Here’s another one completely done in CG. Mr Stain has thirteen episodes of seven minutes long, plus one that clocks in at half an hour. It pretty much tells fourteen standalone stories about Mr Stain, and some of the things that he finds around his Junk Alley (why yes, this one has a very descriptive title).
The character models are much more cartoonish than usual with CG anime, which solves the Botox faces problem quite nicely. In fact, the entire series has no words in it whatsoever, and it entirely reliant on the nonverbal communication between the different characters, and that is something that this series is really good at. The facial expressions, the way that the characters move, their gestures. It’s all simplifies, but very sincere and genuine. Also be sure not to miss the EDs for this series, which are based around a wonderful idea.
The stories themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. There are about five or six episodes, like the one with the fish or the one with the fridge that are rather uninspired, and don’t do much interesting. On the other side of the coin though, some of the episodes are shocking, some are touching, some are hilarious and others are just completely bizarre. Some of the things that Mr Stain finds but especially the things that the creators do with them are very imaginative. I especially loved the episode with the Flower and the one with the Baby, due to the bafflingly unexpected twists that the stories in these episodes take.
Beyond that, there isn’t much to this series: episodes don’t build up for each other and the characters just reset themselves after episode after the final one, so there’s not much depth to this thing. It’s a great quick watch though, if you’re in for something strange, yet uncomplicated. What really sets this one apart is some of the bizarre and sometimes even macabre ideas it goes with. It’s completely unpredictable, and yet it’s not just random for the sake of being random.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Fourteen standalone stories, told without any dialogue and makes good use of the fact that there isn’t any dialogue. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Lovable and well acted, but completely one-dimensional. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Simple character designs, but well animated. doesn’t have the graphical problems that most CG anime have, and yet it was made eight years ago. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – It’s just a strange alley, but the things that pop up there are very creative. |
Suggestions:
– Hoshi no Umi no Amuri
– Genius Party – Deathtic 4
– Fireball
Ah, I saw some of this on Animax a long time ago. Very interesting show. My favourite character is the cat whose name I forgot. And yeah, the EDs are my favorite as well.