Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu

 (“The jungle was always fine, and then came Guu”)
Genre: Comedy
Score: OK
Length: 1 series + 2 sets of OVA (39 episodes)

Hale (whose name means clear or fine) is an ordinary boy growing up in the jungle with his careless, irresponsible mother. Then along comes Guu, at first glance a sweet little girl, but who turns out to be a force of nature intent on making Hale’s life a misery. The rules of physics have no effect on her, social norms pass her by, and to add insult to injury Hale is the only one who has a problem with all this.

This is madcap comedy, from the makers of Dokuro-chan. In fact it’s a lot like Dokuro without the fanservice or blood, and filled out to a full length series of absolute fracking bonkers. Guu eats all of Hale’s classmates, then spits them back out before they wake up. Guu chops off her hand, eats it and regrows it instantly. Guu steals the village chief’s chest-hair, then sells it back to him as a merkin. Guu has a world in her stomach, in which live a couple of people and a cat of infinite length. Guu can read people’s thoughts, change their ages, defeat bears and turn up later wearing their skin, be piloted like a mech – pretty much anything she likes to add to the torment of a boy who just wants everything to be normal.

Too much of this can be hard to cope with, and it’s not to everybody’s taste. But in small samples, it can be very funny.