Kyouran Kazoku Nikki

Original Title: 狂乱家族日記
Romanized: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki
Literal: Frenzied Family Journal

Plot Synopsis

A millennium ago, the god of destruction Enka ravaged the world until it was finally defeated. But it left a curse: Its decedents would one day rise again to destroy the world.

Fast-forward to the 2060s, where the Japanese Empire's Paranormal Affairs Bureau has done global genetic testing to locate the decedents of Enka. These various beings were then brought to Japan where they are given new names and only one order: Become a happy family.

Thus we have the Midarezaki family: Husband Ouka, a top Paranormal Bureau agent. Wife Kyoka, mind-controlling cat girl from a demonic empire. Their "children" are: Ginka, ex-gangster and gay bar host extraordinaire; Teika, a lion and Beast king; Hyouka, a 3-year-old superweapon with a dark past who likes to watch cartoons; Yuuka, cheerful, brutalized daughter of a famous crime family; and Gekka, a mysterious jellyfish (that's her entire dossier). Kyoka, in her self-proclaimed infinite wisdom, quickly adds in Chika, a high school girl with a dark side.

Thus begins Operation Cozy Family. Hopefully it doesn't end with the apocalypse.

Quick Review

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2009-05-26

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki--The Frenzied Family Journal--is 15% dark psychodrama, 85% off-the-wall comedy, and 100% insane. When it's not revealing some dark, tragic backstory--an unexpectedly effective way to make the viewer care about the characters in an over-the-top comedy--it's following bat-guano insane cat-demon Kyoka's plans to solve problems big and small with humiliating costumes, game shows, and violence. Her ADHD-on-pure-crystal-meth rants give Excel Saga and Elf Princess Rane a run for their money in both sheer speed and lunacy. It's that crazy. Add in a collection of characters who would be serious if left to their own devices, a wide variety of colorful secondary characters, and a variety of heartwarming familial bonding amid complete chaos and you have one heck of a fun series.

Breakneck lunacy taken to the absolute limit with a stiff dash of tragic backstory to give the viewer an emotional hook, all I really need to say about this series is that it rendered multiple viewers unable to speak due to apoplectic laughter on more than one occasion and just plain speechless on just as many more. If you can stomach the hyperactivity, you're not likely to find anything funnier than Kyouran Kazoku Nikki.

US DVD Review

None exists in North America as of this writing.

Content Guide

Apart from loads of relatively cartoony violence and the occasional mildly dirty joke, there are a few episodes with realistic abuse and bullying.

Violence: 2 - Not all of the violence is cartoony, and there are some more serious depictions of abuse.

Nudity: 1 - Some of the many outfits are revealing, but even the hot spring episode doesn't have any actual nudity.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Occasional mildly dirty jokes and some other mature themes.

Language: 2 - As usual, a little hard to say; a literal translation would be pretty clean, but if you take into account the way Kyoka talks it's on the rough side.

Notes and Trivia

Based on an ongoing series of light novels by Akira, with illustrations by x6suke (who is also credited with character designs). As of this writing there are 11 books in the main storyline, and four books of side stories; the earliest was published in 2005. There is also an ongoing manga adaptation that started about six months before the anime aired, written by Akira with art by Weshika/Shougo.

The story of the anime covers books 1 through 8, with the four side stories mixed in as well as some original material. The timelines don't match up exactly, but according to the novels the series takes place around 2063 (though that world's timeline is clearly different from ours).

The pen names of all the parties involved are unusually awkward. Akira (no last name) is unconventionally written with the same character repeated three times (日日日). x6suke is written exactly like that and apparently pronounced "pekerokusuke." And "Weshika/Shougo" (ヱシカ/ショーゴ), slash included, is only one person; it's written using the obscure and no-longer-used phonetic character "we."

Lots of trivia for this series:

Which of the eight end themes originally aired with which episode was different depending on where you watched it. The show was originally broadcast on eight networks, with each getting one theme each week; which station would get which theme was selected on a web radio show using a variety of creative methods. The only exceptions were the first two episodes, where each station got the same one both weeks and Chika's theme appropriately wasn't in the rotation (two stations got Kyouka's). The final episode was the same everywhere.

Speaking of intros and outros, the number of outfits Kyoka runs through is astounding. The intro shows seven (nine if the jetpack and robot count), and there are sixteen in her end theme (bikini, orange shirt thing, pig suit, wedding dress, explorer, waitress, sci-fi getup, Chika's school uniform, cat(?) pajamas, Teika and Madara lion suits, white monkey pajamas, penguin suit, Gekka suit, middle-school swimsuit, and of course her standard pink dress). The end theme outfits include nearly every other character in the series' clothes.

Other recurring quirks are that Raicho appears somewhere briefly in every episode in the first season before she debuts properly (always about to eat something sweet), and a weird sexy background voice that makes a random comment in nearly every episode.

"Midarezaki" is written with a character meaning, appropriately, "confused," paired with a standard last-name ending. Each family member's given name consists of a character matching their personality and one pronounced "ka" (each "ka" is different; some are standard in names, some not). Kyoka is "Evil," Ouka is "Phoenix," Ginka is "Silver," Yuuka is "Gentle," Teika is "Emperor," Hyouka is "Hail" (as in precipitation), and Gekka is "Moon." Chika is the exception; hers means "thousand," the same first character (千) as her original name, Senko. (This is the same as the two names of the protagonist in Spirited Away, Sen and Chihiro--quite possibly a reference to that film.)

Paranormal Bureau head Raichou Hiratsuka's name is, probably intentionally, the same as that of an influential feminist and political activist from the first half of the 20th century.

Almost all of the main cast have a distinctive way of speaking. Kyoka, in addition to a generally colorful manner of speaking, invariably uses the word "kisama," the most insulting of the words meaning "you" and one of the stronger insults in the language, to address everyone--enemies, friends, children, and husband. Teika speaks in a very formal and somewhat old-fashioned way befitting his Beast King heritage. Yuuka uses the adjective "sappari," meaning "simply" or "completely," in nearly everything she says. Ginka, of course, uses entirely feminine speech patterns apart from the rare occasions he's playing badass. Gekka speaks in extremely old-fashioned Japanese, suited to the vaguely Heian-period dress her humanoid form wears. Ouka, Chika, and Hyouka all speak relatively normal Japanese, although Hyouka talks like a little boy.

Other notables are Shinigami, who draws out the usually-silent vowel at the end of the "to be" verb "desu," and Kiriko Takanashi, who has a thick, relatively soft Kansai accent, probably Kyoto-style.

And, finally, a few other language notes: The sash Kyoka wears in the opening reads "Representative of Humanity." Also appearing in the intro (along with many other places) is the word "utage"; this is Kyoka's motto of sorts, meaning roughly "banquet" or "lavish party," usually including food. Lastly, her cooking chain saw is labled "Ryori"; this is of course a play on power tool maker Ryobi, but it also conveniently means "cooking" in Japanese.

Availability

Not currently available in English outside of fansubs.

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