Finally, a show about a duck without all the senseless violence we’re accustomed to in the genre

Suzy’s Zoo is a show with a duck protagonist the whole family can enjoy.

Suzy’s Zoo is apparently the name of a popular series of greeting cards featuring a recurring cast of adorable animal characters. I’d never heard of it, but it seems it was popular enough internationally that there’s a Suzy’s Zoo anime adaptation on TBS.

I think it’s a shame that I’m not six years old, since this is the type of show I would have enjoyed. I loved shows about friendship and getting along and teamwork and listening to adults while still maintaining the sense of adventure and childlike innocence that makes every new discovery a profoundly magical experience. Some of the shows I watched repeatedly and never tired of wereThomas the Tank Engine, the 1966-74 Disney film adaptations of Winnie the Pooh, and the 1991 adaptation of The Little Engine that Could. Though I say I might enjoy the show more if I were six years old, that’s not to say that I don’t enjoy it nonetheless, but I won’t pretend like I don’t realise I’m not the target audience. For that matter, I’m not the target audience for any of the shoujo or josei anime I watch either, like Utena, Cardcaptor Sakura, Higashi no Eden, and Kuragehime. I suppose perhaps I should just take that with this, as it were, and admit once and for all that I’m a wimp, eh?

Regardless, it’s great that Retouched are subbing this show. It’s a shame though that I think, even if I were six years old, and therefore — at least theorietically — about the right age to maximally enjoy this show, I’d still probably be illiterate and unable to read the subtitles.

I like the duck though. Ducks are nice, friendly animals. One of my favourite books of all time is Make Way for Ducklings. Incidentally, that book also introduced the concept of “the police” to me in a positive context and now I love the police. The police are great.

This duck encourages development of good qualities in the viewer. He “teaches them while they learn”!

An industrious duck, this one is. Here he is hard at work gardening.

His quizzical friend the bunny rabbit.

That bunny is a lot more likeable than this arrogant pretty boy, that’s for sure:

What I couldn’t help noticing though was that the duck seems to have the exact same ball that Andy has in his room in Toy Story.

I doubt that was intentional. Perhaps all rubber balls just look the same? Bah, all I ever had was a medicineball so I wouldn’t know.

Yep, AnoHana is my top show this season

I think that even if the show ends with a lame cop-out ending like a meteorite impact or even it was all a dream this show will still be my favourite of the season. The only other show in the running would be Hanasaku Iroha but I hate the protagonist and her let’s-all-get-along-anything-is-possible-if-we-work-together attitude so the show would be a nonstarter for me if it weren’t for Chiaki Omigawa.

But this AnoHana show continues to have very concise yet equally emotionally draining episodes without lowering the intensity scale even a bit. It’s hard work for the viewer and I can see how a one episode break from the bullettrain feverish pace this show seems to be going at in the form of a more easygoing episode somewhere in the middle would be a tempting diversion, but nonetheless, I sure hope they don’t have an onsen episode or anything like that (I’ve jinxed it, haven’t I?). But even if they did, nothing can ruin the show now. Not since Hourou Musuko have I as eagerly awaited each new episode of a show. Admittedly, Hourou Musuko wasn’t that long ago, but prior to that I don’t know when the hell the last time I enjoyed a show this much was. Maybe NHK ni Youkoso.

I like how each character seems to get his or her turn in the spotlight. Last week’s episode was Yukiatsu. I guess I was biased in his favour since it was revealed that he was the one dressed up as Menma, but this episode was devoted almost entirely to showcasing his likable side to viewers who may not have found his crossdressing as likable as I did, saving Naruko and all and wailing like some kind of teary-eyed survivor’s guilt victim repressed to the point of mentos and cola magnitude explosive inundation.

Tsuruko must be more than the archetypal meganekko tsundere. I look forward to her character episode.