I say this mainly because Anno himself is a bit of a madman among otaku; in fact, he's even an admitted agnostic. Having been a part of the industry before he even finished attending Osaka University of Arts, he was one of the men behind the DAICON III & IV Opening Animations, was one of the founders of Gainax, directed the likes of Gunbuster, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, & Neon Genesis Evangelion... And whenever he's portrayed in stories by other people, he's usually shown as a bit wild & crazy. Take, for example, Aoi Honou/Blue Blazes by Kazuhiko Shimamoto, who was a classmate of Anno's while at Osaka, which features Anno as a young man obsessed with anime & manga culture, almost as if it was competition in who reigns over all. The other notable example would be the manga Insufficient Direction by Moyoco Anno, the woman who married Hideaki in 2002. Running from 2002 to 2005 for a single volume in Shodensha's josei magazine Feel Young, the manga known in Japan as Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki/The Incompetent Director told a fictionalized account of Moyoco's life as the wife of Hideaki... One which required a literal "otaku dictionary" at the end of the compiled volume, because of the sheer amount of references made in less than 140 pages. In the Spring of 2014, as part of TV Tokyo & AT-X's anime info program Animus!, an anime adaptation of Insufficient Direction aired on TV as a series of thirteen 3-minute episodes, with animation done by DLE, a studio best known for other short-length adaptations like Thermae Romae & Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san; interestingly enough, this anime adaptation was never licensed, not even for simulcast. So let's see what happens when Hideaki Anno becomes the anime character he may have always wished he could become.
Rompers is the baby-like wife of Director-kun, a man completely unabashed in his love & obsession with anime, manga, tokusatsu, & their respective theme songs, model kits, toys, & other associated merchandise. Though she felt she knew what she was getting into when she agreed to marry him, Rompers is constantly shocked at just how far Director-kun's obsessions go... And living with a madman like that only makes her more & more into an "ota-wife".
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| This is a really short review, but there are just too many great shots... So you're getting FOUR TIMES as many! |
Being comprised of three-minute episodes, Insufficient Direction has each focus on a specific subject, like buying shelves to better organize Director-kun's massive collection of DVDs, helping Director-kun lose weight & eat healthier, Rompers hoping that her new husband can actually care for her when she gets sick... Or learning to simply accept that singing anime & tokusatsu theme songs while driving in your car is a perfectly healthy thing to do (*brainwashing complete*). While obviously fictionalized, Moyoco Anno still plays around with heavily poking fun at her husband's otaku brand of madness, even calling him the equivalent of a "village idiot" at the end of one episode. However, it's always balanced out, if not completely rivaled, by Moyoco admitting how she continually transforms more & more into an ota-wife, and that things that once got her angry, like her husband's insistence to playing theme songs while driving (& singing along with them), have since become things she's gotten over, or actually indulge in herself; even the "village idiot" jab was because she made a stupid mistake, & he took pride in being smarter than her. Everything shown here definitely fully relatable to fans of the same stuff that Hideaki Anno loves, and while there is a slight feeling of Moyoco/Rompers being "converted", it's never portrayed as a bad thing, and it's not like she didn't have otaku-like tendencies before getting married, anyway.
Unfortunately, that's kind of the problem with actually reviewing this anime, as the super-short-length episodes don't really lend themselves to much discussion in terms of thematic content. If you want references, shout-outs & homages, though, then this is definitely the show to check out. In fact, I honestly prefer Insufficient Direction in anime form over the original manga, mainly because being an audiovisual format actually allows for more proper referencing to be made. For example, the whole "singing theme songs while driving" gag seen in Episode 7 works much better here than in the manga, simply because the actual theme songs are played, allowing those who are unfamiliar with the songs referenced to better understand the gag, whereas in the manga it was all just Moyoco Anno telling the reader what songs are being heard, which limits their effectiveness. In fact, Episode 11 even plays with expectations by having Rompers sing Xabungle's theme song in the car, only for the staff to have to show an apology on screen, since they couldn't get the rights to the song, so the gag plays in silence. Meanwhile, Episode 9 starts with Rompers talking about when she first saw the Return of Ultraman parody that Hideaki Anno made with his friends at Daicon Film (the precursor to Gainax), and the anime actually shows footage from said fan film, letting the viewer actually see Hideaki himself "be Ultraman". Finally, each episode has a different 30-second anime or tokusatsu theme song cover done by AŌP, an idol group known for doing anime songs; Animus! would also be renamed to AŌP's Animus! around this time. This results in fun little covers of songs from the likes of Getter Robo, Ginga Senpuu Braiger, Dancouga, Ultraman, Mach Baron, & Space Battleship Yamato being heard during each end credits, which is an amusing bonus. Also, each episode ends with a drawing done by friends & colleagues of the Anno's, like Kazuhiko Shimamoto, Daijiro Morohoshi, Gataro☆Man, & even Leiji Matsumoto!
As mentioned, Insufficient Direction was done by DLE, a studio known for its use of flash for its animation, but definitely one of the best examples of the format. Animation here is purposefully stilted & limited, but in turn helps add to the silly & seemingly absurd (though based in reality) situations Rompers & Director-kun bring to the viewer. Part of the reason for the well-executed flash animation found here is because of director Azuma Tani & executive director Ryo "Frogman" Ono, both of whom are known for this style of production; these two were behind the Thermae Romae anime, for example. Moving on, while no one in particular is credited with the script writing, it is extremely accurate to Moyoco's original manga (Director-kun even calls Rompers "Moyo"), and even has some new content. There are a couple of episodes that I swear are brand new stories, while between the end credits & guest drawings there are new "Insufficient Direction 2014" shorts that quickly explain what Moyoco & Hideaki are doing casually at the time of the anime's airing... Like them visiting Paris, with Moyoco finding out that Hideaki believes that he has an invisible mane of hair that he keeps looking perfect. Meanwhile, the music by the late Yuki Sudo is purposefully simple & meant to do nothing more than help accentuate the silliness to be had, which it does well. Finally, we have an extremely minimalist voice cast, featuring only Megumi Hayashibara as Rompers & Koichi Yamadera as Director-kun, who were both Hideaki Anno's first (& likely only) picks. Simply put, they both nail their characters perfectly, with Hayashibara sounding child-like & silly for Moyoco's avatar (she even maintains it while singing theme songs), while Yamadera is almost nigh-unidentifiable as Hideaki's incarnation. The last three "Insufficient Direction 2014" shorts also feature Kotono Mitsuishi & Megumi Ogata as narrators; got to keep that Evangelion family together, after all.
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| Even in Japan, its home video release was as a bundle with the manga. |
There's good reason why short anime like Insufficient Direction tend to rarely receive focused reviews like this: There often isn't much to write about. That's not a denigration towards them by any means, but rather it's simply that most of them are purposefully produced in fashions that don't really endear themselves to singular discussion. In fact, I haven't really reviewed an anime series of this similarly short length since Doamygar-D in 2015, and even that one gave me just a little more to chew on for a written review. That's not to say that Insufficient Direction isn't good by any means, though, because I had a giant smile on my face all throughout every single episode, and it really shows just how adorably nerdy a couple Moyoco & Hideaki Anno likely are in real life; it's just that it's a super simple concept on purpose, and to explain in more detail would ruin the gags. If you have any interest whatsoever, I fully recommend reading the manga, as it's still in print. If you've already done that, though, and want a nice refresher in a new way, then by all means hunt down the anime; I do wish it wasn't skipped over for a simulcast, because I doubt it'll ever get licensed at this point.
And if you want more, Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara made a 10-minute short in 2016, Yoiko no Rekishi Anime: Okina Kabu/Historical Anime of Good Children: Large Cub, as part of the studio's 10th Anniversary; you can even watch it on Khara's YouTube channel. It's not really a direct continuation of Moyoco Anno's manga, as it tells a dramatic & more serious thematic history of Khara as though it's a giant daikon field (with each Rebuild of Evangelion film being a giant daikon), but Director-kun & Rompers are the main characters, & still voiced by Yamadera & Hayashibara, so think of it as a pseudo-sequel.
To be fully transparent, however, the only reason I even decided to watch & review the Insufficient Direction anime was because I wanted to have at least one anime review for every letter of the English alphabet by the time I hit the 10th Anniversary this December, and "I" was one of only two letters I was missing. Now that "I" has a spot on the Master List, I can move on to the sole remaining letter... And what Quizzical Quandary of Quarter-Munching Quaintness awaits? You'll just have to wait & see, I guess.
Anime © Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki Production Committee (DLE, Groundworks, Cork, AT-X)
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