Colorful

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Colorful
カラフル
(Karafuru)
Genre Parody
Manga: Colorful
Author Torajirou Kishi
Publisher Flag of Japan Shueisha
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Weekly Young Jump
Original run February 1998 (1998-02)December 2000 (2000-12)
Volumes 7
TV anime
Director Ryutaro Nakamura
Studio Studio Wombat
Network Flag of Japan TBS
Flag of the United States G4
Flag of the United States Flag of Canada Anime Network
Original run September 6, 1999 (1999-09-06)September 30, 1999 (1999-09-30)
Episodes 16

Colorful (カラフル Karafuru?) is a sixteen-episode anime directed by Ryutaro Nakamura and based on the manga by Torajirou Kishi. The episodes are composed of vignettes typically involving men and teenage boys attempting to catch a glimpse of women's panties and/or look down their blouses. The episodes are fast-paced, experimental in animation and sound/music, manic and very short (about seven minutes each) and filled with ecchi comedy.

Anime fanatics tend to either love or hate the series as it is considered either wildly funny, or tasteless and depraved. Colorful shares similarities with Golden Boy in several ways: most notably the inclusion of one of the characters acting the bizarre toilet fetish of Kintaro Oe in one of the episodes.

The opening theme is "Boku no Taion wa 37.5 C." (僕の体温は37.5℃ "My temperature is 37.5 degrees"?) by Yuko Miyamura.

The English (U.S.) DVD was released on March 18, 2003 and is distributed by A.D. Vision.

Contents

[edit] Cast and characters

Colorful's cast is very varied with some characters only appearing once in the whole series. There are also several special interest characters that make appearances across episodes.

Hirokawa and Itani showing the anime's famous super deformed facial expressions.
Hirokawa and Itani showing the anime's famous super deformed facial expressions.

Hirokawa and Itani are two freshmen at Tokyo university who are perverts in their own way. Hirokawa and Itani are seen enjoying the wind blowing girls' skirts up and seeing their attractive English teacher showing them how to pronounce their L's and R's. Hirokawa shares an apartment with three people.
Hirokawa voiced by: Nobutoshi Hayashi (Japanese), David Matranga (English)
Itani voiced by: Yasuhiko Kawazu (Japanese), Tommy Drake (English)

Aki Yamamoto is the cute athletic star who is the coach's main focus for his fantasies. The show features clips of Yamamoto's face in between vignettes, either winking or with her name being printed all over the screen with "Yamamoto!" being said by multiple people in different ways.
Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Hilary Haag (English)

Steve is an American exchange student majoring in photography and cinematography at Tokyo University. He uses his cameras for voyeuristic panty shots.
Voiced by: Yūichi Nagashima (Japanese), Greg Stanley (English)

Kariya is a man with circular sun-glasses who usually steals things from unsuspecting people.
Voiced by: Daiki Nakamura

Shimoi Chino is the reporter for the "Psychic Spot" television program ("Channel 2 Night Beat" in the dubbed version) whose main goal is to sit beside Barbara Walters on The View.
Voiced by: Nina Kumagaya (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

[edit] Other characters

[edit] Taglines

Real life is never Black & White.
Love is Colorful
Roses are red
Violets are blue
This show's about panties.

[edit] Trivia

  • The show Shimoi hosts in episode one is called "ShinRei Spot". ShinRei was dubbed into "Psychic" by ADV Films.
  • Shimoi often directs her work to gain Barbara Walters' attention in the dub.
  • Episode twelve pokes fun at classic kaiju movies with a giant private school girl as the "monster". All the cast members make an appearance.
  • The Golden Boy-spoof episode shows Hirokuwa's roommates watching Episode four (of Colorful), including the opening title sequence.
  • Some puns were left out of the English dub, but were included in A.D.V. subtitles. One such pun involves Steve referring to his panty shots as "Japan's exotic upside-down Fuji".
  • The show is rather ambiguous as to whether it supports the fetishes it deals with or not. The perpetrators within the show usually either fail at their attempt to catch a glimpse, get caught in the act, or suffer Karmic retribution. For instance, there is a running gag where characters will crash their bikes while ogling passing female bikers.

[edit] External links