As a kid I was a huge fan of Keroppi the frog at Sanrio. Well, my sisters got Hello Kitty and Pochacco the puppy, I never really felt like there was anything there for me until Keroppi.
I hadn’t heard of Gudetama prior, but I wonder what the younger me would have thought about him. It wasn’t until the special made Tamagotchi that I heard about him. It was a brilliant tie-in, with being able to kill him in different ways to make delicious egg dishes.
Now Netflix has dedicated a live-action/animated series to the character along with Shakipiyo, and we just had to check it out.
As always our reviews are broken down into the categories of story, acting, and overall. So let’s jump on into it
Story 6/10
The story begins with the hatching of an egg in a fridge which leads to the unfortunate cracking and birth of Gudetama.
Once the egg hatches we are introduced to Shakipiyo, a baby chick who desperately wants to find his mother, and Gudetama, an incredibly lazy yolk boy.
While Gudetama wants to wait and exist in the fridge, Shakipiyo wants to head out into the world. Gudetama is then abducted by Shakipiyo and taken out on a journey throughout Japan.
The journey is incredibly cute and often heartwarming, but at the end of the day it’s pretty frustrating and futile as nothing they actively do helps the pair reach their destination.
While I’m not a fan of the use of happenstance in series or features as a way to solve story problems, I think it might be best in this situation because I don’t see any way that these two characters could have ever found their way to their goal on their own.
Acting 4/10
I am basing this section on the American voice acting of the series, with the acting of the Japanese live-actors. It’s a little bit of a weird one for us…
The character voices for Gudetama and Shakipiyo are incredibly adorable, but unfortunately, it becomes grating on your ears the more you hear them throughout the series. It’s probably good that the episodes are roughly 8 minutes in length on average. If it had been more than that it might have been a bit too much to take in.
“…Roger Craig Smith … and Colleen O’Shaughnessey … do a great job playing the characters … The other voices contributed to the series feel flat…”
That’s not insulting Roger Craig Smith, who voices Gudetama, and Colleen O’Shaughnessey who voices Shakipiyo, they do a great job playing the characters, it’s just those characters are and can be quite annoying. The other voices contributed to the series feel flat throughout the episode.
The live-action characters in the series are so loud and interesting, and their voice acting contributing to their scenes feels… off and disconnected. The actor who plays the mayor is hilarious, and I can’t help but love the old lady at the farm at the end of the series. She’s so kind of oblivious but also sweet. The actor does an amazing job showcasing those character traits.
Overall 5/10
While you might think the show should have a higher rating, to be watchable at least, I want you to understand that this show is still incredibly watchable. I enjoyed it, and even shared it with another person. I can’t really stand to give it a higher rating, but with 10 episodes at 8 minutes an episode, it’s incredibly easy to watch the entire series in one go.
Conner’s Final Thoughts
I think that really kind of bothered me throughout the series is that some people would be able to see Gudetama and others only saw a raw egg. It took a while through the series for it to dawn on me that it was pretty much only lazy people that could see Gudetama, like the lazy sushi chef seeing Gudetama, but the active chef just wondering who left the egg on the floor. However, how are people able to see Shakipiyo?
You can watch all 10 episodes of Gudetama on Netflix now.
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