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Hakaba Kitaro
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Animation - 9.0 |
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Sound - 8.0 |
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Story - - |
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Character - 8.0 |
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Value - 7.0 |
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Enjoyment - 8.0 |
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Average - 8.0 |
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Hakaba Kitarō is the series with which Noitamina started 2008. For people who do not know, Noitamina is the TV slot on Fuji TV which is primarily intended for mature viewers. The series taken up by Noitamina tend to be away from the usual anime (harems, shōnens etc.) – they tend to adapt manga which are often overlooked. So what is Hakaba Kitarō about? It’s about a strange ‘boy’ who is one-eyed and is born in a graveyard. This ‘boy’ is actually the last surviving member of the yuré (ghost) clan and the series is his tale of interactions with humans. It is adapted from the manga of the same name which was serialized in the late 1950’s.
It sounds pretty normal but its not. For starters, this has one of the most unique storylines ever. Unlike normal thrillers, there is little build up, the plot is highly amoral and events which are supposed to be plot changing happen on whims – giving the series an aura of complete unpredictability. And this is why this series is something very refreshing when compared to the normal anime of 2008. While the initial one–two episodes may take a bit of getting used to, the overall result in the end is a good one for all those who like an out of the box series from a while to while.
So what can a viewer expect when starting this series? Well, expect a really different animation technique (though people who have already seen Mononoke from 2007 will find the technique to be similar). Also, it would not be wise to expect a standard plot in the series – almost all episodes (except 2-3) are completely standalone. Even events which can seem to be very plot changing are often simply ignored (e.g. in the end of one episode Kitarō dies but in the next episode he is completely fine again!) And it would be wise of the viewer not to get attached to any of the characters – most of them are a bunch of sadists; many of them kill innocent characters on pure whims!!!
You may note that this review is not touching much upon the individual characters of the series or the plot themes but this is intentional lest I give away hints about the series. In the end, I recommend this to all people who are becoming jaded with the usual stereotypical moe/harem/shonen/shoujo anime to give this series a shot. Since it is just 11 episodes in length, the runtime of the series is fairly short – which gives viewers all the more reasons to try it! Unfortunately though, this series offers very little re-watch value to its episodic and whimsical nature. So once finishing this series, I found very little use of archiving this to my DVDs. Hence, I take a few points off from the value section.
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