Site Index | Blog What's New? Review List Stuff Review Outline Why Hate Anime? Wheat RoD: The TV Haibane Renmei Teen Titans Chaff Akira Legend of the Overfiend Black Heaven I have only seen one episode of The World of Narue. One episode is all I need to see. Much like the bubonic plague or an olive sundae, I don't have to wait for The World of Narue to run its course through my system to know whether or not I like it. The World of Narue features unlikable characters, a plot concept that is so inane it insults one's intelligence, and an art style so underwhelming you could replace everything with stick figures and get the same effect. "Oh, he's not humping your leg, he's laying eggs in your fertile human flesh." Characters: The characters in The World of Narue all manage to be fantastically lifeless zombies, fresh off the "modern cliche anime character" printout. You've got Mr. Nervous Spaz (Kazuto Iizuka), Nervous Spaz's Horny Friend (Masaki Maruo), Vapid Obnoxious Schoolgirl Girl (Narue Nanase) and a few more whose names I didn't bother to jot down. There's really no reason to go into detail about any of the paper dolls in this show, because they're all colored with the same six or seven shades of obnoxious as everyone else. It's worth mentioning, I guess, that Narue is an alien. People only mention this about once every eight seconds, just in case you forget. And no, nobody cares. Story: The first episode of The World of Narue starts off with Kazuto Iizuka walking down the street. He comes across this cute little puppy dog in a box, who whimpers at him a bit. Kazuto smiles and keeps walking. Then some stuff happens at school or whatever. Kazuto walks back home in the rain, gives the umbrella to the wet puppy, and tries to pick it up. The puppy then transforms into some kind of space mutant that eats Japanese kids. Fortunately, Narue shows up and whacks it with a bat. She then runs away, leaving the bat behind. Bowling Ball Head and Lamprey Girl - the real Wonder Twins! Next day, Kazuto tells his extremely ugly friend Masaki about the strange encounter. They look Narue up in the yearbook and conclude that she's an alien. Cut to scene in girl's locker room where a bunch of teenage girls stand around in their unmentionables and talk about how Narue is an alien. Later, Kazuto gives Narue her bat back and asks her to go steady with him. She says she likes magazines. Kazuto says he doesn't care. She gets all happy and takes Kazuto up to her apartment for tea and, well, magazine reading I guess. Narue's dad (whose name either wasn't mentioned, or I didn't catch it; let's call him Billy Buckwheat) is hogtied on the floor and there's some alien guy in the room. Kazuto tries to hit him with the bat, but Narue trips him. Then she scolds him about not taking off his shoes before coming inside. While Billy Buckwheat is laying on the floor being assaulted by a murderous alien. Then, in a scene that takes years, Narue teleports behind the murderer, hits him, and unties her daddy. Then Narue takes Kazuto into outer space, where we're treated to a five-minute glimpse of her undies. End episode one. Narue's panties pop out so often, you'd think they're trying to escape. Animation: The art is nice enough looking, I guess, but uninteresting on a titanic scale. It basically looks like every other "cute happy schoolgirl" anime in the universe. Aside from that, some of the characters just look flat-out strange. Masaki's hair looks like it's painted on his head, and there's just something about BIlly Buckwheat that rubs me the wrong way. But then, he's an alien, so maybe that's about right. In other news, The World of Narue is full of that awkward, cut-scene-y comic-style action I so loathe. The sequence where Narue hits the alien murderer about to stab her father, for example, is about a minute long. She starts this sequence by throwing a bottle of milk into the air, and ends by catching it. Now while I don't mind stretching a three-second action sequence out a bit, especially if it's to show that the characters are moving super fast, one full minute is somewhat excessive. Also note that the scene isn't even animated - we don't actually see Narue throwing the jar, swinging the bat, connecting with the hit, or the alien badman falling onto the ground - this is all accomplished through a series of still shots. One of these still shots rewards the viewer with yet another great view of Narue's panties. Culture Shock: Japanese high schools are much different than American high schools. Apparently aliens are quite common in Japan - no one seems to care Narue comes from outer space. Also, when I was in high school there was an epidemic of suburban white boys who sagged their britches and showed off the top half of their gritty plaid-print boxers. In Japan it's exactly the opposite - bubbly schoolgirls going around showing off the bottom half of their frilly flower-print panties. "So... is this like a kinky alien sex thing? Because I didn't bring protection." I suppose it's possible I'm being unfairly critical of The World of Narue. However, it cleanly and completely represents an entire subgenre of anime I can do without, namely that of annoying school children having wacky adventures in a generic Japanese setting. Links Some Page Some Other Page So, what have we learned? We've learned it's going to take a lot more than Saved By the Bell with superpowers to win me over. We've learned that there is a situation where hitting alien dogs with bats isn't funny. And we've learned that no one wants to see a fourteen-year-old's underwear. Really, Narue. I'm serious. Keep your knees together. Jesus. Overall Rating:

© 2005 Richard Scibbe | brickroad@gmail.com | hosted by rpgmaker.net