Rumik World: Warau Hyouteki

As a story goes, this one is pretty straight forward with very predictable and cliched moments throughout. As an early work by Takahashi-sensei (and not knowing how much was left out of the anime from the original manga), I suppose this is to be expected. Interestingly enough, some elements in this OAV would be used again in her very popular title, Inuyasha. Assuming you can find a copy of this now-rare title, I'll let you decide what character Azusa sorta morphed into for Inuyasha.

Still, despite its predictablility, there were some moments of tragic interest. Azusa having "whatever" happen to her at such a young age, then as a young girl she is nearly raped and again as a teen she is nearly raped. What she does in those instances to her attackers is not unjustified, even if vicious. That aside, everything else was just OK. Still, I wonder why it is that the Japanese get so hung up on childhood promises. I though of Aoi-chan from Ai Yori Aoshi as I watched this with her childhood arranged marriage and subsequent "I live only for him" mentality. I suppose that makes Azusa's story more tragic.

Bottom line: fans of Takahashi-sensei will want to watch this just to see more of her early works. Others wanting to see an old anime horror flick (though not scary if you are an adult) may want to catch this too. Otherwise, you aren't missing much.

Last updated Sunday, December 03 2006. Created Sunday, December 03 2006.

As I've said elsewhere, horror isn't really my "thing"; I just have this friend who keeps talking me into watching it. This show looks pretty good despite its age and has a nice, creepy feel to it. It's not too gory/scary for a wimp like me, but it's still able to hold the attention of a horror conoisseur like my friend. The plot is solid, although a few things are left vague which could have been better explained.

The main thing of interest to a non-horror fan is the way Takahashi works in some of the themes that show up in her comedy: arranged marriages, possessive women, and reluctant men. But the treatment here is, of course, much darker.

Bottom line: Seek it out if you're a horror fan. If you're not, it's probably not worth hunting down, but you still might find it interesting.