Adult Swim’s newest experiment has become one of the hottest topics of discussion in recent months.  Message boards around the internet have been lit up with posts concerning people’s opinions of the new addition to the Adult Swim lineup.  These opinions have not been weak either.  The majority are not only packed with spelling and grammar errors, but also with venom and vulgarity for both approval and disapproval of the new series.  What is the series that has everybody talking?  Well, it’s “Crayon Shin-chan,” the anime classic licensed by Funimation and currently airing on Adult Swim.  Now, do not run off and try to read old posts in an attempt to learn more about this series.  I have the opinion that should matter most to you right here. 

“Crayon Shin-chan” made its debut on Adult Swim on Saturday, August 19^th, and continued airing every weeknight in place of Inuyasha at the 12:30 AM time slot.  The series was added on a trial basis as an experiment by Adult Swim to learn viewers’ opinions of the series and decide whether to keep the series airing on a regular basis.  “Crayon Shin-chan” is an absolute classic comedy anime series that has been super popular in Japan for over the past decade.  Each episode contains about 2-3 mini-episodes within, usually timing at less than 10 minutes each.  The shows stars a 5-year-old little boy named Shinnosuke "Shin-chan" Nohara.  The show does not follow any kind of set storyline, but features the crazy antics of Shin-chan in typical daily life.  Shin-chan is an incredible annoyance to his parents and teacher, and essentially any other grown-up he encounters.  The child just does not have a filter on his mouth.  He will say and do whatever comes to his mind regardless of the situation or people present.  He’ll hurl insults at adults or utter shocking remarks, it does not phase him.  Shin-chan’s only motivation in life is to have fun and enjoy himself.  He does mean well in his actions, but since he is a child he has not learned the appropriate times for said actions.  Shin-chan also has a knack for flashing his ass and privates around and doing his famous Mr. Elephant dance.  This is the charm and humor of “Crayon Shin-chan.”

The animation of the series is extremely crude.  In fact, it looks as though a child drew everything!  But this animation style is chosen intentionally by the creators, and is meant to be comical.  Every character has his/her own deformed and very unique look.  The animation hails from the studio Shin’ei Doga, who are no strangers to bizarrely animated anime series.  Shin’ei Doga are also responsible for “Haré+Guu” and “Ninja Hatori-kun,” which are two anime series that also contain a unique style of animation.  Some people may argue that the animation in “Crayon Shin-chan” is too unbearable to watch.  If that is the case, then this series is really not for you.  The animation style plays right into the title of the series, “Crayon,” and is never meant to be taken seriously.  This precisely fits the absurd, insane tone that the show aims for.  I recommend trying your best to get past the crappy animation and enjoy the show for its simple pleasures.  As a result of the choice of poor animation by the creators, I cannot grade the animation quality for this series and will choose to just look past it.

The music of the series is pretty generic and typical for a comedy anime of this kind.  The background music sets the proper mood for each episode, and plays well with all the silliness and punch lines occurring on-screen.  It never takes away from the comedic value of the series, which is everything you could want from a comedy anime series.  But the music is not perfect, as there is also your prototypical “poppy” opening and closing theme songs.  You know the kind that I am talking about, the ones that cause your ears to bleed and send you fumbling for the mute button.  So while the music in the series is not perfect, it is good enough to keep you watching.

The English dub created by Funimation is a huge deviation from the original Japanese dub.  Some of the characters’ names have been Americanized, as well as some of the dialogue and pop-culture references.  This is the usual strategy taken in English dubs for comedy anime, so it does not come as a surprise.  The radical change comes from the shift in humor.  While the original Japanese dub was fairly edgy and vulgar at times, it was nothing compared to what Funimation has developed for the English dub currently used on the Adult Swim telecasts.  Funimation has transformed the humor from funny one-liners aimed towards older children, teens, and adults to crude, vulgar “ South Park ”-esque adult humor.  For example, in an episode where Shin-chan and his mom are shopping at the supermarket, there is a taste-testing counter for a new brand of sausage.  The employee offering the free samples says to a woman customer (and I directly quote), “You look like the kind of person that enjoys some sausage tickling the back of your throat.”  Needless to say, dialogue such as this was never present in the original series.  Funimation’s decision to shift the humor has been met with a fair amount of criticism from fans of the original Japanese series.  However, I feel that we must first understand why Funimation would make such a change before completely condemning them.  A series like “Crayon Shin-chan” cannot air on television in America exactly as it was.  It contained too many adult jokes to pass as children’s programming, and it did not contain enough toilet humor to hit as adult programming.  So Funimation had to choose to either go over-the-top with adult humor and market the series to adults, or eliminate part of the charm of the series by reducing the adult humor in the original series in order to market the series to children.  Therefore, we should not get on Funimation too much for the changes they have made, and should actually thank them for bringing such a classic series to American television.

The “Crayon Shin-chan” franchise has been going strong in Japan since its debut in 1992.  The TV series still premieres a new episode weekly and has logged over 600 episodes.  The popularity of the series also spurned 15 full-length movies, with the most recent one premiering in April 2007.  A franchise of such enormous popularity in Japan deserves to remain in the Adult Swim lineup.  Though it is not the greatest anime series, I have absolutely fallen in love with Shin-chan’s antics, and enjoy it enough to give it a viewing every evening.  If Adult Swim can commit to something like “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” and give that show a long programming run, then there is no doubt that Adult Swim and its viewers should all welcome Shin-chan with open arms.  HOORAY FOR SHIN-CHAN!

Japanese Dub: B-

English Dub: B-

Animation/Art: N/A

Music: C

Overall*: B
*not an average