K.O. Beast

Being in the mood for wacky, silly, absurd anime, something like Dragon Half or Elf Princess Rane, I ordered KO Beast. It had gotten no less than five stars from "THEM Anime Reviews", which listed it as an "oddball sci-fi fantasy comedy". It certainly gets off to a lively start with the OP sequence, including the song "B*o*m*b*e*r Love" (refrain: "Hello, rock 'n' roll bomber"). From the title and the synopsis I'd read I had gotten the impression that this show would feature bizarre creatures of every sort, with only a handful of humans. In fact the "beasts" look like ordinary humans most of the time, but can transform into animals that resemble what you'd expect to see on Halloween. There was plenty of so-so slapstick comedy, but burried among it were the humorous gems contained within the banter between the main characters. Even when he's speaking in Japanese, Bud would use lots of English phrases ("son of a bitch!"). I think my favorite character was Abumako, who was a small female demon who rested on the shoulder of the villain V-Darn; sort of like when a tiny angel and demon compete to convince a character what choices to make, except in this case the angel must have given up and left a long time ago! I think the funniest episode was number three--apparently K.O. Beast originally consisted of only three episodes, but four more were added later on. I would never have noticed--the two portions fit together cleanly. I was starting to think that only those who had read the manga could completely understand the mysteries behind the two hemispheres, where beasts and Jinns came from, etc, but it was finally explained in the final episode (don't miss a little bit after the credits dealing with the fate of V-Darn and V-Sion!). The extras on my RightStuf DVDs were nice, especially some brief translator's notes and an interview with Akahori Satoru. Also, where did they get that cute tune from the menu? I didn't notice it anywhere within the 7 episodes. Overall, K.O. Beast is not totally hilarious, but still funny, fun, and it leaves you feeling good.

My favorite line: "No! My intuition is right one time out of ten!" --Mei Mer