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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 04 October 2006 00:00 |
 Gargoyles. Horrible-looking things that sit on the ledges of gothic buildings and look creepy - or, if you're the Yoshinaga family, that sit on your gatepost and cause enough mayhem for the neighbours to want to steer well clear. But Gar-kun's determined to prove he can be a useful member of the family...
1 - The Rock at the Yoshinaga Family
A month ago, young Futaba Yoshinaga came into possession of a gargoyle - the imaginatively-named Gar-kun, who she won in a prize drawing. A suspicious prize drawing. Now Gar-kun's taking his guard-gargoyle duties rather too seriously, and Futaba-chan just wants to get the shop he came from to take him back - but the shopkeeper's having none of it. Gar, meanwhile, fresh from roasting the paperboy for the nth time this week, is wondering why his new family doesn't seem to trust him too much - but his chance to prove himself comes when Futaba's friend Mimori has some problems with burglars...
For some reason, I can't look at Gar without being reminded of Slash from Mahoromatic. They even sound the same, and poor Gar gets the same violent treatment from Futaba that Mahoro sometimes dished out on her erstwhile ally.
But Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas isn't a Mahoromatic clone - not even close. While this first episode focusses on Gar, it's fairly clear from the opening credits that there are a few more gargoyles still to be introduced, along with a mystery or two about their origins to be cleared up.
It's all presented in a colourful, fun style - while there are the occasional serious moments, this is first and foremost a comedy series, and although it seems to be more aimed at the younger end of the market, there's still a few chuckles to be had from watching it, which would make it worth following - if I'd been able to track down more than one episode of it. It's not going to win any prizes for being classic anime, and to be honest I wouldn't bust a gut making a determined effort to track it down, but if you happen across a few episodes it's worth a look. |
