Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
PheasantTaste
I enjoyed this show, as many other people have, but most MAL users would not. The visual style is somewhat abnormal and the episodes are self-contained. Also, other reviews and synopses overstate the presence of psychiatry in the show beyond a fun setting. The show isn't really about psychiatry; it's just psychiatry-flavored. This is not a bad thing, but if you watch this show expecting something substantial in that regard, disappointment is inevitable.
This idea deserved more than just 11 episodes. My only complaint is that Irabu could've used more screen time.
Semi-spoilers:
I thought the last episode sucked. I fear that if they had made more episodes, they would've tried to deviate even more from the working formula.
Read at the sourcesansneant
If your diet primarily consists of anime, there's very little meat. It's mostly dessert, quick tastes of shows that are easy to digest and leave you feeling good but lack real weight or sustenance. You don't see a lot of anime that can successfully find a place between "i'm 14 and this is deep" and "completely meaningless" - both “empty-comfy” and “valueless” types of meaningless. I would go so far as to say the medium of anime abuses its visual similarity to Western cartoons to actively avoid making its viewer really chew on those important issues - it’s digestible, it’s understandable, good and evil, quips from anti-heroes and dark haired male fantasy protagonists and the couple ends up together at the end. Even shows which feature conflict heavily create a "good guy" and a "bad guy," wh…
Read at the sourceluugi
This is a long ass review, i suggest reading this only if you are extremely interested in what a random 15 yr old has to say about this show.
I will preface this review by saying Kuuchuu Buranko is not for everyone. Especially for those newer to the anime genre, the style and content of this show can seem quite jarring and intimidating, not to mention difficult to understand. I myself tend to dislike watching psychological anime which require more thinking and thoughtfulness to be enjoyed than your average adventure or slice of life, simply because I dislike being confused. If you aren't prepared to make an effort to process and understand the things that aren't clearly laid out in front of you, I recommend you stay away from kuuchuu Buranko until you are ready to do so.
From a surface…
Read at the sourceZahyo
Do you really know the struggles your colleagues, friends, and family deal with on a daily basis? Unfortunately for most people, the answer to this question is a resounding “no.” Yet despite this, lots can be learned from understanding the problems of other people, however trivial they may seem. There are a select few, however, that spend their time listening to the canaries and attempting to come to an understanding with the complications others are faced with. In quite possibly his most extraordinary project to date, director Kenji Nakamura attempts to analyze and unravel the ever-complicated human psyche with his avant-garde spectacle, Kuuchuu Buranko.
Originally aired in the fall of 2009, Kuuchuu Buranko revolves around the bizarre office of Dr. Ichiro Irabu, a psychologist with a pec…
Read at the sourceTheBrainintheJar
Often you’ll hear how being unique isn’t enough to make a good anime. That’s not entirely true, since being unique is overall a good trait. Why would you want to sit in front of a screen, watching the same thing over and over? What these people do get right is that mere uniqueness isn’t enough. Although in the end, all great works of art are unique and highly original, not all original works are great works. That’s because true greatness which comes from true uniqueness isn’t just a unique art style or a cool storytelling method, but a thematic depth.
All the problems with this anime are in this sector. It’s eccentric and utterly bizarre. Better anime don’t break their conventions like this, but in the end it’s all just quirks and a unique style that don’t reach any profound conclusion. A…
Read at the sourcePippyh
This is a very weird show, one of the weirdest I've seen. But somewhere in this madness, there is an enjoyable show, filled with memorable characters. The art style may be a turn off to many viewers, but if one can see past that, they will find a gem.
The story is not very progressive, featuring different characters every episode, with some intertwining in certain episodes (and did you notice that half the characters had OCD of some sort). In each episode, an actual psychologist appears and explains the real life problems, making for an educational show for someone interested in psychology, such as myself.
I realise that not everyone will enjoy this show, but it is worth a try.
Read at the sourcektulu007
Kuuchuu Buranko is based on a series of short stories by Okuda Hideo. The stories have been adapted into multiple live action films, a television drama and this anime series from Toei animation. That's right, the same studio behind Dragonball, Sailor Moon, Precure, Digimon and many other anime. So, how did they do with this series? Let's delve in.
Story:
Irabu is a psychologist who works with all kinds of patients. The series basically covers eleven of his cases. What their neuroses are and how he treats them. All in a way that's supposed to be comedic.
But that's also the big flaw of the series. It's largely not actually funny. A lot of the humour is supposed to come from shifting art styles, Irabu's weird fetish for vitamin shots, his patients being shown with animal heads and other t…
Read at the sourceSeficus
This show is amazing, in my opinion. It focuses on psychologist and psychiatrist today. For example, a typical psychologist (in society today) would just prescribe a patient medicine or pills for the simplest disorders; however, this show places emphasis on what a psychiatrist should do. Actually help people get to the root of their own problem and solve it. If you enjoy shows that have to deal quite a bit with philosophy and psychology--this is a must-watch for you!
Not only does the show ponder with the complications of a modern psychiatrist, but it also has outstanding art and music. I loved how each cinematic correlated with the abstract ,yet beautiful, art. Each scene was bolstered by vibrant colors that just made the show pop with life; yet, the music was warm and inviting. It was…
Read at the sourcesmileyboyrocks
The true genius of Kuuchuu Buranko is difficult to pick up on, veiled as it is by colourful characters, humorous dialogue and direction that rivals the likes of Satoshi Kon's work for sheer weirdness. Indeed, without the implicit subtext it would be little more than an intriguing novelty, a slightly unconventional documentary almost. With the layered messages that this show dispenses and leaves you to ponder, it becomes one of the most near-perfect masterpieces of the visual medium, and a hauntingly bitter one at that.
That's right: under the colours and the comedy, Kuuchuu Buranko is a series characterised by an impassioned attack on its own audience.
The setup is simple: each episode follows the interactions between madcap psychiatrist Ichiro Irabu (whose primary methodology involves t…
Read at the sourcechevybow
I'm writing this review purely to offer a different perspective from the ones I've seen. This isn't the type of anime that everyone likes. I happen to be one that was rather disappointed by it. Feel free to disagree, but here is a review from someone who thought this was a pretty mediocre show to counter all the 10/10 reviews.
Story: 4/10
The one major compliment I will give this anime is that it is rather unique and does try to do something different. Chances are you won't see many anime's quite like this one. This is made most obvious in the story and in the art. The story follows Dr Ichiro as he treats 11 patients. 1 patient an episode. They each have some different disorder and he somewhat helps them to fix their problems.
The main problem I had with the overall story is that the…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Overview:
"And now for something completely different" - John Cleese
Have you ever watched a medical drama series? They are VERY popular all over the world because people are fascinated by unusual disorders and tense medical emergencies. These shows essentially combine the genres of mystery, psychological, and high tension drama all while taking place in the real world with a "relatively" realistic scenario. Now I have a second question for you: "Have you ever watched an episode of House and said, Man this would be WAY better if I was on LSD?" If you said yes to that previous question, Kuuchuu Buranko is the show for you!
Describing Kuuchuu Buranko isn't exactly easy since it is so batshit insane! Imagine the bastard offspring of "House" and "PeeWee's Playhouse"! That is pretty much t…
Read at the sourceeririri
Do you truly know the people around you? Do you notice the chirping canaries that fly by your side?
Psychiatry deals with grave issues; perhaps triggered by a past trauma, perhaps by an insufferable present; patients find themselves struggling to cope with their daily lives. This gravity is what makes the eccentric Irabu Ichiro, certified psychiatrist, so bewildering a character. Accompanied by his seductive nurse Mayumi, he runs a psychiatric ward offering consultation and treatment for people suffering from various mental disorders. The deceptively simple premise of Kuuchuu Buranko lays the groundwork for an extraordinary exploration of human mind and society.
The first thing in Kuuchuu Buranko to catch people’s eyes is often its distinctive artistic style which utilizes a combination…
Read at the sourceMatas
"No one is perfect!"
Everybody has problems, everybody has fears, everybody needs help sometimes, but despite being as flawed as we are society seamlessly moves forward and knowingly or not we are each an important gear in advancing our culture and world.
Kuuchuu Buranko is an artistic, psychedelic expression of problems or doubts we have and getting through them or bettering ourselves. Some of us have common fears and anxieties from not being able to deal with our families and trying to run away, to maybe some stranger problems like uncontrollable erections, as well as everything in-between. Those are the types of experiences we handle in this show, I say experiences because they are 'representations' of real life problems and feel very human to the core despite being very surreal and…
Read at the sourceKapodaco
Some people say that the best way to solve a problem concerning internal conflict is to talk to someone about it. Whether this proves true or not is to be decided by those with said conflicts, but even so, who should one of these people talk to in order to ease their conscience? Friends, family, strangers, celebrities? These are all likely possibilities, but what is debatably the most regarded choice in the matter is the local psychiatrist. People believe that because psychiatrists have a degree in psychology or study in the field of human development and interactions that they'd make a suitable choice to fix one's mental problems, because they would know what was going on in their minds. However, if Kuuchuu Buranko is any indicator, every patient has the exact same problem, and the doctor…
Read at the sourceBaconzombie
Now here’s a show that caught me off-guard, but in a good way.
Story:
9/10
At face value, Kuuchuu Buranko, or Trapeze, seems like a collection of psychological case studies. Symptoms of eleven patients are examined throughout a short span that lasts for about 9 days. Patients are each given a full episode of spotlight as we join along in their rather short, but entertaining “journeys” of trying to figure out the reasons behind their conditions. True to form, Trapeze applies the biopsychosocial approach (I’ll be referencing the three parts within this review) when examining each patient. Treatments are not limited to medicine, and as in all cases, a vitamin shot or some prescription drugs aren’t enough to solve the problem (the biological approach). Psychology is no simple matter, and di…
Read at the sourceggultra2764
Kuchu Buranko certainly does enough to stick out of the norm for an anime title with both its storytelling and animation. The plotting to the series is mostly episodic, mixing comedy and drama in exploring how different types of psychological problems like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Yips negatively effect the lives of Irabu's patients. The characters in each story are fleshed-out enough where you get to know what their personal lives are like, how their disorder could have came about and how said disorder negatively effects them. Like Welcome to the NHK, you could be tempted to laugh at the problems effecting these people yet at the same time, you may feel uncomfortable sooner or later upon realizing that these problems can happen in real life with…
Read at the sourcemovoning
If you've been to a psychiatrist, you should see this.
If you doubt psychiatry to the core and question why your mental state should be cracked open by strangers who think they have the right to hide you from you, then this series will probably change your mind.
Irabu, like all psychiatrists, diagnoses his patients based on their behaviors, and like all psychiatrists, he only vaguely tells them what their problems are. Instead, he gets them involved in situations where their fear, insecurity, or hidden feelings would surface and hit them hard. This method does not always guarantee success, and in fact, not all his patients are successfully treated. However, what changed in the end is that those people who are not entirely cured came in terms with their problems. They accepted who they ar…
Read at the sourceNoblesseOblige3
Irasshaaaiiii!!!
Kuuchuu Buranko is a truly brilliant and ‘different’ Anime that will blow your mind, it is a very weird show that will likely not apeal to a lot of people because it is so experimental.
It continuously repeats the dates 16th through to the 24th of December and follows Irabu a psychatrist as he deals with his patients.
There isn’t much of a story and is made up of eleven different cases spread across eleven episodes, although each episode deals with one character, they all turn up in other episodes either interacting with the episodes patient or just appearing in the background.
The artwork is rather unique, each character is drawn like you would see in a regular Anime but is also portrayed by a real live actor whos face mingles with the drawn hair and clothes, by doing…
Read at the sourcenicepants
Trapeze is a show that comes along once in a blue moon. There is no moe to be found here. There is no fanservice (apart from Mayumi's injections). There are no lolis. The art style is odd, and there is no bloodshed.
So, why should you watch it, you ask? Trapeze is a story that dares to be drastically different, with amazing writing and strong characters, while supporting a unique and engaging art style. The voice acting is top notch, and the stories are great.
Taking place mid-to-late December, the show is mostly episodic, covering the same time frame. Characters appear in episodes other than their own, lacing the entire show together and creating a living, breathing world. The stories are all very human, and most are rather touching. Every episode is strong, focusing on a patient and f…
Read at the sourceDetective
Here is an anime that will turn 90% of its viewers away. Why? Because it dares to be distinctly different. For the remaining 10% who watched after the first episode, you probably know already how great this anime is. Now let's hope to switch these figures, so everyone can enjoy.
Story: 9/10
The story is of Dr. Irabu, a psychiatrist who also happens to be the vice chairman in his fathers hospital. He's an incredibly skilled doctor who welcomes many patients, and his treatment is always vitamin injections. The story revolves around the people with disorders such as OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder), and many others. The story takes place all within ten days, December 16th to December 25th, and all the stories somehow affect one another, whether it…
Read at the source