Movie Digest
Ojarumaru is an anime series that chronicles the adventures of a 5-year-old prince who time travels into the future Japan from the Heian period. Living in the moonlight town he befriends many people, animals, citizens and insects. He has a sceptre by which he passes judgement to the dead. The Oni trio (the devil siblings) try to steal the sceptre from his possession too many times but all of their plans to do so fails terribly.
The Feel-Good Part
Ojarumaru is the longest anime running with 1800 episodes in its series. The manga was originally serialized in the shigakukan’s Ciao magazine and much later in the year 1998 it was adapted into an anime. If anything, this anime can be watched in order to chronicle the changes in the art style and how anime has prevailed in the years back from the 90s to recent years. There is a certain charm associated with anime from the 90s, more of this charm is often credited to nostalgia and memories of the now adult as kids. We see changes in the drawing of the characters features such as eyes, mouths, amongst other. For someone studying the trends in the art style of anime over the years digging into old anime that run for a long time is always beneficial. The series has been running for more than a time period of two decades, yet the characters present in the story are not aged or anything of that sort. This series is good for its small story arcs and themes that are episodic.
The Disappointing Factor
One of the most disappointing factors for newbie watchers of anime is that majority of the anime have a lot of episodes without proper breakdown into seasons. Most of the tv shows or Netflix often have seasons and that is the format the episodes were released in. Although now we can find anime too in seasons, some of the old anime like for example the big 3 namely: Naruto-One Piece-Bleach did not arrive in seasons. They simply released every episode once a week and in total went up to 500 eps. One Piece still has its manga release and weekly episode release reaching up to 1015 episodes. For those not interested in anime this number of episodes and consumption might seem too tardy and difficult.
In-Depth Analysis
Ojarumaru is a time warp anime series. A 5-year-old prince time warps into the future Japan and lives in the moonlight city. There he befriends a lot of insects, animals and the citizens. These people he befriended become part of his adventures that are chronicled through this anime. The sceptre that Ojarumaru has is actually stolen from the father of the Oni trio. Every time the Oni trio try to get the sceptre their plans fail. There is a running joke that every anime has a beach scene in it. Ojarumaru also sticks to this rule and does have a wholesome beach scene in it. speaking of the author of ojarumaru, Rin Inumaru, was famously known for her manga and was last reported as committed suicide. She was an essayist and mangaka from Tokyo. Her works especially the ojarumaru is considered one the longest running anime series.
Star Power
Yuji Ueda who was also known for his VA in Pokemon, Kensho Ono, Yuriko Fuchizaki are some of the lead VA for this series.
Overall Opinion
The recent surge if anime in the western hemisphere is not unnoticed in the eyes of mangakas and studios. Anime that was funnily enough born out the WW II is now a major recreation for most adult, teens. The themes are very unique and worldbuilding abilities of mangakas are very strong in some cases. Ojarumaru as your first anime would however be a little overwhelming with the amount of episodes it has. It would therefore be recommended to watch anime with fewer episodes and smaller story arcs before delving into the ones with tons of episodes.
