Genre Parody Demographic Seinen Volumes 7 Number of episodes 16 Written by Kishi Torajiro | Published by Shueisha Magazine Weekly Young Jump First episode date 1999 Director Ryūtarō Nakamura | |
Original run February 1998 – December 2000 Network Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Cast Chiaki Takahashi, Rie Kugimiya, Nobutoshi Canna, Akeno Watanabe, Sakura Nogawa Similar Hime‑chan's Ribbon, Golden Boy, Zaion: I Wish You Were Here, Love Love?, Georgie! | ||
Colorful (カラフル, Karafuru) is a manga by Torajirō Kishi which was adapted into a 16-episode anime series. The episodes are composed of vignettes typically involving men and teenage boys attempting to catch a glimpse of women's panties and/or look down their blouses. The episodes are fast-paced, experimental in animation, sound design and music, manic and very short, about seven minutes each, and filled with comedy. The show is rather ambiguous as to whether it supports the fetishes it deals with or not. The perpetrators within the show usually fail at their attempt to catch a glimpse, get caught in the act, or suffer Karmic retribution.
Contents
Anime fanatics tend to either love or hate the series as it is considered either wildly funny, or tasteless and depraved. Colorful shares similarities with Golden Boy in several ways: most notably the inclusion of one of the characters acting the toilet fetish of Kintaro Oe in one of the episodes.
The opening theme is "Boku no Taion wa 37.5 C." (僕の体温は37.5℃, "My temperature is 37.5 degrees") by Yūko Miyamura.
The English (U.S.) DVD was released on March 18, 2003 and was distributed by A.D. Vision. Some puns were left out of this dub, but were included in A.D.V. subtitles. One such pun involves Steve referring to his panties shots as "Japan's exotic upside-down Fuji".
Cast and characters
Colorful's cast is very varied with some characters only appearing once in the whole series. There are also several characters that make appearances across episodes.
Hirokawa and Itani are two freshmen at the University of Tokyo. They are perverts in their own way. Hirokawa and Itani are seen enjoying the wind blowing girls' skirts up and seeing their attractive English teacher showing them how to pronounce their L's and R's. Hirokawa shares an apartment with three people.
Hirokawa voiced by: Nobutoshi Hayashi (Japanese), David Matranga (English)
Itani voiced by: Yasuhiko Kawazu (Japanese), Tommy Drake (English)
Aki Yamamoto is the cute athletic star who is the coach's main focus for his fantasies. The show features clips of Yamamoto's face in between vignettes, either winking or with her name being printed all over the screen with "Yamamoto!" being said by multiple people in different ways.
Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese); Hilary Haag (English)
Steve is an American exchange student majoring in photography and cinematography at the University of Tokyo. He uses his cameras for voyeuristic panty shots.
In the manga, he is African-American; in the anime, he is white and wears glasses. Voiced by: Yūichi Nagashima (Japanese); Greg Stanley (English)
Kariya is a man with circular sun-glasses who usually steals things from unsuspecting people.
Voiced by: Daiki Nakamura
Shimoi Chino is the reporter for the TV show Psychic Spot (Channel 2 Night Beat in the dubbed version) whose main goal is to sit beside Barbara Walters on The View.
Voiced by: Nina Kumagaya (Japanese); Shelley Calene-Black (English)