Papuwa Vol-1: Wild Things (2003)
Animation Production: Nippon Animation
Released by: ADV Films
Episodes: 1-5
By Jeff Couto

Introduction

Papuwa! What is a Papuwa? A condiment? A new sandwich at your local Subway? Naw, as it turn out Papuwa is the title character of a new anime series being released by ADV Films this coming August and boy is he a strange little anime character, in fact this is one zany series that at first will make you scratch your head, but will then drag you completely into an animated world like no other you have visited before.

I'm not very familiar with this series, but I do know that it is a follow up to Papuwa of the South Seas, which aired back in the 1992-1993 TV season in Japan (thanks for the info Anime News Network Anime Encyclopedia!). Thankfully, despite my lack of knowledge on the series' history Papuwa proved to be a fun outing that I'm excited to share with you so let's go right into it.

Story

"Pretty boy Kotaro finds himself stranded on a remote tropical island with no memory of how he got there. Now under the questionable care of the young Papuwa, Kotaro begins his new life of bizarre adventures in a world of transvestite fish, fruity pink dinosaurs, and hallucination-inducing poisonous mushrooms. And an army of assassins aimed at kidnapping him! " -- ADV Films' DVD description.

Review

Volume one of Papuwa is scheduld to contain episodes one through five in the series. These episodes include:

Episode 1: Welcome to Papuwa Island!
Awakened from a four year sleep by a mysterious voice a young boy by the name of Kotaro escapes a military-like base and somehow manages to land on an island hidden away from the world. Awaked by the strange inhabitants of this uncharted tropical paradise, Kotaro quickly realizes that he no longer remembers who he is or why he is here, however everyone in Papuwa island remember exactly who he is, and now will do everything they can to keep him from recovering his memories, but why?

Episode 2: Caution: Extremely Poisonous!?
The Ganma army has assigned their top four assassins to a new mission, bringing back Kotaro! But who among them is brave enough to follow him to Papuwa island?

Episode 3: My Personal Motto is the Power of Friendship! I am Arashiyama!
Arashiyama has landed on Papuwa island and will now do anything he can to find and recover Kotaro, however one thing stands in his way, Liquid, Papuwa’s friend and an ex-member of the Ganma army himself! Who will prevail!?

Episode 4: Here Comes the Wandering Drummer, Oshodani the Sea Otter
While looking for something to eat in the waters around Papuwa Island our heroes fin a giant pearl! Rotaro, succumbing to greed goes after it but ends up being trapped by the cursed pearl! Now only the moving power of love and friendship can break the spell, but is there anyone that can do that for Rotaro!?

Episode 5: Fancy Yankee!? Liquid's Fabulous Past!
The Special Battle Unit that Liquid used to be a part of is coming to Papuwa Island and they are looking for the deserter that abandoned their unit a long time ago. What will we learn about Liquid’s past!?

So what is this show about anyway? It starts out interestingly enough as young Kotaro escapes a military-looking complex and is pursued by a convoy of choppers, but what starts out on a serious/dramatic note takes a drastic turn for the strange and humorous when our protagonist lands on an island populated by bizarre creatures and people, all of whom operate on a nonsensical plane of existence that more often than not makes Kotaro question the sanity of everyone around him.

As it turns out though this is the second Papuwa Island and Kotaro is well known by everyone here, despite his amnesia and for some reason they have decided that it would be best to befriend Kotaro and keep him from remembering the past. This of course results in a large variety of comedy sequences as characters do eccentric things or react exaggeratedly to what appears to Kotaro as being normal things, all in an effort to keep him from remembering who he is.

Running in tandem with this main plotline we also have subplot that has the top four assassins of the Ganma Army in hot pursuit of our young hero, as per his father's orders. These crack killers will stop at nothing to get to their goal, well almost nothing, because the moment they see some of Papuwa Island's fish (the kind with legs and fish nets on them) they all try to ditch their mission as the creature remind them of a past battle there. It's only after a brief game of paper, rock, scissors that a decision is made on who is to go to there first.

The real hook of the show though is its bizarre humor and strange situations used to depict Kotaro's journey of self-discovery and everyone else's efforts to keep him from achieving this. In many ways it reminds me of the style of humor used in Urusei Yatsura and Cromartie High in that it relies on a very weird cast of characters with extremely eccentric or flamboyant behaviors that work on a completely different level of logic. So in other word its weird, but it’s not weird for weird's sake (well, maybe a little), there is some type of logic to it all that as you watch each episode makes each story more enjoyable as you get ”how this world and its inhabitants operate.

On the production side, Papuwa is very well together and benefits like some of our recent reviews subjects from all the latest animation techniques and technology. The show uses a vibrant color palette that is full of pastel hues that brings Papuwa island to life in a bright fashion. The frame rate for the animation is solid and allows for smooth character movement. Visual effect were for the most part limited to environmental elements such as water or lighting effects.

The soundtrack consists mostly of happy go lucky music pieces that bring Papuwa island to life. The main BGM theme that plays in each episode is especially catchy, it reminds me a little bit of a couple of old 16-bit video game tracks. The opening theme fares well with a catchy song, but I found the ending theme to be more on the me-too end. The voice acting was fantastic on both the Japanese and English-dubbed tracks.

On the product end of things ADV did a nice job putting in extra features to complement the 5 episodes in this first DVD. These extras include translators note, character art gallery, clean copies of the opening and ending sequences and previews for other ADV Films releases. The quality of the video and audio encodes was fantastic as well, with both of them coming in nice and clear.

Final Thoughts

I think it would be fair for me that I am now being held hostage by the Papuwa Island! The bizarre humor and strange characters make this a definite stand out series for me because, well, I loved the twisted humor and situations.

If you like your anime with a taste of weird comedy, Papuwa is a must own DVD! Highly recommended!

Jeff Couto