Anime: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki

The earth will soon come to an end. The incarnate of a demon named Enka who will destroy the world has been narrowed down to one of seven beings. How will the world respond to it? By operation Cozy Family, where essentially unlimited funds will be provided to ensure that the members of the "family" get along and thus prevent hatred from causing them to destroy the world.

The idea behind the show seems a bit outlandish and you can bet that the plot line is as well. This is a fairly light-hearted series though it has a few somewhat serious moments. If anything, the wild swings in the plot made the show feel inconsistent. As mentioned, this is definitely a love-it or hate-it.

If you want a wild ride and don't mind silly stuff, this show is for you. If you're up for a mature series with a serious, philosophical nature, steer clear.

Animation:
The animation was overly simplistic for me and lacked the depth and detail of a lot of the other shows that I watch. Colors are so strong and saturated that this might as well be labeled as a child's cartoon, though the material isn't necessarily appropriate.

Sound:
The sound is fair though the OP/ED strike me as annoying (though props to Kyoka for being to talk so quickly...). The overall sound is somewhat childish which sort of fits as the family sort of seems like a circus to me. VAs are average, wasn't expecting much from it anyways.

Story:
Given that the main family members include a humanoid cyborg, a lion, and a jellyfish, you'd expect the story to be a bit crazy.

A large portion of the series is told in a slice-of-life format where either a part of one of the family member's past is revealed or a member creates a relationship with a new minor supporting character.

There are a few arcs in which three or four episodes combine to build some semblance of a plot. During these interesting bursts of plot there are actually cliff hangers and areas of interest. However, after these bursts the show returns to slice-of-life mode. For me, this was a bit too random and chaotic.

Character:
In addition to the ~one dozen main characters, there are a ton of supporting characters that appear and vanish through the series (which fits the circus-like plot anyways).

The majority of the main characters have scars from the past (most of which is explained through the story) and I guess sort of heal as they bond with the other main characters. They all have unique personalities and distinct behaviors. A significant portion of the show involves outlandish moves/actions so don't expect anything realistic out of the show.

Despite long expositions about the characters, I didn't really find any one of them easy to relate to. Usually when I can't find a character of interest, the show enjoyment goes down...

Value:
There were some humorous moments and other intense moments but the show in general felt too childish for my taste. I don't really recommend this series unless you want something really wacky.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki - A series that puts rapid fire comedy before long term seriousness
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki is a very quick paced and rather chaotic series where, in a world co-populated by humans and every type of supernatural being conceived of, a group of people who are the descendants of some ancient evil being, one of whom it is prophesied will destroy the world, so the group gathered together, given a mom and dad, and called a family in the hope that the people will learn of all the love and generosity and etc of humanity and be compelled to not destroy the earth. All of which is promptly forgotten after the setup in favor of the colorful characters going on wacky comical adventures. This isn't exactly a bad thing, because when the writers come up with a good plot they can find plenty of good jokes. The problem is that only have a good plot about half of the time, which can probably be blamed on their attempts to blend deep drama with quick humor, which they never really get the hang of. Rarely do they go in depth into the backgrounds of the characters, if at all, which gives the drama little to no weight, and going straight from drama into a series of rapid fire jokes lessens the impact of both, weakening the series. The series is at it's best when it is sticking to one of the two, which is usually comedy due to the personality of the main character, catgirl Kyōka, who is the matriarch of the family and an ADHD self-proclaimed goddess, who usually gets her way, either through manipulation or, more often, violence. As such, whenever the series tries to get serious, Kyōka will quickly pull it back towards comedy. Sometimes this is used to show her true understanding of the situation and what needed to be done, but usually it's just used to start some jokes. When the series really sets its mind to it, it can produce well done serious episodes, but these episodes don't have the full impact they could because of the lack of seriousness in the rest of the series.

The series is almost entirely episodic, with little carry over from one episode to the next, which tends to hurt the series as what little of character's backgrounds is revealed is rarely revisited, and usually for some quick joke if it is, and characters rarely develop in any significant way because of it. The series operates on almost entirely an villain/situation-of-the-week formula, and evil characters rarely stay evil much long after their introduction, and some of these episodes come off as completely extraneous and without any positive memorable substance. (Seriously, what is with that Christmas episode? Santa's granddaughter hates Christmas because as a little girl Santa had to fly around the world and deliver his presents instead of spending time with her? First, wouldn't he be doing that on Christmas Eve and thus be able to spend Christmas day with her? Second, is she really so selfish that she can't let her grandfather be away from her for one day? Would have though Santa raised his kids better than that.)

The characters themselves are quite colorful, and run the spectrum unique and interesting to stereotypically predictable, although most are closer to former. However, due to the series preference of focusing on the now than the past, you may often get the feeling that characters aren't being used to their full potential, and that you have no idea why some characters are doing what they are doing or why some characters are interacting or reacting the way they are to a character or situation, which again hurts the series as most characters are said to have some deeply dramatic past, often withing the first few sentences of their introduction, but rarely does the audience get to see what happened and why. This may lead to the feeling that the series could have done more with its time to make characters less 2D and more 3D, and hopefully improve the overall quality of the series,

Where this series really shines however is in the audio. The voice acting and editing is fantastic, with all of the actors being able to keep up with the fast script and not over running one another when multiple conversions are going on at once, which is often. The whole thing is complete with memorable music, both in the background and from the opening/ending theme songs, which can be quite catchy. Using image songs on each of the main characters for the ending themes pays off, as it does help to explain some of the missing background/though process on the main characters, and most and memorable in their own right.

In the end, if one is looking for a series that values humor and attempts at it above all else, or you're looking for a show with catchy music, then this is a series worth watching.

Rate me! I hate to spend time writing a review when there are two temporary votes for the series (meaning perhaps nobody is watching) but I thought it was worth the time to tell you about it, and I hope you read about it. This review is based on the SS-Eclipse fansubs, and will likely not be changed unless there is a big difference in the DVDs.

Quick Take: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (Family Frenzy Diary) is a love-it-or-hate-it, wacky episodic screwball comedy with dramatic overtones (abandonment, abuse, etc) and a Howard Hawks-ish style of direction: people talk fast, they talk over each other, and I suspect the writers had 5 more pages of dialog per episode than any other similar series (the fansubbers had a lot of work to do!). The gags come fast, so if you miss one, just wait 20 seconds. It may not have a real destination, but it has a lot of fun getting there. It is age-appropriate for 13+.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki is about 6 disparate beings (some human, some not), each with a complex backstory, merging into a "family" at the specific direction of a government agency. The problem is, one of them just might be the predicted reincarnation of Enka, a destructive god who might just kill the world off.  How do you have a happy family when none are related by blood, and one of them just might be the end of the world as we know it? You hope the family will help to contain any such tendencies. But to make matters worse, one of them is an all-powerful, egocentric, vain and autocratic cat-god! What ensues is a complete chaotic frenzy, hence the title. This series is appropriate for ages 10 and up, though most of the jokes, the self-referential wackiness, and the otaku jokes will be lost on them. Mostly, it's about what makes up a family, so family values are in view.

Animation: This series is nicely animated by Nomad (Rozen Maiden, sola) and helmed with screwball energy by OVA specialist Yasuhiro Kuroda (Guardian Hearts OVA, Full Metal Panic). He has the ability to make each episode careen forward delightfully, and the animation is good 2D with a slight 3D feel at times; however, I'm not sure he could pull it all together into a coherent narrative, as that's not his specialty. It's not a whole, it's 22 separate parts. But great parts! 

Backgrounds are above average. In-betweens are above average, but mouths move without movement of the face. Not much use of cinematics. The color palatte is straight out of the 80s, and reminds me of FMP.  The source material is sci-fi light novels by Akira, and as far as I can tell, it stays mostly close to the material (deviations do happen). There are no obvious errors, but there isn't much of a wow factor in animation. I do think they tried to limit the cost of the production by having a fair amount of static cels. So, overall I'd give the animation a 7.


Sound: This is the best part of the series. There are 8 different ending themes, and the one you'll see will depend on the broadcasting network your raws are from. Each main character gets his/her own ending, and they are mostly patter songs with extremely funny, often obscure lyrics. The sound effects are designed to promote the screwball and slapstick elements, so they will sound like an arcade on Saturday. The OP is "Chōsai Kenbo Sengen (超妻賢母宣言)" by MOSAIC.WAV and is an effective opening to the main character, who patter-talks incessantly behind the lyrics. The endings are fun also, depending on which one you have, but eventually you'll see them all if you watch all the episodes. Technicals are good, with a good non-directional soundstage in my fansubs (which might be corrected in the DVD), and excellent foley and wacky, obviously over-the-top sfx. I'd rate this an 8-9.


The seiyuu are superb. especially the frenetic Ayumi Fukimura (Ayano Kannagi in Kaze no Stigma) who voices Kyōka Midarezaki with such speed it's often hard to hear everything she's saying. All of the characters have unique speech patterns, which helps know who's talking when there are 4 people speaking at the same time. It's fun, and I would give them a 9 if it weren't for the irritating character that Kyōka has, which is the fault of the writers, not the seiyuu. So, with a 9 for technicals and an 8 for seiyuu, I give the result a solid 8.5, which I will call an 8 for rating purposes.


Story: Akira's Kyōran Kazoku Nikki ("Frenzied Family Journal") light novel series is the source of this story. Illustrated by x6suke ("pekeRokusuke") they depict the not-so-normal life of a "family" that includes a catgirl "mother," a lion "son," a living land-combat android weapon "son," a jellyfish-like otherworldly "daughter," and a hapless 27-year-old military officer as their "father." This motley "family" was assembled as part of the Imperial Japanese Anti-Paranormal Phenomena Section's Special Operations Forces to save Earth in 2063. The light novel series was adaped with small changes into this series. Because it had a manga origin, there was the opportunity to fix any missing pieces, but instead, the director left fixes out (or holes in, depending on your view of the water in the glass).


The manga series was episodic, and so are the series episodes. Sometimes the jokes work, sometimes they are just stupid. The actual result is funny episodes, with no big connection or narrative drive from one episode to the next.  You will mostly understand episode 8 without having to watch episodes 1-7, and that's the chief problem with the story. I don't generally like episodic series, but this one has so much energy, it's engaging, so if you're not put off by episodic silliness, each episode is fun all by itself. 7 points for good episodes but no real plot development, limiting the pleasure of a screwball comedy.


Character: here is where there will be the most variation. Most people will find Kyouka (the cat-goddess) irritating, and without any growth in her character, will be frustrated by the result. You will like the other characters, and every one of the family members gets a little backstory episode and a development episode, but with 6 family members, it takes up a lot of the 26-episode story. There are no main arcs but the climax is broken between two episodes. You may find that this mix is a little difficult to deal with, but I found the voicings to be excellent and the background patter to be whacky ways to build character. Yes, Kyouka is a willful cat-goddess, but one with more power than she can control, and that sets much of the episodes into motion down a steep incline toward a busy street. 5 points for irritating leads (cat goddesses should have some of the winsomeness of a cat, no?) without character development, 8 points for side character development, and the result is a 7. How can you fail to fix this broken lead character along the way, because we all want you to!!


Value and Enjoyment: I loved the wacky screwball nature of this, but not everyone else will feel the same. They address hard subjects in a light manner, but hardly anyone will address them anyway, so points for the social commentary. The best part is likely the feeling you'll get when watching, that there actually is a family being born here. So, I'd give it a 7 on value, and a 8 for enjoyment. It's a good series, but not the best because of the character problems and lack of narrative connection.


Conclusion: Catgirls and impossible events conspire to make a wacky episodic series. It may grow on you, or may repel you. Watch at your peril, I your cat-goddess commands it!