Anime: Kujibiki Unbalance (2006)

Rate me, please. I expect two people will tell me they have seen this, so let me know who you people are, huh?  This review is based on the R2J DVDs and is considered final and fair.

Quick Take: Self-referential otaku in-jokes with all the usual anime cliches put into one brief series. KU was originally a TV show that formed a thread in Genshiken, and KU was a cute 3-OVA series that was released with that series in 2004-5. The OVAs are slightly better in several aspects. The age advisory is 13+ based on mild fanservice.

Plot synopsis: Every year the Rikkyouin High School has a lottery to determine the next year's Student Council membership; this year, Chihiro Enomoto is chosen as president while his childhood friend Tokino Akiyama picks the vice-president's ticket. However, they have to go thru a grueling one year apprenticeship under the current Student Council, and any failure to perform the silly tasks assigned will get them expelled from school.

Originally, KU was a manga. It was put into Genshikin's first season as a plot device. This is supposedly the second season for the play-within-a-play, and unfortunately, it doesn't stand alone well, as it's mostly an empty suit. Very pretty threads, but woven loosely, with no real content.

About the DVDs: The Titles for the R1 Release of the show are parodies of other Manga/Anime titles. DVD 1 No need for Chihiro is a parody of No need for Tenchi, DVD 2 Love Rikkyouin is a parody of Love Hina, and DVD 3 The Melancholy of Ritsuko Kettenkrad is a parody of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I think they are Kodansha titles, like this release. Self-referential silliness...

Animation: Directed by Genshiken helmster Tsutomu Mizushima (xxxHolic, Hare + Guu, Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan), it's an otaku in-joke festival without equal. There are occasional fanservice shots, but nothing too blatent, appropriate for mid-teen viewers. The animation is mostly good 2D computer cel animation by neophyte Afternoon Studio and Genshiken 2 animators, Asiadou. I do not know why they changed from the original animators, who were good, but the look and feel is slightly different. However, they did try to keep to the 2-volume eponymous manga by Shimoku Kio and Keito Koume. There are good directoral choices at times, but the silliness often borders on the kind of visual humor you'd find in Shin-Chan, Hare + Guu or Dokuro-chan, just without all the heart you feel toward those slapstick characters. Backgrounds are good, static cels are used somewhat, in-between animation is mostly good but occasionally seemed spotty in the later episodes. In my estimation, the animation is on par with the middle-money series that populate Japanese pre-teen tv, and I can't rate it higher than a 7. Nothing outstanding was visible in my DVD transfer, but it's also not too bad. However, the character designs have been subtly changed from the OVAs. Additionally, there is a funny/odd Genshiken OVA in volume 1 that added to the value in the set, ending with a 7.5 for animation. 


Sound: Mostly, average work all around. The catchy OP and medatative ED (the latter being sung by the talented Ai Nonaka, who also voices Chihiro's childhood friend and love interest, Tokino Akiyama) are standard montages with pop music backgrounds, but they don't really add or detract from the series. Background music is competent if unobtrusive and foley is above average; the series did have a moderate fullness to the soundstage, but the sfx work often seemed less convincing. The seiyuu are really quite good, though I always question when they choose an alto (in this case, the flexible Fujiko Takimoto easily voices Chihiro Enomoto) to voice a high-school student's part (most highschool guys just don't have alto voices).  I tried the English track, but switched back; I could not groove with the English voice cast, as it seemed to lack the energy found in the Japanese track. On balance it's about average, so I give the sound a 7, or 7.5 in Japanese only.


Story: Episodic with a romance thread as well as a slight love polygon, it's a little too short to go anywhere, and a little too long to be a simple parody. It has too many visual jokes (eg, look for Makoto from GITS and references to 15 other series) to be taken seriously, and they do get in the way of the narrative thread about Chihiro's bad luck and the hoped-for good ending. Each episode has over-the-top action set up by the secretary Renko, most of which keeps us from character development of the principle characters.

So, as a storyline, it's mostly a failure to engage the audience. If you like watching for the in-jokes, fine, but that's not my interest. Episodic stories rarely get more than a 7 from me, and this one had structural elements that got in the way of what little narrative drive it had. Therefore, I give the story a 6.5, generous because it did at least try to have a narrative.

Character: Can you say, every cliche in most school polygon romances? Interesting character design *and changes from the OVA* makes it worth watching, and there is precious little character development to engage the viewer. It's mostly a wasted effort, because the technical team did a good job on selling the characters but were let down by the writing; to be sure, it's in the manga, but can't sometimes we improve on things? So, I liked some parts of the story, but was disappointed by others, earning the series a rating of 7 on character.

Value and Enjoyment: I got the DVDs mostly on the strength of Genshiken, and the tie-in from that, and was disappointed that the story failed to engage. Still, I did laugh and enjoy the time spent watching, but this time around, I have to say there was a failure to engage me. I can't manage higher than a 7 on value (added value by a Genshikin OVA included) and a 6 on enjoyment, though I'd like to say it's likely the fault of the writing, mostly. They should have tried to decide if the focus was an injoke sendup or a real love polygon.

Conclusion: If you like the in-jokes, and feel like playing a game of who-can-spot-the-reference, it's worth the time. If not, you can spend your time better with some of the other series I mentioned by the same director. This series is mostly ... average.