Furi Kuri

By: Luz-chan

Lemme tell you: in the past, I have never seen weird and far-out anime---with the exception of DiGi Charat. Then again, DiGi Charat is kawaii, especially Dejiko and Puchiko. But Furi Kuri has outdone itself in my book. It was aired on Adult Swim at one point in August, but they don't show it anymore. Ironically, it's only 6 episodes, and it went straight to video. Personally, I'm beginning to see why. Not only that, but it's very annoying and confusing (though not as annoying as Excel Saga)

It's about a 12-year-old boy named Nandaba Naota, whose older brother is in America, playing baseball. The brother's girlfriend, Samejima Mamimi, likes to flirt with Naota. Mamimi skips school all the time, going down to the river bank to smoke and stare at the sky, while Naota is a smart-aleck(one of my nicer words). Anyway, they were hanging at the river when Naota gets ran over (literally)and hit on the head by a woman on a Vespa. When Naota got home, he found a "bump" on his head, and tries to push it back in. The next morning, he walked down to breakfast, and was shocked when the Vespa woman was there with his father and grandfather. The father, Kamon, has hired the woman (her name turns out to be Haruko, and she claims to be 19) as a housekeeper. Later on, Naoto went to the hospital, and Haruko (dressed up as a nurse) announced it as "Furi Kuri" and tried to hit him with her guitar. Luckily, Naoto escaped, but that night, two robots came out of his forehead. One of them was a "walking television" (he was later named Kanchi), the other was a hand. Anyway, Kanchi won, and Haruko hit Naoto in the head with the guitar. Naoto, Haruko, and Kanchi went back to Naoto's home, thus starting an "adventure."

I have no idea what's going on in this anime. All I know is that Haruko is some kind of alien, and that strange things happen, not to mention things popping out of Naoto's head (although it didn't happen in episode 3; something pop out of his friend Namimori's head, but you have to watch the anime to "understand" it). Not only that, but there's a guy in there with these big, fake eyebrows. Honestly, they look scary, but then again, that's Furi Kuri for you. The main point, though, is that the theme has nothing to do with robots and alien girls at all. Basically, it's the "rite of passage" for Naoto: growing up and all.

I LOVE the music! It was done by a group called the pillows, and they sang the ending song, "Ride on Shootin Star," too! *squeals and starts to sings* There's also something in there that I haven't seen in any other anime: in 2 of the episodes, there were actual manga scenes. The animation is really good, though.

Discount Anime DVD has all three DVDs for sale at about less than $25. Anime Nation also has them, but they're not compatible with Region 1 (USA) DVD players; they're Region 2 (Japan) only.