So...as you might guess, this is a VERY unusual anime. To paraphrase Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman, your reaction will be dramatic - you will probably either love it or hate it (likely within the first episode). For me, this anime is both good and bad, but ultimately I had fun watching it. Here's what you should know:
Animation
Yes. It is true. The animation may be, in fact, the
...
So...as you might guess, this is a VERY unusual anime. To paraphrase Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman, your reaction will be dramatic - you will probably either love it or hate it (likely within the first episode). For me, this anime is both good and bad, but ultimately I had fun watching it. Here's what you should know:
Animation
Yes. It is true. The animation may be, in fact, the ugliest animation ever created. It's...not pretty one bit. However, each episode does have a new character, and each one has a unique design from the others -so,while they may have only taken a minute to think of and draw up, they all stuck with me by the end of the anime. For something so quick, that's rather impressive. However, character movements are pretty lazy, to be honest. This is a very low budget show, annnd it is easy to see.
Voice Acting
Heh. This is also bad. I've seen other viewers say that only two men voiced all of the characters...and I can totally buy that. Arashi, the main character, sounds very odd. Many lines sound off-kilter and under empathized. Don't get me started on the women - they all have these funny falsetto voices, except for the ones that just have straight up male voices..what else can I say? This too, is a victim of the low budget.
Plot
There is a plot here. It's exceedingly simple - Arashi wants to beat his very strong friend Te-chan in a sumo battle, so that he can become the strongest in the world. He goes around to different countries learning skills from random strangers, and eventually he returns for the showdown! It's very "monster of the week". To me, this did get a little repetitive by around the 45th episode. But I do give it points for consistency, and the ending is surprisingly good for what they were working with.
Humor vs. Accuracy - The Main Division of Opinion
For a lot of people (who make it past the first few episodes) this is where it makes or breaks the show. Because Arashi travels the world and visits a different country every episode, a representative of the country (or so to speak) much teach him the new technique. Often, a character will be a stereotype or historical figure, and they will be portrayed in a humorous and inaccurate way. I watch everything with an open mind, and I found the inaccuracies to be somewhat amusing. However, if you are offended by depictions built on faulty research, I do not recommend watching this.
For example, when he visits China, he participates in The Battle of Chi Bi. I recognized this depiction because I am a huge fan of the Dynasty Warriors video game franchise ( of course, it too, has its inaccuracies but they are very different in nature). Names like "Guan Yu" were flipped to "Yu Guan" (while others were fine), and the battle was recreated in a very liberal interpretation...but Arashi replaces a major character in a humorous way, and it changes up the history a bit. It is important to take everything in Naked Wolves with a grain of salt.
Other than that, I would describe the humor as a strange mixture of high and low brow. It is highbrow in the sense that many episodes are far more enjoyable if you understand the reference, such as the connection between The Nobel Peace Prize and the invention of dynamite. But it is lowbrow in the sense that they take that and insert gags like fart jokes and the running joke of Arashi being highly attractive to his teachers...as odd as it may be, I suspect that the people who will enjoy this anime the most are those who enjoy both types of humor.
So, in conclusion...you're gonna have to see it for yourself. Most people either hate on Naked Wolves for its low budget and oddity, or they adore it for its creativity and willingness to make bizarre jokes. I split the two (leaning towards adore) because I thought that better animation and voice acting would have improved the show, but I also found the unconventional humor comical and the various references fun. It's unlike anything else I've seen, and there are a lot of cookie cutter anime out there. Hopefully, this review will give you a fair idea of what you are getting yourself into.
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