Monday, October 22, 2012

Mondo Bizarro Reviews Anime: Moeyo Ken

I suppose I've put this off as long as possible.  Here's my second Anime review...
Moeyo Ken is a show that my friend and fellow Blogger hates.  Naturally, that made me want to see it.  After all, he loves Anime and hates this, then, theoretically, I should like this...since I don't care for Anime.  What were the results?

It's okay.  I don't hate it...but I don't really love it all that much either.

Moeyo Ken is an odd show to talk about, as it is a wacky comedy...set in a Historical setting.  It's not on some alien planet- it's set during the time in Japan where they made a transition from a Feudal Society into a Modern one.

Oh and there are monsters.

So yeah, it's a wacky comedy show set in a Historical setting...which is not all that realistic in a number of ways.  Instead, they made monsters an allegory for Samurai.  Interesting.

So why does my friend hate this show.  Two reasons...

1. It's generic.  I'll grant him that, to a certain extent.  It's not super-deep or subtle, so it mostly just hits on similar notes to other shows.  Even the artwork is reminiscent of earlier work by its creator- the man behind Ranma 1/2.

2. Its main comic-relief character- Nekomaru.
I get it.  I completely disagree, but I get it.

This character is voiced by Edwin Neal- notable for being the voice of 'Lord Zed' and playing the 'Hitchhiker' in the original TCM- and seems to mimic Paul Lynde.  That happens to also be the inspiration for 'Roger' on American Dad- a character that I love.  So this is a moot point for me.

The good and bad part of this show is the comedy.  It's goofy and makes the show never seem all that serious.  Wacky moments include...

1. A horny toad causing a digging machine to burrow into the Earth (don't ask).
2. A lady monster who finds that her stand-up comedy activates her freezing powers (don't ask)
3. When our heroines summon a goddess, they inadvertently destroy the city (don't ask).

If I had to make one major complaint, it's the censorship.  This appears to have been done after the fact, as I'm told that most shows would make a joke out of it if it was done by them.  I mean, just look at this...
Water doesn't work that way!!!

In summary, this is a wacky show that does nothing more than be wacky.  It's historical allegory is completely-buried in the absurdity.  That said- I don't hate it.  It's probably something that I'll still watch from time to time.  It's always fun to annoy your friends, right?  Hey look- Team Rocket!
Next up, a variation on the Harem Anime.  This one has giant boobs and...what else do you need?  Stay tuned...

2 comments:

  1. Hate to break it to you, but Rumiko Takahashi is a woman. lol

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  2. You can totally see the amount of research I did for this, huh?

    Yeah, that one's on me. On the plus side, I only use a gender-set descriptive there, at least.

    ReplyDelete