brings a strange little girl named Guu to live with them. He doesn't mind because she's so indescribably cute and nice. They spend the night playing boardgames and bonding. But there's always the morning after.....At breakfast the cute little girl has disappeared and in her place is a lethargic, morose, subdued Guu. Hare soon finds out that the cute girl image is just a front for a bizarre and creepy true identity. Guu's worst facet is that she eats things, and by that I mean ANYTHING! Elephants, people, her teacher, even Hare's little bird friend are her prey. And what's even more strange is that Hare has a dream that a whole world exists in Guu's stomach....or was it a dream...or was he eaten too? As the episodes progress, Guu is introduced to other inahabitants of the island paradise, with hilarious results. For instance, the village elder has a huge afro of hair on his chest that makes Austin Powers look shaven. Mysteriously, in the night, his hair disappears, but the next day Guu is sporting a poofy afro on her head. And then she crosses paths with one of Hare's school chums, who cannot stop laughing. Surely, Guu will find a way to get him to stop....

I thought this show was going to be a disappointment at first but each episode got funnier and funnier and became infectiously hilarious. Maybe it was because the setting and characters are so odd, it takes a while to get acclimated to them. But by the fourth episode, you realize this is a real gem. Guu reminds me a lot of Snoopy from the Peanuts strips. The characters in this show are really vibrant and you feel like you know them by the end of this disk. I suspect this show will just get better and better.

Dvd also includes clean opening/closings, Production art galleries, unfunny English dub outtakes, translation notes. Packaging is very nice with an insert giving more info about the characters and episode notes.

She looks like an angelic pink-haired orphan girl. But she's actually sarcastic, eerie and has a dimension inside.... her stomach.

Yeah, "Hare + Guu" is a pretty cracked-out little anime series, where any semblance of normal is abandoned within the first five minutes. And the first volume -- four episodes long -- is an animated acid trip through a surreal jungle full of weirdos, freaky rabbit things, and a pair of very unusual small children.

Ten year old Hare (pronounced "Hah-ray")lives in an idyllic jungle with his lazy mom Weda... until the day she brings Guu (pronounced "Goo") home. At first the children get along, but soon Hare finds out just how bizarre Guu is: she always looks flat, she's very sarcastic, and she likes to swallow weird things. And after she (temporarily) swallows Hare, he learns that she has a dimension in her stomach full of things she's swallowed -- people, animals, buildings, and so on.

This is just the first episode, mind. It doesn't get any less weird.

Unfortunately, only Hare seems to notice that Guu is kind of weird, and he begins trying to keep her from causing more trouble. With very limited success. On her first day at school, she swallows the entire class after they annoy her, then rips off the Elder's bushy chest hair to make herself an afro. And after seeing the Stupid Couple squabbling, Guu decides to have a romantic fight with Hare. And kiss everyone at the school as well...

There are some wonderfully cracked out, whacked out anime series out there, with "FLCL" and "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi" as some of my favorite examples. It's kind of obvious even from the opening credits (dancing banana trees! Red Riding Hood! Centipede-cats! Tropicalia!) that this series is a lot like those -- imagine a "Swiss Family Robinson" episode on some really amazing acid.

The four episodes here are a string of colourful misadventures, usually caused by Guu trying to put everything in her mouth and Hare's manic reactions. Lots of jungle foliage, bright colours, weird wildlife (living jelly donuts?), weird dialogue ("I gotta admit, I'm a bit more worried about that voice that said 'Oh a bird' from inside Guu's mouth than I am about your horrible DEATH!") and running gags.

Hare really is a likable, responsible, goodhearted kid, albeit one who's doomed to have hypertension by fifteen -- in the first episode, his mom finds him sitting in a puddle of rain, giggling insanely. And in every other episode, he stresses himself out about keeping Guu from getting trouble ("I'm worrying about things way too much... I'M STILL WORRIED!").

And Guu is a hilarious source of chaos: social obliviousness, machine-gun laughter and attempts to swallow everything (including the teacher). And there are lots of other wacky people -- a guy who laughs ALL the time, a superhumanly lazy teacher, the flaky Marie, an elder who treasures his undulating mass of chest hair, and the cheesy and excitable Stupid Couple (who sound an awful lot like Rukia and Ichigo from "Bleach").

"Hare + Guu Volume 1" is a hilariously acid-soaked debut for an unspeakably hilarious little series. It may look cute and innocent, but like Guu it has a wicked sense of humor.

A really odd one. Though this show is cute which I liked, the comedy in it was not really in my alley. I'm gonna try the next volume though.

It's really exciting to see more cutting edge anime like Hare + Guu being released these days. Especially since this show falls outside the realms of "normal". It doesn't seem to be any one standard genre and it's hard to pin down, so that's what I think makes it so genius. Poor innocent Hare is a product of his crazy alcoholic mom and he lives in a fantastic jungle with funny creatures I love called "Pokutes". So wonderfully random! And then comes Guu (as the Japanese title tells us). She's a real piece of work, swallowing everything in sight, which then finds its way down into the magical world of her stomach. What makes this release even better is the fact that when you watch the English version after having watched the Japanese, it doesn't differ a whole lot. Bang Zoom Entertainment (producers of the English version of Last Exile, among others) has done it again, providing accurate voice matches for all the Hare/Guu characters. Even with obscure Japanese references, Bang Zoom seems to choose quality enough actors and great direction to let this crazy show remain close to the original. I love Jennifer Sekiguchi as Guu. Her deadpan delivery has me laughing out loud.
If you haven't seen this yet, GET IT! It's so funny!

Ever since this one came out in Japan, I was interested in seeing it, but this show is oneof the best comedy I have seen!!

Guu is so random yet so hilarious that you can't have your eyes off of her. It's one anime that you can;t miss out. As of comedy, it's one of my top 2 favorite anime.

I was really concerned about this show when I heard that there was going to be a US release of it, that how the english Dub was going to be like. Well, shoever did it, did an amazing job at it!! You can;t get Guu's voice any closer than that to the original Guu's voice in Japanese.

I wasn't expecting much out of this anime when I first picked it up, but on the advice of a friend, I decided to give it a try! It was wonderful! :) The caprice and frivolity that makes any anime a good comedy is incredibly apparent in this new release to the States. The unexpected workings of the character Guu and her anxious cohort Hare is sure to leave anyone satisfied. Try it out....it's honest to goodness fun and sillyness!!!