![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Review: Saint Young Men (聖☆おにいさん) OVA (2012-2013) & Film (2013)
I watched the two-episode OVA and then the movie, so I will be reviewing them both.
Overall, I thought this was a fun slice of life anime.
Spoilers.
Story
In this anime, Jesus and Buddha wanted to take a vacation in the human world, and they picked Japan as their destination. The anime didn't have any particular plot, and simply just followed the two as they did everyday things and had fun.
The writing was pretty entertaining. I very much enjoyed the inclusion of many religious references, though the Catholic ones were definitely more obvious to me than the Buddhist ones.
In the second episode of the OVA, I did sort of get a bad taste when Buddha was saying why he didn't like India. Basically it was said that the water there was unclean, and there was a tone of "Japan is the best place in the world" which was kind of iffy for me, and I sort of ended up watching the rest of the show with a little less optimistic glee than I initially had.
Admittedly I was also a bit iffy about the story line where the kids were bullying Buddha. I thought that by the end of the anime they would have learned that bullying was bad, or that Buddha would find a new way to look at it, but it really just never changed.
This anime definitely shined more in the individual events rather than as an overarching story.
Production
The animation was very nice. The drawing had its own distinct style, and the animation had its own pace. I have no complaints about this.
I also have no complaints about the voice acting. It was all very well done.
Characters
Jesus was the more extroverted and excitable of our two main characters. He was always going around and making friends, and he was always easily won over by good cheer and happy atmospheres in general.
Buddha was a bit more shy and cautious, a little more rigid in his personality, but still a very kind hearted man like Jesus was.
Jesus and Buddha balanced each other out when it came to their personalities, but they had similarly altruistic and simple attitudes in their day-to-day conflicts.
Matsuda Sachiyo was their landlady. She was grouchy and strict, but she was not a total villain. She did have space in her heart for these two suspicious tenants.
Daisuke, Kohei, and Ryota were the kids who were very focused on pushing the Urna on Buddha's forehead. Daisuke was the ringleader and even when Kohei and Ryota did not want to do such things anymore, he pushed on. Later, he was able to press his Urna by tricking Buddha, and that won over Kohei and Ryota's support again. By the end of the anime, they did get sad when they thought that Jesus and Buddha had left for good, but they only knew how to express their love and adoration for attacking Buddha v.v
There were other fun side characters in this anime as well, such as the convenience store worker who kept track of their T-shirts, the Yakuza boss, the three ladies (who were the moms of the kids), etc. They all thoughtly fondly of Buddha and Jesus.
Overall
This anime was nice. There was some slightly problematic writing, but overall, there were many gags in this anime that I enjoyed.
Overall, I thought this was a fun slice of life anime.
Spoilers.
Story
In this anime, Jesus and Buddha wanted to take a vacation in the human world, and they picked Japan as their destination. The anime didn't have any particular plot, and simply just followed the two as they did everyday things and had fun.
The writing was pretty entertaining. I very much enjoyed the inclusion of many religious references, though the Catholic ones were definitely more obvious to me than the Buddhist ones.
In the second episode of the OVA, I did sort of get a bad taste when Buddha was saying why he didn't like India. Basically it was said that the water there was unclean, and there was a tone of "Japan is the best place in the world" which was kind of iffy for me, and I sort of ended up watching the rest of the show with a little less optimistic glee than I initially had.
Admittedly I was also a bit iffy about the story line where the kids were bullying Buddha. I thought that by the end of the anime they would have learned that bullying was bad, or that Buddha would find a new way to look at it, but it really just never changed.
This anime definitely shined more in the individual events rather than as an overarching story.
Production
The animation was very nice. The drawing had its own distinct style, and the animation had its own pace. I have no complaints about this.
I also have no complaints about the voice acting. It was all very well done.
Characters
Jesus was the more extroverted and excitable of our two main characters. He was always going around and making friends, and he was always easily won over by good cheer and happy atmospheres in general.
Buddha was a bit more shy and cautious, a little more rigid in his personality, but still a very kind hearted man like Jesus was.
Jesus and Buddha balanced each other out when it came to their personalities, but they had similarly altruistic and simple attitudes in their day-to-day conflicts.
Matsuda Sachiyo was their landlady. She was grouchy and strict, but she was not a total villain. She did have space in her heart for these two suspicious tenants.
Daisuke, Kohei, and Ryota were the kids who were very focused on pushing the Urna on Buddha's forehead. Daisuke was the ringleader and even when Kohei and Ryota did not want to do such things anymore, he pushed on. Later, he was able to press his Urna by tricking Buddha, and that won over Kohei and Ryota's support again. By the end of the anime, they did get sad when they thought that Jesus and Buddha had left for good, but they only knew how to express their love and adoration for attacking Buddha v.v
There were other fun side characters in this anime as well, such as the convenience store worker who kept track of their T-shirts, the Yakuza boss, the three ladies (who were the moms of the kids), etc. They all thoughtly fondly of Buddha and Jesus.
Overall
This anime was nice. There was some slightly problematic writing, but overall, there were many gags in this anime that I enjoyed.