Hoshi no Kaabii Kirby of the Stars which is the Kirby game series official Japanese name is a 100episode anime series starring Nintendos popular pink puffball. The game series is designed to be incredibly simple with the goal of being easy for beginners to pick up and enjoy. This doesnt mean the games dont include plenty of challenge for experienced players because trust me they do but the anime decides to keep things simple and target the young children that the series appeals to so well. Since the games have very little lore or story creative liberties were taken by the shows production staff in order to create a world in which to tell these childrens stories so what you get is a new universe thats heavily inspired by the lore of the games yet still manages to feel unique and separate. Older fans of the series may find this slightly disappointing but thats to be expected from a show that isnt directed at that older audience. The main issue with the anime is that it doesnt contain much in terms of story or character development. Its a monsteroftheweektype anime where similar to a sitcom characters dont change from episodetoepisode apart from the shows beginning and ending which are definitely heavier on story. The good guys and bad guys both go through trouble and learn morals as they go but while the good guys learn from it the slapstick baddies always ignore the lessons and go back to being their regular selves which makes the show feel pointless. Thats not to say thats a bad thing though. For its intended audience the show is perfect. Its lighthearted funny has action scenes in each episode and best of all has topnotch animation that stay consistent throughout the entirety of the 100episode series although its a little disappointing that character models switch from 2D to 3D animation from timetotime. I assume they do it for simple convenience which is why it seems so random but for an anime released in 2001 the 3D implementation is actually fairly impressive so its forgivable in my eyes. All in all its a show thats definitely worthy of that Nintendo Seal of Quality The only question is will older viewers be as entertained as those that the series was intended for? In my honest opinion even middle schoolers wont find anything of much interest in the show. While Im not saying its a bad watch Im saying that theres far more worthy shows out there that you could be watching instead. Dont waste your time with this one unless youre watching the tube with someone whos the right age for it. Of course I cant end the review without mentioning the Western edit of the show handled by 4Kids Entertainment named Kirby: Right Back At Ya. Since the show was originally meant for such a young audience 4Kids was never able to popularize the series in the West among 712 years olds which was the usual demographic for cartoons of the sort. Surprisingly enough however all 100 episodes still aired on TV although its quite difficult to find them all now since only a handful were ever released on video and Nintendo the current distributor of the series following 4Kids bankruptcy hasnt seen fit to permanently rerelease the anime in any physical or digital form although they had done temporary rereleases of certain episodes in the past through various Wii/3DS applications. That being said the Western adaption is quite similar to the Japanese original despite the usual edits made to all of 4Kids dubs. I really like the authenticity of the Japanese original which promotes the series excellent production values and also features music identical to the Kirby Air Ride video game of the day which I thought was an awesome touch. Despite that I also enjoyed many of the changes made to the English version: the voices and personas applied to Dedede and Escargoon the series main baddies of sorts are a lot more fun adding to their slapstick charm and to top it all off it has one of the most fun cartoon theme songs of alltime. This is great news for English viewers because lets be honest: your kindergartenaged kids probably arent going to want to read subtitles. The score below is written with the older audience in mind since theyre the ones reading the review. In my books its a mustwatch if in the 90s worth watching if in the 80s casually enjoyable if in the 70s and not a complete writeoff if in the 60s. With a 60/100 Id say that the show definitely isnt for you but it may be great for your kids or siblings.
60 /100
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