Rumiko Takahashi Anthology - Primal Needs Vol. 1

Product Description Shelter. Employment. Companionship. Rumiko Takahashi explores the stress that can befall people when these basic necessities become endangered. From penguins to wedding chapels and to amnesiac husbands, each episode explores supposedly normal people under extreme situations with all of the dramatic skill and warped comedy that you expect from the world-famous creator of InuYasha, Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura! Amazon.com As the title suggests, this OVA series (also known as Rumic Theater) offers the anime equivalent of a short-story collection. The maladjusted characters in these brief tales suggest rejected lodgers from Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku. Kyoko would certainly get along with Yukari in "Merchant of Romance," who struggles to keep her father's shabby wedding hall in business. Like Kyoko, Yukari remains blithely unaware of a not particularly secret admirer. In "The Tragedy of P," a housewife has to conceal a visiting penguin from a neighbor who is all too aware of everything that goes on in their apartment building. A weird variety of amnesia forces a businessman's selfish wife and son to re-examine their behavior in "Middle-Aged Teens." Anthology doesn't offer the supernatural adventures of Inu-Yasha or the transgender comedy of Ranma 1/2, but Takahashi's stories provide solid entertainment. (Rated 7 and older, but more appropriate for ages 12 and older: alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon