There's plenty of appalling kid behavior on display in Shin Chan, Adult Swim's raucous redubbing of the popular Japanese anime series. The North American version follows the essence of the source... more
There's plenty of appalling kid behavior on display in Shin Chan, Adult Swim's raucous redubbing of the popular Japanese anime series. The North American version follows the essence of the source material: Shin Chan is a five-year-old Japanese boy with a knack for making his parents, teachers and friends crazy with highly inappropriate statements and behavior (most notably a penchant for nudity and shaking his butt). But the scripts by anime vets Jared Hedges, Joel Bergin and Alex Muniz (with contributions by acclaimed comic book creators Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer on the first six episodes) spin the basic premise into surreal and decidedly adult areas (let's just say that bodily functions, aberrant sexuality, and a cornucopia of mental illnesses are the order of the day). Characters are also tweaked for shock effect--the school's principal, a fairly benevolent figure in the original anime, is now a bizarre half-Gypsy with a sordid past, while Tooru, Shin Chin's nervous nellie of a pal, is now Georgie, a five-year-old neo-con. The absurdity of the dubbing is peppered with frequent pop culture references, which can grow wearying after a while, but the sheer rudeness of the storylines generally overpowers any rough patches. less