Gokudo

Original Title: ゴクドーくん漫遊記
Romanized: Gokudou-kun Manyuuki
Literal: The Chronicle of Gokudo's Pleasure Trip

Plot Synopsis

The magical king of an apparently peaceful land is rumored to be plotting dark things with evil beings from the world of magic. And, perhaps not coincidentally, beautiful young virgins have been abducted across the land, including the king's own daughter. There is a legend of a long-lost prince who will return to save the people and bring peace... and then there's young Gokudo. He'd rather just take payment for pretending to rescue his landlord's missing daughter, then skip town to chase girls. Instead, he somehow manages to get himself hooked up with a genie, a magic sword, half a prince, three beautiful women, and a death sentence as a human sacrifice. He also gets transformed into a girl for good measure. And that's just the first five episodes.

Thus begins the epic adventures of Gokudo--even Ranma never had problems like this, but nobody deserves them like Gokudo.

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-11-29

Gokudo is consummate fantasy stripped of every shred of seriousness, logic, and decency. Cartoony, slaphappy, nonsensical, hyperactive, relentlessly malicious, and so stupid it hurts, Gokudo is annoying from minute one, yet absolutely hilarious--the title character is the ultimate anti-hero, putting self gratification above absolutely everything else and stubbornly refusing to ever have a change of heart. Aside from moments bordering on demented genius, it also stands out for its relentless and merciless parodies of every classic legend and world religion you can think of. It even slyly slips in a bit of an anti-authoritarian libertarian moral toward the end... if you even notice it through the crazed body swapping and inter-planar hijinks.

Don't come expecting plot, depth, or anything remotely clever, but silly fantasy fans and those fond of deranged situation comedy should definitely give Gokudo a shot. I, at least, was laughing in spite of myself.

US DVD Review

The hybrid DVDs (originally released one-by-one, later in a box set) are passable, nothing more. The low-resolution video transfer is weak--it looks more like VHS than DVD. The audio is better, but there's very little in the way of special features.

Content Guide

A few gross jokes and a bit of raunch account for Anime Works' accurate 13-up rating. Some viewers are also likely to find the religious parodies offensive.

Violence: 2 - All manner of brutality, but it's very cartoony.

Nudity: 1 - Nothing graphic.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Occasional moderately mature jokes, little more.

Language: 2 - Some coarse language in the dub.

Notes and Trivia

For those not familiar with Amaterasu, she is the sun goddess at the center of the Shinto pantheon, creator of the universe. Even in reality, she's a bit of a brat--the holing up in a cave comes from the actual mythology. Shinto is the native religion of Japan, now largely supplanted in practice by Buddhism imported from China centuries ago, although Shinto traditions are still very prevalent.

Also, for those noting the similarity of the flying cloud and monkey king Gokuu to Dragonball, it's because both stories are based on Journey to the West, an ancient Chinese epic.

Availability

Available in the US from Anime Works on a 6-disc set of hybrid DVDs. Was originally released on dubbed VHS and individual hybrid DVDs, now out of print.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store