“Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series” was a refreshing series in the fact that while it manages to contain fan service and perverse humor, the series is actually quite enjoyable due to its unusual characters and odd situations that occur throughout the entire series. Perverse, hilarious and a lot of fun, “Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series” is a series worth recommending to those who want more anime series with mature, crazy humor!
Image courtesy of © 2013 FUNimation. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series
ANIME THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: 2012
DURATION: 325 Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, English subtitles
COMPANY: FUNimation
RATED: TV MA
Release Date: November 13, 2013
Originally Created by Yoshiaki Sukeno
Directed by Yoichi Fujita
Series Composition by Kento Shimoyama
Music by Masashi Hamauzu
Character Design: Kenji Tanabe
Art Director: Yukihiro Shibutani
Anime Production: Sunrise
Featuring the following voice talent:
Kana Hanazawa/Brina Palencia as Ichiko Sakura
Yumi Uchiyama/Colleen Clinkenbeard as Momiji
Haruka Tomatsu/Martha Harms as Ranmaru RindÅ
Hiro Shimono/Todd Haberkorn as Momoo Inugami
Kouki Uchiyama/Clifford Chapin as Keita Tsuwabuki
Yoshihisa Kawahara/Patrick Seitz as Bobby
Ichiko gets lucky a lot. She’s rich, beautiful, smart, stacked, and better than you at everything. But there’s a reason life always goes her way: she unwittingly steals happiness energy from everyone else! Momiji – a poverty god with a freakishly huge syringe and a bunch of oddball charms – has to take Ichiko’s extra good fortune and return it to her various victims of circumstance.
Like an Adderall-raddled cat-and-mouse chase in a funhouse full of pop culture references, the spirit of shortcomings and her self-absorbed subject stick each other with jabs, gags, bizarre bets, and dirty tricks aplenty. It’s a side-splitting ride, and everyone’s seatbelt is defective. But how many blows to the ego can Ichiko take before she grows a sympathy gland and stops hogging all the happiness?
In 2008, mangaka Yoshiaki Sukeno created “Binbo-gami ga!” (which translates to “The God of Poverty!”) serialized in Shueisha’s “Jump Square” magazine from 2008-2013. And the series received an 13-episode anime adaptation in 2012.
The series is directed by Yoichi Fujita (“Gintama”, “Kekkaishi”), series composition by Kento Shimoyama (“Blue Dragon”, “Bleach”, “Valkyria Chronicles”), music by Masashi Hamauzu, character desgin by Kenji Tanabe (“”Psycho-Pass”, “Guilty Crown”) and background art by Yukihiro Shibutani (“Akira”, “Case Closed”, “Natsume’s Book of Friends”).
And now “Binbo-gami ga!” will be released in the U.S. in Nov. 2013 as “Good Luck Girl!” courtesy of FUNimation on Blu-ray+DVD combo!
“Good Luck Girl!” is a series that revolves around a popular, wealthy, conceited and well-endowed 16-year-old named Ichiko Sakura.
But her body possesses and extreme amount of Fortune Energy which she draws from people and the world around her and now its causing an imbalance in the world. So, to help rectify this, a Poverty God named Momiji is sent to restore balance by stealing Ichiko’s fortune energy. Problem is, Momiji is a bit lazy, often picks her nose, dirty and is jealous of Ichiko because Momiji is flat chested.
But through their experiences together, Momiji tries to show Ichiko other sides of herself that is unaware about and to be nicer to people and not to hide her true emotions that she hides deep inside (such as feeling alone and being left behind by her parents, not having any true friends, etc.).
But Ichiko’s life also changes when she meets Keita Tsuwabuki, a guy who is raising his four siblings by working several part-time jobs and thus makes him quite sleepy in class.
Add in a perverted, boobs-obsessed Black monk named Bobby; a masculine martial artist girl named Ranmaru Rindo; Momiji’s sidekick and a demonic stuffed-bear named Kumagai and her masochistic dog/human named Momo’o Inugami and a cat/human named Tama, life for Ichiko will never be the same.
VIDEO:
“Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series” is presented in 1080p High Definition. Character designs are very good and well-shaded. Because of the various experimentation with humorous styles of depicting the various characters, I was quite pleased to see how much went into these characters and the art backgrounds. Featuring a colorful pallet throughout the entire series, backgrounds are also well-painted. And as one can expect from a TV Series, there is a slight hint of softness but for the most part, the series looks very good on Blu-ray and features quality as I expected from Sunrise.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series” and is presented in English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0. Dialogue and music is crystal clear with the English soundtrack having a better range due to it having a 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Surround channels are well-utilized during the action sequences especially towards the end of the series. The Japanese voice acting is also well-done, especially during the more emotional scenes and Kana Hanazawa does a fantastic job as the voice of Ichiko Sakura.
As for the English soundtrack, I felt that the writing gave the series a more edgier and also hilarious edge and the stylistic changes for a Western audience comes out very well. And couldn’t help but laugh during some of the dialogue that you hear. Bobby is much more perverse in the English dub and its a change that makes it a bit more mature in humor and just so much fun to listen to!
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series” comes with the following special features:
- Episode 4 Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by Joel McDonald and features questions from fans (using the characters/voices from other anime series) and the Todd Haberkorn and Brina Palencia answering those questions.
- Episode 8 Video Commentary – Featuring a video commentary with Brina Palencia, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Martha Harms and director Joel McDonald.
- Episode 12 Commentary – Featuring audio commentary with Patrick Seitz (voice of Bobby) doing the voices of various anime characters asking him questions about the series.
- Textless Opening and Closing Songs
- US Trailer – (1:06) FUNimation trailer for “Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series
At first glance, I thought “Good Luck Girl!” was going to be a perverted anime series from FUNimation that was more about boobs and lewd humor than story.
Interesting enough, “Good Luck Girl!” turned out to be a comedy series that was more about weird characters that manage to change Ichiko Sakura in many ways. The characters are so unusual as Ichiko, the main protagonist is popular and cheerful but in truth, she is a person that has no friends and has lived a sheltered life because she feels people have used her due to her family’s wealth.
Meanwhile, the person sent to help her, Momiji the Poverty God is so opposite of Ichiko. Jealous of Ichiko’s big bosom, always picking her nose, looking tired and dirty and while not completely inept, her strategy of trying to steal some of that happiness from Ichiko, doesn’t always work out that well.
But surrounding these two characters are more unusual characters such as the perverted Bobby, a Black monk who is infatuated with boobs. This character is so far out of left-field that you don’t expect to see a Black monk in any anime series and the fact that he’s so perverted is rather fascinating.
Add in Momo’o Inugami, Momiji’s dog that she terrorizes quite often, but Momo’o is a masochist, so he enjoys all his beatings with extreme pleasure.
And then you have Ranmaru Rindo, a female who was raised as a boy by her father and like Ichiko, she falls for Keita Tsuwabuki, a over-worked student who becomes the love interest of Ichiko and always busy taking care of his young siblings.
And possibly the most unusual character is the Toilet God who looks and smells like poop.
The odd behavior of these characters adds to the insane and crazy storyline of “Good Luck Girl!”. Some episodes are random, such as Ichiko and Momiji competing in a game of tennis or Ichiko turning to a small girl after Momiji gives her an Aging Box which was meant to turn her into an old lady. What happens when the female and male characters go to a public bath and what happens when Ichiko and Ranmaru try to give Momiji (who hasn’t showered for years) a major scrub down.
But there are a lot of crazy moments in this series, but you can also expect to see some dramatic elements as Ichiko tries to deal with her real low self-esteem issues or what happens when Keita ends up falling from a cliff.
As for the mature rating, because there are so many perverted moments that revolve around boobs and because of its mature humor, the series is definitely not for kids.
As for the Blu-ray release, animation from Sunrise is very good and picture quality is colorful while art backgrounds are also detailed and beautiful too look at. Detected no major problems like banding or artifacts and also the tweak to make the series feel more perverse and fun for the English dub was a good decision, as it made this series quite enjoyable!  I also like the fact that FUNimation added two audio commentary tracks but also a video commentary track.
Overall, “Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series” was a refreshing series in the fact that while it manages to contain fan service and perverse humor, the series is actually quite enjoyable due to its unusual characters and odd situations that occur throughout the entire series. Perverse, hilarious and a lot of fun, “Good Luck Girl! Binbogami ga! – The Complete Series” is a series worth recommending to those who want more anime series with mature, crazy humor!
