World of Narue

Director
Hiromitsu MoritaHiromitsu Morita, Tomio Ashida
Production
Kadokawa Shoten, Project World of Narue, Studio Live
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
12 episodes
Year
2003

World of Narue

By Stephen Lerch
23rd May 04

Short Synopsis:

This is a love story, pure and simple.

Kazuto doesn't have any luck with women. On his way to school one rainy morning, upon passing some dilapidated apartments he spots a box with a 'cute little puppy' inside. He can't do anything as he is on his way to school and doesn't want to be late, so he leaves the puppy alone. His school day passes and as he makes the trek home, he checks the box and notices the puppy is still there. He decides to take it home. When he picks it up, someone yells from behind him to not be fooled. He turns and spots a girl with a baseball bat, and as he is looking away the puppy turns from cute to ferocious. The girl saves the day with the baseball bat and as Kazuto stands in a stupor, she leaves him to chase after the 'puppy.' As she leaves, Kazuto realizes he is still holding her bat and that he hadn't thanked her for saving him. He also noticed she was wearing his school's uniform.

The next day Kazuto desires to return the bat and thank her. Not being good with the ladies, he asks a friend, Masaki, to help him out. Masaki, being a good friend, goes next door to spy on the other class when he realizes Kazuto's savior is there. Masaki's forced childhood friend, Hajime, informs Masaki that the person who saved Kazuto was Narue.

Narue is an alien. She is an outcast at school because it is believed she is an alien. Narue has no friends when the story begins, and Hajime doesn't even believe she is an alien and instead believes Narue is using the alien story to gain popularity (though when you look at it, it's blatantly obvious that this 'ploy' isn't working...).

Masaki and Kazuto decide to follow Narue on the way home in order to return the bat. Masaki lets Kazuto go. When he returns the bat to a bit shocked Narue, he asks her to go out for tea with him. She thinks he is trying to muscle her into going with him (I'll give you the bat if you go for tea with me) as she isn't good with people. Narue asks several questions of him. Does he care that she reads popular girls magazines at the news stand? Does he care that she is poor? Most importantly, does he mind that she is an alien? Based on his answers, Narue decides to give him a chance. Narue's first friend also becomes her boyfriend.

This Anime is based on a Manga series, seeing release in the US currently by the same people who brought us the Anime, CPM/US Manga Corps.

Video:

Decent, but unexceptional transfer. Typical CPM/US Manga Corps quality.

There are instances of dot crawl in several scenes, notably the opening animation and several other places throughout. Other than this, the only other video issue is with the op/ed of the series being translated to English and the quality suffering because of this. The video running behind the credits in the ending tend to be blurry and the text suffers the same fate.

The animation quality on this is middle of the road. It's not spectacular, nor is it trash either. There are very few instances of animation recycling and the colors are bright. No complaints and no real compliments.

Audio:

You have your choice of English Stereo 2.0 or Japanese Stereo 2.0.

The Japanese voice actors are well suited to their role and do a great job acting their parts. Music is rather sparse and what is there tends to be remarkable in that it is unremarkable. The opening and ending theme fit the show and are well done.

As with most of my reviews, I leave the English track to the reader to decide upon when it comes to quality of the acting. Spot checking the English audio didn't present any technical difficulties.

Extras:

Wow. There are an amazing amount of extras in this series. You have a director's commentary on the first disc, Japanese voice actor commentaries, art galleries, a Manga to Anime comparison for some scenes, alternate previews for every episode (viewable only in the extras menus, not during the show), both English and Japanese character intros, Japanese voice actor interviews, textless op/ed, Japanese commercials for the show and of course, CPM/US Manga Corps previews.

The only noticeable extra missing would be the Japanese op/ed animations, but this is easily overlooked in light of all the other extras available.

The extras with this set really stand out. Everything that is there is worth checking out even if a person only remotely enjoyed the show. CPM did a great job with this release.

Packaging:

Narue is available now in a 4 disc cardboard digipak containing the entire 12 episode series and will be released later on as a set of 4 single DVDs. I am only guessing that the individual releases will mirror the 4 discs in this set.

The cardboard digipak is housed in a box. The artwork on the outside of the box is well drawn and fits well with the spirit of the show. There is different artwork to be seen on the digipak itself, which also fits with the show. Beneath each disc, after pulling the disc out, is a picture of a different character from the series and they are also well drawn.

None of my discs arrived loose, which is a definite plus since any of my previous experiences with digipak releases have not been so fortunate.

One negative to this package is the use of the sticky anti-theft device. With the way the device was placed in the box, it made pulling the digipak out of the box for the first time extremely difficult. Once I was able to retrieve my digipak from the stubborn box, the anti-theft device was easily removed and didn't take any of the box with it (also a plus).

Final Analysis:

The World of Narue is a well told, if a little cliched, love story. The boy meets and falls in love with an alien has been told many times before, both better and worse than Narue does it. It's not a bad premise for the show and makes for a refreshing and good, light hearted watch.

It's a bit open ended, but enough is closed off to leave you satisfied.

I enjoyed this series quite a bit, though I wouldn't be able to highly recommend it, as it's not a show for everyone. Anyone who doesn't like to have a story focus on love will not enjoy this show, pure and simple.

Worth checking out but nor worth a purchase for everyone.

7.5/10

-- Stephen Lerch 23rd May 04

World of Narue Images