Uchouten Kazoku - 1

Boredom, my enemy. It had returned. It retracted its claws. I turned around, and tried to escape, but this was my inevitable fate. Boredom raced towards me, its claws on fire. It booted me up the backside, and I lay helpless on the floor. Boredom retrieved the katana of its back, and impaled me with it. That is how I felt watching Uchouten Kazoku.

You like mediocrity and boredom, kid? Because we've got sacks of them!

The first problem is - what genre is this? It is displayed as fantasy and comedy. This show never made me laugh once, in fact, the opposite. I was eager for the ending to appear, and I watched the VLC toolbar at the bottom of the screen more than the anime itself - it tugged forward so slowly. Fantasy? At the beginning it seems like it, but the abilities of each race mentioned in the opening scene are barely touched on, and in fact it doesn't make a difference. Everyone takes human form. Basically, there are three races - the agile, shape-shifting Tanuki, who roam the Earth, the Tengu, the atrocious looking flying species, and the humans. It doesn't make a difference though. All the Tanuki are disguised as humans, and the Tengu are so ugly you don't even focus on them anyway. 

You're not funny - you look like a bloody joker.

We have our protagonist, a Tanuki who shape-shifts as a human. He's male, but for some ridiculous reason he's wearing a high-school girl's uniform. It just comes off as a stupid attempt at humor and left me feeling annoyed instead of amused. Then there is the professor, a Tengu who can't fly because he's an old, annoying fart. Well, that's not the reason, but I was telling the truth. He just seems like a cliched old man who complains abut everything, and has some kind of relationship (we are not told what it is) with our third character - a purple haired "human" called Benten (that is the worst name I have heard in my entire life). Wait, she can fly, for Christ's sake, but all the characters refer to her as human? So our Tengu character, the professor, can't fly, while this supposedly human character can? At least in the professor's case it is explained, as he is old and he is immobile - but still... Also, Benten acts like a prick. Its not explained what her relationship with the protagonist is either - in one flashback, she's holding hands with him romantically, next they are in a bar and she's scolding him for breaking her expensive fan, and then she gives him a kiss (they remembered to animate the saliva though - because that's important). A little question - why would you kiss a brat you just shot your expensive fan who's dressed up as a high school girl? I don't know.

So here is our uber attractive (cough) female lead, along with our old fart. Neither explained.

Benten (I can't take this seriously, looking at it from any perspective) isn't even attractive anyway. That's because the artwork is painfully average. They lack detail compared to other shows, and their faces don't look right. I can't put my finger on what makes them like this, but it still puts me off. The animations are near the minimum for what they could do - they are incredibly basic. Also, the noses look really weird, especially the Tengu. I can't say this enough - the Tengu are an ugly bunch, but that would be unfair, since we only see one Tengu (or two? We aren't told) character in the whole episode anyway.

The Tengu are really ugly bastards.

We barely learn anything about the relationships between the races, and they are much less developed than they could have been. This anime is terrible. In my other reviews, I have written an overview of the plot, but its so uninteresting that its not worth writing down, and I have so much criticism it has filled the space of a normal review anyway. If you are expecting comedy, you will never laugh. If you are expecting slice of life, its terribly executed. If you are expecting action, there is none of it. I put this side by side with Makai Ouji, and it just showed how poor the animation and artwork was, and there are quite a few animes better in that department than Makai Ouji anyway. 

Nope, still not enough saliva. 

There is no one I can recommend this show to, especially since there is a wealth of great shows airing right now. If you want a comedy or slice of life alternative, I would personally recommend Servant X Service, which is miles better in almost every aspect (it misses out on the award, most ugly group of characters, though). To sum it up, avoid this. There is no reason to watch it - and also, which crazy imbecile came up with the name "Benten" for a female character?

It could get better later, but the chances are incredibly low. There's nothing about this show that  I can recommend to someone. Its bad.