Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure Review: A Series That Intertwines Psychologies, Formats and Atmospheres

Stars: Roger Craig Smith, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Shunsuke Takeuchi

Director: Motonori Sakakibara

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (fours stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure, the new Netflix series that brings the famous lazy egg created by Sanrio to the “real world” for the first time, with ten episodes full of humor. With its new series, Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure, Netflix brings Western audiences closer to one of Sanrio’s most famous characters who are not so popular outside its borders for the first time, and it does so with perfect dubbing. They say that Amy had prepared dinner after a long day at work and that the raw egg yolk she had on her plate amused her because of her downcast appearance, referring her to the unmotivated Japanese youth, who was tired of life. Thus, was born Gudetama, whose name means “lazy egg”.

Animated series inspired by the characters of the famous Japanese company Sanrio, Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure arrives on Netflix on December 13, 2022, with ten episodes lasting (more or less) ten minutes each, directed by Motonori Sakakibara. The series is composed by Yoichi Kato, responsible for the soundtrack is Koji Endo. Protagonists, a pair of brothers who are more distant in inclinations, character and destiny it is difficult to find. To dub them, for Japan, Shunsuke Takeuchi and Seiran Fukushima. The protagonists can be found below. They don’t look much alike, adorable nonetheless, quite different from many points of view, even if the matrix is ​​common. Gudetama’s first teaching: A new journey is precisely this. To function well, a particular set of conditions is needed, that elusive and precious mix of irreconcilables that harmonize. Gudetama and Shakipiyo have so little in common that they end up inextricably linked to each other.

Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure Review: The Story Plot

Gudetama (Shunsuke Takeuchi) doesn’t want to do anything, he would spend his life idle if only he could, but before unleashing his accusing index, remember that we are talking about a raw egg. His destiny, sooner or later, is to end up on someone’s plate, phase A, and then pass through their digestive system in various ways. Once the uncomfortable reality has been accepted, the poor little egg just has to decide how to organize the time left before the culinary rendezvous. Gudetama chooses the path of laziness; if at the end of the path there is nothing but oblivion, better get there rested. Existential turmoil at the heart of what, on balance, is a series for the whole family. Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure is the most transversal, in terms of age, imaginable. To achieve this effect, he needs to mix the ingredients wisely.

This, but not only, is for Shakipiyo (Seiran Fukushima). Unlike Gudetama he is a chick, he bursts with energy, doesn’t know what it means to give up and interprets life as a continuous discovery. He takes the concept of imprinting literally, perhaps too much, mistaking everything for his mother. Behind the humor of the situation, which the clever direction of Motonori Sakakibara with a sense of proportion, however, a void and an emotional need are hidden, both to be filled at all costs. Gudetama and Shakipiyo meet in the back room of a restaurant and immediately recognize each other as brothers. He’s all chick; Gudetama wallows in his funny quagmire made up of moral inertia, sheer tiredness and an inordinate appetite for soy sauce, which is a real drug for eggs in general.

Opposites that attract, the enthusiastic chick and the disinterested raw egg leave their culinary comfort zone to embark on a long journey to discover themselves and the world around them. The desirable landing point is reunification with the absent mother, perhaps (re)discovering a new meaning of life. In truth, Shakipiyo has clear ideas right from the start on what to do with his days, it is Gudetama who must find a way to reinvent himself. Traveling, watching, and learning, the protagonist discovers that there are many types of eggs and many types of cooking. For all outcomes, there are two, the dish or the expiration date. There is a way and time to get there, though. First, Gudetama points out: A new journey, it is worthwhile to use one’s time in the most gratifying and lively way possible. The special brotherhood of Shakipiyo and Gudetama serves this.

Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure Review and Analysis

Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure is an animated series built on the principle of contamination. Starting right from the psychological definition of the characters, the combination of irreconcilable characters and philosophies. But it doesn’t end there, no. There is an underlying coherence to the story which has a lot to do with the harmony between opposites. It applies to the alchemy between Gudetama and Shakipiyo, different twins inexorably attracted to each other, it applies to the mix of live / action and digital animation, animation among other things really valuable. The interlocking of the two formats produces an elegant and fluid hybrid; the combination of real and digital communicates a feeling of realism and freshness.

At an even higher level, the contamination concerns tones and ideas. Because, of course, the series is a product modeled to wheat the tastes and expectations of the whole family, with particular attention to the need for the adventure of the little ones. However, the synergy of human warmth, tears, laughter, and existential reflections also speaks to a more mature audience and digs deeper. What Gudetama and his crackling little brother learn, throughout history, are the foundations of the human condition. Love, friendship, the sense of home and family, the enhancement of individuality, the conscious acceptance of the fragility of existence. The desire to get busy, however, to live every moment to the fullest, even if the ending is already written.

The series is divided into ten episodes of about ten minutes each, which lead the egg and the chick to explore the world, with a multitude of obstacles in their path and a display of new characters from the Gudetama universe with each new chapter, although always with the ultimate motivation to meet with mom. Both Gudetama and Shakipiyo, like the rest of the egg variants that we see throughout the Netflix series, are archetypes that represent very specific feelings, and therefore do not evolve. Gudetama is a very lazy egg, a soy addict, and Shakipiyo is just the opposite, a super lively and optimistic chick.

What is achieved by making their personalities unalterable is that their way of being does affect the rest of the characters that are in their “adventure step”, causing them to change their way of understanding life as a result of sharing the same space with Their protagonists. Another of the most important elements of the series is a comedy, something that seems quite difficult to adapt but manages to be effective, especially thanks to dubbing.

Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure is a series full of tender characters and a very friendly tone, which lends itself to being seen by all kinds of audiences, although with different reading layers, just like Sanrio’s own conception of the character Originally thought for a children’s public but adopted by the adult public. The same thing this comedy introduces is a slapstick joke, black humor more along the lines of The Sausage Party, which breaks the fourth wall, or recreates reflections on individuality, the responsibilities of childhood and adulthood, or the stay in this world.

The ten episodes that make up the first season of Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure are now available on Netflix from December 13, 2022. Its end leaves the door open for a second season. Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure transfers the universe of Sanrio’s lazy egg to Netflix very well in all aspects, from its visual section with its wide variety of characters to the narrative. All of Gudetama’s forms are fantastic. Your animation. The introduction of neutral language.

Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure Review: The Last Words

Challenging themes, obviously tempered by the warm and humorous bath of a narration stoically resigned to taking life as it is, without expecting the impossible but fighting tenaciously, never giving up. Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure, sometimes citations, as when it borrows stylistic features and movements from gangster movies and urban noir, with hilarious results, it works above all whenever it places the characters side by side and isolates their differences. Friction sparks, funny and honest. The human counterparts have less panache, but it is inevitable, the spotlights are elsewhere.