Jubei-Chan the Ninja Girl: Secret of the Lovely Eye-Patch

[Ashley]

(originally posted by Turbocat)

Title: Jubei-Chan the Ninja Girl: Secret of the Lovely Eye-Patch Vols 1-4 (DVD) by Bandai Entertainment
Episodes: 13 on four DVDs

Intro:
A young girl nicknamed Jubei and her father move to a small town from the city and try to make a new life after the death of her mother. One small problem however: a strange and pathetic servant has been searching for the heir to the ‘Yagyu Jubei’ school of martial arts for the past 300 years-and Jubei is the chosen successor! Suddenly Jubei’s life is turned upside down as she is challenged by her teachers and even her high school crush- and she is forced to don the ‘lovely eyepatch’ and transform into the reincarnation of Yagyu Jubei himself to fight. Woven into the action and intrigue are two other stories: Jubei’s identity as a teenage girl and her relationship with her father.

Positive points:
I just can’t find anything wrong with this anime. The animation and art are beautiful, the music is uplifting, and the characters are endearing. The story itself is touching…and yet the show is extremely funny. This is the only anime where I’ve both laughed until I cried and bawled my eyes out.

Negative points:
Very few negative points. The humor is really cute and the violence is kept to a minimum. There is a scene towards the end where someone is possessed by an evil spirit. Some people may object to some remarks made about Jubei’s ‘bon-bons’ (see below) and the fact that reincarnation is promoted. But the positive points far outweigh these issues, in my opinion.

Sexual content:
No nudity except an outline of Jubei’s body as she transforms (like in Sailor Moon). There are comments about Jubei’s ‘bon-bons’ throughout the story though, as they have a role in why she is chosen to be Yagyu Jubei’s successor. Don't ask me.

Language:
No bad language that I can remember…I watched the subbed version of the anime though, I don’t know about the dubbed version.

Violence:
There are plenty of beautifully-choreographed swordfights. Not much blood or gore though. One really neat thing about the fighting in this story is that it shows a picture of redemption. The people Jubei defeats seem to be killed by her sword but in the end, they are resurrected, and the ‘curse’ of their desire to get revenge on her is lifted so they may live normal lives. To me it is a great picture of one’s dying to self and becoming a new creation in Christ.

Spiritual Content:
This is the most ‘Christian’ anime I’ve seen, as far as theme goes. Besides the spiritual picture the swordfights portray, there are also touching scenes of forgiveness, reconciliation and love in this anime. Halfway through watching it, I realized that this show isn’t really about a swordfighting ninja girl, but about a girl and her father dealing with their grief over her mother’s death and showing unconditional love toward each other.

Conclusion:
Jubei-Chan is one of the best anime series I’ve ever seen. It is funny, action-packed, goofy, and touched me in a way that no other anime has so far. I enthusiastically recommend Jubei-Chan to anyone who likes wacky, slightly odd anime with a wholesome theme.

Rating: 5/5 Content Rating: PG

Links:
Anime Café review: http://www.abcb.com/ju_chan/
Pretty basic review.

Parent’s Guide to Anime Review of Jubei-Chan: http://www.abcb.com/parents/j-chan.htm
NOTE: I do not agree with the ‘G’ Rating the guide gives to this show.

Technical review of the Jubei-Chan DVDs: http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/402.php

P.S. I looked each of these links up personally and as far as I know there’s nothing objectionable on them.
--Turbo

[BrianC]

I have the first volume of Jubei Chan in the Netflix queue and I'm going to see it when I'm done with Slayers Try and Record of Lodoss War. I heard some great things about Jubei Chan. It sounds funny and cute.

I disagree with some of the Anime Café ratings too. Castle of Cagliostro is a mild PG in the subtitles and a PG-13 in the dub ( added cursing. ick!), but they gave it a G rating (then again, that rating was based on the Streamline version, so it's a bit outdated). From what I read about Jubei Chan, I agree it should be a PG and not a G.

[BrianC]

I saw the first few episodes of Jubei Chan and I don't recommend it at all. Too many oversized chest jokes and not enough real humor or good action. I heard the series gets better, but after watching two and a half episodes, I found the chest jokes and strange humor to be too much. It wouldn't bother me as much if the main focus wasn't on the oversized chest and the jokes weren't so numerous, but part of the main plot has to do with Jiyu's chest size. Now I REALLY agree that the G rating at Anime Cafe was way off.

[Technomancer]

I've seen this series all the way through, it really is good. And no, it doesn't rely on chest jokes. It really does get better, but then I also liked the show's offbeat humour . I can vouch that there is nothing dirty at all about this series.

[express]

I read this thread and said, "Hmmm...interesting...it sounds okay. Maybe I should give it a try."

And as I was walking in local mall, I saw at GameStop that the whole collection was on sale for around $45 (+ tax). I had some Game Bucks from selling stuff and decided to buy it.

My brother and I watched it and we just finished it today. After watching it, my brother was like, "Man, Joe, they should have more."

I agree. The series was very good. I thought it was very very funny. I'm not talking about the boob jokes, but jokes like how the Ruffians became unimportant expendable characters (the lack of detail in their drawings), Ryujoji Shiro's stalkers (the three scary-looking girls), the "New Student Lovelies", the last old teacher (I think it was Tsutsumi) who talked really funny and out of breath, the Urinal Queen thing, and other pretty witty, but out of nowwhere humor. I really didn't like how the first joke was about Jiyu's boobs, and initially, I was discouraged at first, but I had to eventually watch it all anyway. Also, I thought the loving father-daughter relationship between Sai and Jiyu was touching. Later on, the story takes a more serious tone, but somehow, they're able to stick in humor where it's appropriate.

P.S.

As for the Urinal Queen joke, I found it extra funny because I know where that song is from and have seen My Neighbor Totoro.

[Gypsy]

I own the series and finished watching the last episode the other day. I did watch the entire thing dubbed, so I'm not sure of the differences between of the subbed vs dubbed issue. This was an overall funny anime, and like express, I found myself wishing that there were more episodes. Some things in the anime were definitely on the immature side, as far as the chest jokes and numerous "bonny boom boom bum" comments. These off-colored parts were fairly dense in the beginning of the series, but they slowly taper out towards the middle, and hardly exist at the end.

The fight scenes were pretty good, and the best part of each show, in my opinion, was after Jubei transformed. The story kept me interested, but it was definitely on the weird side. It won't be counted on my list of favorite animes, but it was a pretty good series. While the chest jokes won't bother some people (especially if you compare it to worse things that you've seen/heard in anime), I found them kinda distasteful and juvenile. Also, because of the weirdness of this anime, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but an anime veteran. Not everyone can handle a half-drawn scribbly character popping out of no where - and take it as a "normal" anime thing.

[express]

>Also, because of the weirdness of this anime, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but an anime veteran. Not everyone can handle a half-drawn scribbly character popping out of no where - and take it as a "normal" anime thing.

Yeah, you're right. Anyone else seeing it would probably just wouldn't get it. (Maybe that's a good thing... ). But I found it really funny (half-drawn scribbly characters ) . Maybe it's just me. As for the dub and sub comparison, after watching through the first half of the first episode, I really didn't like the dub. So, I started it over again and watched the whole thing in Japanese. It's much better in Japanese, I think. Jiyu's voice is a lot cuter. But that kind of stuff really doesn't matter. I'm just picky, I guess. I just never gave the dub a chance. The same goes for the series GTO...if anyone has ever seen this show.

[Spiritsword]

Originally posted by Gypsy:
It won't be counted on my list of favorite animes, but it was a pretty good series.

That pretty much sums it up for me too.

I've watched the entire thing, and although it was pretty funny with some good anime in-jokes, that was the extent of its charm as far as I'm concerned. If you want martial arts fight scenes and great character development, watch Kenshin. If you want a weird, funny, off-beat series then you'd probably enjoy Jubei-Chan.

[Rev. Doc]

I purchased the box set at Best Buy a few weeks back and just started watching it. I really like the dry humor of the show. True the breast comments are everything everyone has said they would be, I am enjoying this. Now if you will excuse me...I'm going to go ride my bike.

[Gypsy]

Lol. It does make you want to ride a bike, doesn't it?

[express]

Sweet dreams and memories, forever...forever It didn't make me want to ride a bike, but it did make me and my brother sing the ending song (above phrase) over and over... ...it was funny...

[Rev. Doc]

:lol: Sweet dreams and memories, forever...forever It didn't make me want to ride a bike, but it did make me and my brother sing the ending song (above phrase) over and over... ...it was funny...

You're lucky. The song that sticks in my head is the one they play everytime Cheif and his monkey boys are around...

Duh da, duh da, duh da duh da duh daaaaaa