From the poster, you might think this is an anime version of Willy Wonka or Oz... you wouldn't be entirely far off. It's definitely on the absurdist humor end and you really need to either be in the mood for it or be like me and have it saved for over a year (I'm 95% sure Old Anime Lady's high rating is what made me add it) and come back not knowing what it is but seeing you have enough time to fit it in and just riding the wave... well, I was definitely clueless about just what I was watching in some respects-this isn't my typical movieverse, it isn't the sort of thing I would be recommended by even my most hard-core Japanese movie fans (maybe because this is not a 'safe recommendation' in terms of everyone enjoying it)...

It's intentionally over the top, campy, corny, and all the while really funny in a way not unlike Kurosawa taking on Shakespeare... or Princess Bride, maybe... or the one thing I can think of that gave me weekly doses of a different-yet-similar feeling, just with way more actual story and depth even in a single hour than this, Pegasus Market, a show that is also really hard to explain but for PM's side it's because there's SO MUCH to explain I can't begin to fumble through it.

Tonde Saitama shouldn't be taken seriously, but DO let yourself get thoroughly sucked into its weird wild world which is truly like a Choose Your Own Adventure story brought to life. It doesn't always make a ton of sense, much-or most-of it is really silly, but my word, it hit the spot... was the spot my funny bone, my hypothalamus, the adrenal glands sitting atop my kidneys, or a single neuron that got to dance for 100 minutes and change? I can't say. I didn't dare analyze what it was doing to my head. I just enjoyed the mild giddy trip. If you want something really our of this world-I mean, this is some alternate version of Japan, I THINK, that these actors got roped into living in... I think. Again, not my typical movieverse and I don't quite get all the periods of time in Japan in any scholarly sense, but I'm pretty sure it's a fictional history. I think we'd know if Japanese history was NEARLY this interesting in the tiny details of it all. :P I had a happy ride. I might watch it again sometime to see if it holds up.

Oh, definitely worth rewatching (and I DID): THE CREDITS... omg the song for the credits is just too too perfect-but only as icing applied after you have licked plenty of the batter off the spatula while your cake is baking and cooling... this is definite dessert territory, not savory, just light, fluffy, and sweet. I guess I needed that very thing.

[Okay, one mild critique-I know it's kind of normal, but this is one case where a girl playing a guy really didn't work that well for me. The story made it a bit weird-to a point where only the clothing half-indiciated this was supposed to be a guy in this story taking place initially in the rich capitol of Panem in the Hunger Games-where are the whiskered animal-people among these people dressed up like they're an ensemble of heavily decorated cupcakes and birthday cakes? :P Small complaint, though-just slightly confusing since it's so clearly a female and they didn't even try to make the actress anything less dainty than the Princess who felt pain sleeping on 30 down mattresses atop a pea.]