Haré+Guu
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| Haré+Guu | |
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| ジャングルはいつもハレのちグゥ (Janguru wa Itsumo Hare nochi Gū) |
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| Genre | Comedy |
| Manga: Jungle ha Itsumo Hare nochi Guu | |
| Author | Renjuro Kindaichi |
| Publisher |  Square-Enix |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Serialized in | Monthly Shōnen Gangan |
| Original run | 1996 – 2001 |
| Volumes | 10 |
| Manga: HareGuu | |
| Author | Renjuro Kindaichi |
| Publisher | Square-Enix |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Serialized in | Monthly Shōnen Gangan |
| Original run | 2001 – ongoing |
| Volumes | 7 |
| TV anime | |
| Director | Tsutomu Mizushima |
| Studio | Bandai Visual |
| Licensor |  AN Entertainment FUNimation Entertainment |
| Network | TV Tokyo |
| Original run | 3 April 2001 – 25 September 2001 |
| Episodes | 26 |
| OVA: Haré+Guu DELUXE | |
| Director | Tsutomu Mizushima |
| Studio | Bandai Visual |
| Licensor | AN Entertainment FUNimation Entertainment |
| Episodes | 6 |
| Released | August 2002 – January 2003 |
| OVA: Haré+Guu FINAL | |
| Director | Tsutomu Mizushima |
| Studio | Bandai Visual |
| Licensor | AN Entertainment FUNimation Entertainment |
| Episodes | 7 |
| Released | December 2003 – June 2004 |
Haré+Guu (ジャングルはいつもハレのちグゥ Janguru wa Itsumo Hare nochi Gū?, lit. The Jungle Was Always Nice, Then Came Guu) is a Japanese anime, based on an original manga which ran in Monthly Shōnen Gangan.[1][2] Twenty-six TV episodes were made, followed by two OVA sequels: Haré+Guu DELUXE and Haré+Guu FINAL.
The surreal, comical and occasionally serious series focuses on the story of a 10 year-old jungle boy named Haré and his misadventures with Guu, a liminal being who usually presents herself as a young girl.
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[edit] Characters
Many characters in the series have names relating to weather (including, most obviously 'We-da'). The show's title has a double meaning, sounding like a weather forecast (Mostly fair skies, but then Guu) and a normal title (The Jungle was Nice, then came Guu). Many fans avoid translating the title, some simply referring to it as Hare Nochi Guu or (as the show does) HareGuu. Some fans of the show simply just refer to the show as Guu, being that Guu is a unique character.
- Guu (グゥ)
- Guu's stomach is a world, filled with buildings, hundred legged cats, and a nice young couple of lovers that have been trapped there for ages (but apparently don't mind their predicament). Other than Haré, no character seems to be aware of Guu's strange nature (or for that matter the bizarre circumstances surrounding everything else in the series). The weird events that occur because of her are only ever acknowledged by Haré. Everyone who is eaten by Guu, only to be spat out later (excluding Haré) dismisses what happened as "sleeping" (occasionally, dreaming about Guu's Stomach world). Haré even dismisses his first time in Guu's Stomach but is quickly proved wrong. There are other strange things Guu can do, which defy the laws of physics, logic, and reality, such as (but not limited to) superhuman strength, elongate her body parts, breathe underwater, teleport, time travel, cause people to switch bodies, read minds, cause disco music to play suddenly, switch her face (from a cute face to a weird face), transform into a giant kaiju monster version of herself, and incite mental breakdowns in Haré, though the latter is more of a talent than an actual power.
- Adult Guu
- A resident living inside Guu who is separate from Guu and can take over whenever she feels like it. Fortunately for Guu and the rest of the residents inside her stomach, she cares about them and their wants and desires, going so far as to steal Ame from Hare. She's also the one responsible for ripping off the village elder's chest hair, making him permanently traumatized of Guu. She also appeared one time to act as the school doctor after Clive tried unsuccessfully to give Guu a physical, causing Guu to tie-up Clive. (Coincidentally, the adult version of Guu bears a striking resemblance to Lucy from Elfen Lied and is also voiced by the person as Lucy even though Elfen Lied aired after Adult Guu's appearance)
- Haré (ハレ)
- The usually patient and sweet-natured Haré (whose name means 'fair weather') is usually troubled by Guu's joy in creating chaos and he is prone to anxious rants or tantrums whenever Guu does something unnatural. This is accompanied by a sudden downpour of rain. Haré is used by his mother, Weda, to do household chores and he is teased by Guu for having an Oedipus complex, exhibited in his competitive nature trying to keep Dr. Clive away from Weda. He gets worried about any other male character trying to win over Weda, such as Asio, coming to a boil in an episode where he throws himself into a competition over rights to her for a year, with Dr. Clive, Mari, and Uigher. On the rare occasions that he imbibes alcohol, he becomes what Weda refers to as "a bad drunk": enraged, surly, extremely violent, capable of causing explosions, alternating between violence and high-pitched laughing and skipping fits, and more than willing to attack and verbally abuse anybody and anything unfortunate enough to catch his attention (especially Dr. Clive, who Haré severely beats to a pulp before throwing him through a tree). He even managed to out-yell the savagly bipolar Hiroko Yamada to tears, and wouldn't let up on insulting her character for some time. Haré tends to think about things too much, and Guu takes advantage of that by psychoanalyzing Haré at every opportunity, and playfully taking advantage of Haré's neurosis. Hare is also seen reading the Hare+Guu manga.
- Weda (ウェダ)
- Weda is Haré's mother. She is carefree and inclined to binge drinking. Because of her laziness, Haré looks after her. She left life in a rich home at the age of 14 and raised Hare in the jungle by herself which, due to her chronic irresponsibility, is quite difficult to fathom.
- Ame
- Hare's baby brother. Born in the OVA, Haré+Guu Deluxe, but has barely any significance in the story. His name comes from "Megumi no Ame" (Rain of Blessing), When Haré goes back in time, and met up with the past Weda, he claimed that his name was Ame rather than Haré, and when he got back in the present, Weda remembered the boy from the past while naming her 2nd child.
- Mari (マリィ)
- A student of the school that Haré and Guu attend and Reiji-sensei's younger sister. Mari is friendly towards Haré (Later turning into a crush), and imagines herself as a tragic, shōjo manga-esque character. She really loves Weda because she never had the chance to have a mother, and pictures Dr. Clive (father figure) as a part of her family as well. She gets extremely jealous of Hare whenever he goes to the city, always imagining Hare hooking up with various women.
- Dr. Clive (クライヴ)
- The doctor of the school, Clive is apathetic towards everyone in the jungle, unless they happen to be female. He came in from the city shortly after the series began, and had a 'relationship' with Weda while she was 14 years old, which, as Weda admits, resulted in Haré's birth. The anime and manga state that Dr. Clive is Haré's biological father but despite this, he engages in violent arguments with Haré (most of the time the center of it being Weda). Highly perverted, he uses every opportunity to "reignite his old relationship" with Weda, which usually end in failures until he chases after Weda when she leaves for the city. He has white hair when the series begins, but eventually dyes it black.
- Reiji-sensei/Lazy-Sensei (レジィ)
- Reiji is the teacher of the students of the school. He likes to stay up all night watching anime, so he falls asleep during the day. The school does not have many students so they all are in Reiji's class. Unfortunately Reiji would much rather rest than teach, as a result little learning ever occurs.
- Chourou/Village Elder (ボーア)
- Chourou is an old man with a lot of chest hair, which he feels is a sign of his strength and manliness. Adult Guu steals it and this is used as a plot device. (As a result of this he has taken to calling her "Lord Guu" and keeping a safe distance.) As the village elder, he leads the pokute (recurring and common creatures in the jungle) hunts, and has dozens of recipes in which pokutes are used. He falls in love with a cat that looks almost like him which he ends up giving to Hare (much to Hare's chagrin) and even disappears for a while when his chest hair growth goes out of control. By the ends, he's merely a furball with a head.
- Toposte (トポステ)
- Toposte is the grandchild of Chourou and like him, does not wear a shirt. He initially does not have chest hair like his grandfather, though he fears it is genetic. He attends at the school. When he does ends up growing chest hair, he accepts it happily after learning that the chest hair is how Chourou got girls attracted to him back when he was young.
- Rebecca (レベッカ)
- Weda's drinking friend who was raised by pokutes that take care of her, even after she started living in the village. They have been revealed as the source of her "magically cleaning" house (of which she has no knowledge). She is used as a female stock character, filling out various roles as Weda's friend.
- Uigher/Wiggle (ウイグル)
- One of the older students, the lack of influence he has on the storyline is occasionally used as a gag. He is madly in love with Weda, but never gets to prove his love, usually resulting in a comedic attempt to hang himself. Even after Weda gets married to Clive, he still fantasizes and pursues Weda.
- Gupta (グプタ)
- Another upperclassman in the school, he is fairly impulsive but not particularly mature. Starts off with long blonde hair, gets it cut short and blackened when Dama first appears, then it grows back out to a brown color later.
- Waji (ワジ)
- An obnoxious student who always laughs when he talks, and tries to encourage Guu to do the same, to questionable results. He is sometimes found weeping in the forest for unknown reasons.
- Lavenna (ラヴェンナ)
- The oldest female student in the school. She is a bit air-headed and unsure of herself. Completely lost in her own world as she fails to pay attention or care about events going on around her when she runs errands for her mom.
- Pokute (ポクテ)
- Creatures abundant in the jungle, often seen in people's houses. They look like armless rabbits with human faces. Pokute were supposedly sent from the heavens as protectors, although the villagers use them as a food source.
- Tomoyo
- One of three people living inside Guu's stomach world. A kind and friendly office lady, she does not seem to mind living inside of Guu. Seiichi and her are good friends and are even possibly a couple. She takes care of Haré's pet bird Hee after Guu eats him.
- Seiichi
- One of three people living inside Guu's stomach world. Like Tomoyo, he is a friendly high school boy who doesn't seem to mind living inside of Guu. He is good friends with Tomoyo and is even possibly her boyfriend.
- Hiroko Yamada/"Angry Yamada"
- One of three people living inside Guu's stomach world who first appears in episode 8 of the TV series. She is a 22 year old who attempted suicide by throwing herself into the ocean and was rescued by Guu, who swallowed her while fishing (and while bringing in a massive haul of various sea life, she technically didn't catch any fish). Unlike Seiichi and Tomoyo, Hiroko is mentally unstable and Bipolar, making her dangerous and unpredictable. In fact, she tried to kill herself in an elaborate plot to take revenge on her cheating husband by dying, going through hell, and coming back as an evil spirit to haunt him for the rest of his life. She now spends most of her time in Guu's stomach world drinking alone on a hill, where most of the other inhabitants have now learned to avoid. Became fast-friends with Yumi-sensei when Guu had swallowed Yumi for a short time.
- Asio (アシオ)
- A servant at Weda's parent's estate, he has very scary eyes (though it wasn't always the case, was stated to have beautiful eyes when he was younger). Loves Weda, but she thinks of him as a brother. He is often the one who goes to pick up Weda after nights where she had been drinking specifically heavily (revealed to be quite frequent due to Weda's habits). Often coming up with ideas that seem not to be possible, Haré is put off by him from their first meeting.
- Bel (ベル)
- Another servant, she is prone to gigantic nosebleeds when thinking of Weda as a child (this implies something highly innapropriate). She and Asio have often been used to fill in the story of Weda's past. Though Weda is quite happy the two of them returned, their odd tendencies often frighten Haré, who is quite easily unbalanced by their (and Guu's) acts that seem to defy the laws of physics. Hates Clive with a passion.
- Sagin (サギン)
- A reticent boy. Along with Rāya, he seems to be part of a running gag in the series as both of them never talk, or are always interrupted when they are about to. (Like having a video interview with everyone, where when their turn came the camera switched to the next person immediately when they open their mouths.)
- Rāya (ラーヤ)
- A reticent girl. Along with Sagin, she seems to be part of a running gag in the series as both of them never talk, or are always interrupted when they are about to. (Like when Haré asks for an answer from everyone, and the camera pans over everyone, skipping past Sagin and Rāya when he looked at them.) She only speaks two words in the entire course of the anime series and OVAs- "The Crotch."
- Robert
- Weda's trigger-happy bodyguard after she, Hare, and Guu go to the city. After graduating high school, he arrived in the city and was beat up one night, and was later found by Bel. It's because of her that he got his job. At first he doesn't get along well with Weda, saying that she wasn't worthy of Bel's love, but that changes after they foil a bank robbery. He may or may not have feelings for Bel (as episode 23 implies). In addition to being trigger-happy, he is a paranoid lunatic and once tried to kill a boy who bullied Hare causing him to ironically protect his own abuser from Robert.
- Yumi-sensei
- A substitute teacher that took over for Lazy while he was sick. Ironic since she absolutely hates children, and has never had a boyfriend. Extremely short fuse. She exhibited a 1-way attraction to Hare after Hare was so nice and understanding towards her plight, and eventually breaks it off in the end to be with Toposte.
- Dama
- Hairdresser from a close by village that became obsessed with her long-lost white-haired husband. Eventually told to live for new love, and starts training her body to be in top shape. Meets, fights, and marries the bank robber, only to get seduced by an assassin later. After realizing she was only being used by the assassin, she resumes her happily married life with the bank robber.
- Bank Robber
- Complete video game nerd who gets along with Hare due to their mutual love of videogames. They'd be friends if he wasn't constantly taking Hare as a hostage. Eventually marries Dama after being bested by her in battle.
- Rita
- A self-centered girl around Hare's age that attends school in the city, who only cares about herself, and pleases other to not make enemies so she can get ahead in life. Hare ends up becoming her first true friend.
- Chet and Addie
- Dubbed the "stupid couple" by the village, they're a couple that have been madly in love with each other for the past few years. Chet claims to have come from England on a research trip, only to stay in the jungle when he laid eyes on Addie. A running joke later in the series is that whenever Chet and Addie are together on screen, they're usually doing something that needs to be blurred out.
[edit] Plot
Unlike the manga, which was more focused on the romantic affairs of Weda (mother of Haré), the anime plot emphasises comedy and the "special" relationship between Haré and Guu. The OVAs are mostly a continuation of the TV series, expanding upon it with several new characters, a bigger focus on Weda, and answering unanswered questions.
| Arc | Synopsis | Characters introduced |
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| Intro | It opens with a young pregnant Weda leaving her home in the city... only to flash forward to the present where Hare starts off playing a Phantasy Star knockoff, and is a typical boy living in the jungle with his lazy mother who has him go fetch bananas for her. On his way back from his errand, a dark large being overtakes him. Scared, he runs back to the house where his mom's decided to have a new guest live out the house, a cute normal girl named Guu. The next morning, Hare wakes up to find Guu a completely different person who's no longer cute, social, or energetic. No one seems to notice the change. Guu mostly remains quiet and ignorant of things while Hare has to show her around and explain things to her, and Hare notices Guu likes to eat things. She ends up swallowing Hare where instead of resulting in death, he's taking to a whole other world existing in Guu's stomach where he meets Seiichi and Tomoyo, a couple who has accepted their fate in Guu's stomach. After Guu spits Hare back into the real world, she accompanies Hare to school where she meets all of Hare's schoolmates (who she swallows and spits back out) and the village elder (whose chest-hair she rips out). Mostly meant to establish Guu, and from there-on, the adventure begins. |
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| Clive | The school gets a new doctor that came from the city, and turns out to be Hare's long-lost dad! Most of the other characters start developing personalities and eccentricities of their own (ie Wiggle's hardcore in love with Weda and constantly challenges the school doctor to fights), and Guu goes from being silent to being extremely cynical and sarcastic towards Hare, the others, and the situations she'll cause to amuse herself. Starts being more antagonistic towards Hare. Guu starts causing shenanigans around the jungle that are meant to keep her amused (like holding a contest for Weda, the winner getting her company for a year). Guu also adds another resident to her stomach world, Miss Hiroko Yamada, as well as showing an adult form transformation that she uses to defend Hare against a bear attack. Dama also comes around who's a barber from the next village over, obsessing over her long lost husband with white hair who she mistakes Dr. Clive for. |
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| Bel/Asio | Bel and Asio, two servants who have worked for Weda in Weda's past life, visit the jungle, claiming they're on vacation, and wanted to see their old master. They relieve Hare of his chores around the house, and Hare enjoys having to do less work around the house. Guu causes more disasters around the jungle like creating a blizzard storm, changing people's personalities, and bringing down the wrath of Dama upon Clive. Clive finally dyes his hair black to have Dama leave him alone. Hare meanwhile finds out from Asio the circumstances behind Weda leaving behind her past life, and why the currently live in they jungle. Weda eventually gets it out of Bel and Asio that the REAL reason they came to the jungle, was to in fact, bring Weda and Hare back to the city since her father had recently died. Weda refuses at first, but eventually relents, much to Hare's chagrin. |
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| City | Hare, Weda, Guu, Bel, and Asio make it to the city where they are met by Robert, a personal body guard hired to protect Hare and Weda. Robert initially dislikes Weda, but when Hare and Guu are held hostage by a bank robber obsessed with games, Weda and Robert team up to proficiently take out the bank robber, getting the safe return of Hare and Guu. Hare easily adjusts to luxurious life in the mansion while Weda remains bored. Eventually Clive comes to the city, where he finally is able to convey to Weda his feelings for her, ensuring them to be a couple whenever Weda returns. Guu causes more hijinks by swallowing up all the servants in a game of tag. While Hare is running away, he runs into his long lost grandmother, Sharon, where he then plots to have Weda and Sharon make up. Try as he might, all seemed lost as Weda was finally bored enough to want to return back to the jungle (much to Bel and Asio's chagrin) when finally Hare manages to knock some sense into her. Just as Weda was about to run off to visit her mom, Sharon rides up to the house Weda was staying at, and the two make up. |
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| Deluxe | Hare, Weda, and Guu are back in the jungle with Clive now living permanently with Hare. Hare ends up meeting the new teacher while Lazy was sick, Miss Yumi, who's temperament has prevented her from ever getting a boyfriend. She ends up falling for Hare, and harassing him for the next two arcs, despite the age differences. Meanwhile, the village elder's chest-hair gets so out of control he ends up being swallowed by it, and disappears for the rest of the arc, while Weda announces she's pregnant, and Clive decides after impregnating her once again that it's time to tie the knot with marriage. After getting married, Hare starts hating the idea of another sibling based on the fact he'd be the one to take care of the child due to his parents' laziness. Guu takes him back to the past where he inadverdantly ran into Weda. It turns out she's lazy in the present due to the advice he gave her in the past to be more honest with herself. He also makes up a fake name in the past while meeting Weda, which Weda uses in the present to call her 2nd child. Lastly, the bank robber returns to exact his revenge on Weda for foiling him in the previous arc. When it looks like he was about to win, Dama shows up at the last minute on the side of good to fight against the bank robber. Dama ends up winning, and the two eventually get married. |
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| Final | Bel misses Weda once again and sends out a video letter to the jungle. Weda agrees to come back to the city for a while to visit Bel and her mom, and drags Hare and Guu back with her. Hare is bored while he's up there, so Weda enrolls him in school where he meets and instantly falls in love with a new girl, Rita. Unfortunately, it works against Hare because the school bullies get jealous of the new friendship he's formed with Rita, and they end up bullying him. Hare also finds out that he's nothing special to Rita because she explained to him she likes to feel superior by being nice to everyone and not making any enemies. She's basically only looking out for her own self interests. Eventually, Rita sees Hare for the friend he is, and learns to care more than about herself. Weda resolves things at home which allows Hare and Guu to return to the jungle. The village elder is found who's basically a hairball now while Hare gets help with Ame thanks to Adult Guu and the three residents inside Guu's stomach. Just as life seems to go back to normal for Hare (well, normal for having Guu around), assassins that were hired by Weda's siblings show up to kill her because of a new discovery that Weda was included a later version of her father's will, entitling her to a part of the family fortune. Dama ends up returning yet again as one of the assassins hired to kill Weda, but Robert manages to talk her into going back to life with her husband, the Bank Robber. After seven attempts on Weda's life, the series ends with Weda resolving to go to the city to bring the fight to her siblings. |
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[edit] Additional info
- The original stories are drawn as manga by Renjyuurou Kindaichi and the early 100 chapters are titled as "Jungle wa itsumo Hare nochi Guu(ジャングルはいつもハレのちグゥ)" then changed to "Hare+Guu(ハレグゥ)".
- Also, the original Japanese manga (at least, the early stories), spelled Guu's name in Romaji as "Goo".
- The very last episode of Hare nochi Guu Final is a cliffhanger ending, as we are left with Hare, Guu, and Weda returning to the city, and "See You Again" is written at the end of the credits. This leaves an opening for a possible 4th series.
- Although never specified, it's clear that the jungle where Haré lives is somewhere in Indonesia, since orangutans and Rafflesia flowers have been seen.
- The closing song "Ohashi" by 0930 [Okusama] was changed because Bandai Japan wouldn't allow AN entertainment to use it. They told them to use the soul funk music heard in ep 3 as a replacement.
[edit] Voice cast
[edit] References
- ^ Haré+Guu from Animenfo.
- ^ Haré+Guu (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
