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[R1 DVD art]
AKA: ジャングルDEいこう, Let's Go Jungle!, Let's Go to the Jungle!
Genre: Magical girl comedy
Length: OAV series, 3 episodes, 30 minutes each
Distributor: VHS and R1 DVD from Anime Works / Media Blasters
Content Rating: 13+ (fantasy violence, fan service, off-color humor)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Elf Princess Rane, Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl, Nurse Witch Komugi-chan
Notes:
Rating:

Jungle de Ikou

Synopsis

Over 2000 years ago the ancient god of destruction Ongo was sealed away. Now two thousand years later, he will be freed due to the hapless actions of a Japanese archaeologist. Fortunately for the world, the archaeologist has also given his daughter Natsumi a necklace that will allow her to call upon the powers of the ancient flowers spirits to help protect Tokyo from Ongo. Though that doesn't seem like it may even be necessary as the "God of Destruction" seems to only be two feet tall and more annoying than dangerous.


Review

When I watched this OAV series with a good friend of mine, we both had the same question, "Was the screen writer for this fourteen years old?" It isn't that it is particularly written poorly, or paced even that poorly for that matter, there is just an intense number of jokes centering around one Natsumi's rather busty magical girl form which, among other things, requires the world's most sexually suggestive dance sequence to invoke. Let me just say that seeing the withered and faintly ecchi-seeming Earth God, Ahem, demonstrate the magical transformation dance to Natsumi scarred me for life. A lot of these elements are not played as much for titillation factor (which is fortunate given the relatively young age of the character involved) as much as just as a puerile desire to constantly point out that large breasts are apparently supposed to be hysterical. This is taken to the most extreme level possible in the third episode of this series. I don't mind a bit of breast humor here and there, I just thought it was kind of overplayed in this show.

The sad thing is this series is actually fairly amusing when it isn't going out of its way to push large breasts in your face. A lot of it is played as a light parody of the magical girl and "huge monsters versus Tokyo" genres and most of that I actually found fairly amusing especially later on when people keep directly referencing the abilities of the "magical girls" and how the "magical girl" has to save them. The earlier episodes where we see that ancient gods of destruction aren't always as impressive as they were in the past were also fairly amusing. This show perhaps didn't make me explode in laughter like some, but most scenes did tend to keep me smiling until the next joke.

Those looking for deep plot should look elsewhere as everything about this show was set up just to push forward various comedic scenarios more than anything else though the show still does tend to have a logical progression of events and isn't as bizarrely random as some parody anime. The characters are likeable in their own way, but they don't exactly get a huge amount of character development during the series either. Overall, these three OAV episodes had a very pilotesque feel about them and they could have easily made a nice short run thirteen comedy series out of this I think.

The art work and general animation quality for the show are actually fairly good. There are some action/destruction of Tokyo scenes later on that were fairly well done. They have a lot of SD moments that while goofy are a bit extra amusing since they are actually integrated directly into the plot as well. The music is decent enough and I'll admit that the opening theme is actually fairly catchy.

It is kind of a shame really. They did have a good amusing core of an idea and although I did find Jungle De Ikou amusing, I think I would have found it a lot more amusing if they worked more on their parody aspects rather than the other comedy elements to emphasize. Since it was relatively short, it did not really wear out its welcome and overall I can say that by the end I was fairly entertained and amused.

A light-hearted fantasy comedy that does actually have a lot of humorous moments, but is weighed down from being truly hysterical by its overemphasis on its puerile over-obsession with large breasts. If you aren't much into comedy or are just downright offended by breast jokes (or sexual humor involving children), subtract a star (or two). If you aren't as snooty as me and don't mind heavy emphasis on breasts for humor, go ahead and add a star. Jeremy A Beard

Recommended Audience: We get a lot of fantasy violence especially later in the show, but there is nothing particularly graphic. As a quick review of the DVD case might show, this show has a lot of fan service and the final episode really takes *large breasts* to a whole new level. This is best for the teen crowd and above.

Editor's Note: Many will also find the pairing of a sexually suggestive dance sequence with the extreme young age of the main character to be offensive. Viewer discretion is *highly* advised.



Version(s) Viewed: R1 DVD
Review Status: Full (3/3)
Jungle de Ikou © 1997 Yuji Moriyama / Chaos / J Project
 
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