▪	RELEASED BY:		FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT
		▪	ASPECT RATIO:		4:3 FULL SCREEN
		▪	AUDIO:		ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 2.0
		▪	RUNNING TIME:		650 MIN
		▪	RATING:		PG
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		09/11/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		11/23/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		SCOTT CAMPBELL

Welcome to the jungle, the peaceful home of fun-loving ten year old Hare. That is, until Guu moves in. She may look like an innocent orphan girl to everyone else, but only Hare knows that Guu is really a pan-dimensional, mind-reading, magic-using monster with a sarcastic wit and an unlimited appetite for everything she sees (and that means EVERYTHING). Prepare yourself for chest hair afros, weird jungle creatures, and the craziest comedy, well, ever, with the wacky adventures of Hare+Guu.

Just looking at the outside of this box set gives you a pretty good idea of how crazy the contents could prove to be. Crazy characters, uncontrollable amounts of colour, weird creatures, dancing…? And it’s very true once you start to watch Hare+Guu – it really is out there – way out there in left field that is!

The first couple of episodes introduce us as the audience to all the strange creatures and occupants of an odd jungle setting. Guu appears out of seemingly nowhere and becomes an integral part of Hare’s life, despite him wishing she’d just disappear. We quickly discover that there are many things not quite right with Guu, and/or that she might be hiding something (or a lot of things!). Following this tossing of our minds into the deep end of the pool, the arrival of a new school doctor does nothing to cure Hare’s neurosis. In fact, the lecherous medicine man’s attempts to play doctor with Hare’s mom are enough to give a boy a heart attack! Guu’s meddling mischief makes matters worse when she magically swaps Hare and the doctor’s bodies. What’s a boy to do?

When Guu becomes a fisher woman, she reels in a prize worthy catch, but Hare would prefer that it be thrown back. Guu’s unique abilities do come in handy though when a trip to the beach turns into a titanic disaster. Back at home, a terrible, ravenous monster threatens to make Weda a midnight snack, and the doctor gets a taste of his own medicine when the village hag decides she wants to give him a thorough, private examination.

A pair of Weda’s former servants arrive in the jungle to spruce up Hare’s house, but their appearance stirs up more than just a bit of dust. The odd visitors from the city raise new questions about Hare’s future and Weda’s old life. But Weda’s future rides on the results of a wacky traditional village game show. And speaking of wacky traditions, why is Rebecca’s house packed full of pokute, the weird rabbit like animals that everyone is so interested in eating? The absurd answers to these and other questions that you never thought to ask lie buried deep – but surely Hare + Guu can bring them to the surface if you keep watching.

Playtime takes preposterous proportions when Guu subs as doctor and Marie’s pretend family puts Weda in bed with her old fling. Hare’s only hope of preventing his mom from reigniting her old flame is finding another woman for Clive. But the only other woman available is a ravenous creature closer to a jungle beast than a human being! While Clive cowers from his own awful admirer, the village girls accuse an unlikely suspect of spying on their private moments, leading to a hysterical calamity of confused identity.

Then, change is in the air, from snow in the jungle to a trip to the concrete jungle (the city that is). After a freak blizzard strikes the village, Weda is struck by the urge to return to her home in the city. There may not be wild animals in the metropolis, but the city is no less dangerous, as a trigger happy bodyguard and a couple of video game obsessed bank robbers prove. And then a new environment gives Guu plenty of excuses to engage in even more maniacal mischief.

Volume seven covers the last episodes of the series in a crazy conclusion. The bonds of love are hard to escape, no matter where you are it seems. Clive and Weda are brought back together, while also accidentally connecting Hare with the grandmother he’s never known. But the chances of reconciling Weda with her Mother are slim and may just end up requiring a miracle. Normally such things would be quite impossible, but with Guu around, almost anything is made possible. From a thrilling spy mission in drag to literally turning life into a game, and trampling the city as a giant Guu Robo, you can trust Guu to insure that family reunions are anything but routine!

So yes, Hare+Guu is unique. Everything it brings to the table is different enough to keep your very close attention because you won’t have seen something quite like it before. The animation has this quirky, almost cell-shaded quality to it. It goes from being pleasantly minimal/super deformed to being very detailed and manic – all depending on the situation. The music is fun and catchy – the opening sequence is especially hard to skip each time as the OP is so funny. Hare+Guu is certainly meant to be funny, and often that humour comes across in the strangest of ways! Character’s heads fly off like rockets. There are bear costumes. Cross dressing is a must for espionage. It has that manic anime humour fused into it, but loves to spin it in its own way. The overall character designs and style of the art also makes it stick out from the crowd – you’ll really be able to tell they wanted to do something different with this one, and it works. One of the best characters is Weda, the “desirable mother.” She’s got “Stacy’s Mom Syndrome” written all over her, and yet she is so unaware of the fact. It makes for a lot of misunderstandings and comedy. Then there’s Guu – there’s almost no way to explain her antics in words.

The physical product itself - the box, the DVD cases and the discs - are all really well made and incorporate great design. You can tell when someone really put some time and effort into making a product work and look good at the same time, and this set is one of those products. All the little drawings and crazy stuff that is strewn all about the covers of the DVD cases are quite humorous – they’re actually worth reading for a few laughs – imagine that! And the extras – they’re almost boundless. You’d be hard pressed to find a series or a box set with more entertaining and informative extras than Hare+Guu. Funimation has made this product available to North Americans in a way that allows us to be the biggest fans of this series if we want to. All the extras and goodness that they have put into this product is like having a fan book, art book, and character file all wrapped into the DVD set itself. Hare+Guu is a ton of fun – but don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself!

EXTRAS:
The disc extras include English recording outtakes, clean opening and closing animation, original Japanese episode previews, production art galleries, Lazy Sensei’s Language Lessons (translation and cultural notes), English recording outtakes, and original Japanese television commercials. Each DVD also comes with a snappy little booklet, chockfull of more information than you’d ever need to know. Hare+Guu is crazy for heaps of wonderful extras.

IN SUMMARY:
If you enjoy crazy anime like Excel Saga and Paniponi Dash, this anime is one you should add to your list. It’s visually pleasing in so many ways, and contains enough random antics to keep your eyebrows raised for hours on end if you wish it. Hare+Guu is unique to say the least, and wholly entertaining to say the very most!