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AKA: 時空冒険ヌウマモンジャ~ (Chrono Trigger: Jikuu Bouken Nuumamonjaa), Chrono Trigger: Nuumamonjaa Space-Time Adventure
Genre: Parody
Length: OAV, 15 minutes
Distributor: Currently unlicensed in North America
Content Rating: 10+ (slapstick, wacko monster behavior)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: .hack//SIGN, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Star Ocean EX
Notes: Released as a jokey "thank you" to the fans of the popular Chrono Trigger video game, this is best considered a side story.
Rating:

Chrono Trigger

Synopsis

Once upon a time, a young man named Chrono went to the Millennial Fair being held for the kingdom of Guardia, and met a girl named Marle, who would change his life forever.

This is not his story.

Instead, we follow what happens later that night, when the monsters attend the fair, including the super monster team Nuumamonjaa ... and Gonzalez (Gato), who is strong, beat him up and win silver points!

Did we mention that Gonzalez is strong, beat him up and win silver points?


Review

I wonder how many people thought this was going to actually star Chrono and friends. Well, I'll tell you right now: NO, IT DOESN'T!.

The rather misleading Chrono Trigger OVA really focuses on the monsters of the game, rather than the heroes, I guess, in an order to rectify some loss of screen time or something. Unfortunately, rather than the silent Chrono and his charmingly motley colleagues, we get ... Nuumamonjaa.

What is Nuumamonjaa? It's a Nuu (a big ball with a dopey idiot voice affect) and a Mamo (aka a Kilwala, a fluffy pink thing with a grating squeak-toy voice affect). It is also essentially fifteen minutes of watching these two monsters run amok, accidentally activating Gonzales (aka Gato) who proceeds to yell loudly and frequently that He is Gonzales, he is strong, beat him up and you'll win silver points.

Yes, I remember him from the game. That doesn't mean the joke is funny the first time, the fifth time, or the tenth time ...

If this thing were reliant on anything but nostalgia and perhaps a taste for borderline puerile humor, I might have been more accomodating, but the fact is that Tanaka Mayumi (Mamo), Chafurin (Nuu), and Tachiki Fumihiko (Gonzalez) do such an effective job of being utterly annoying that essentially nothing else matters in this show. Yes, you see the heroes for all of five seconds. Big flippin' payoff there! Thanks!

To add insult to injury, like many other promo OAVs (I'm looking at you, Ribbon), the animation is utterly lousy, and the script is simply an excuse for incredibly stupid humor that would be offensive if the characters were human, but is "cute" because they're monsters. Like, getting drunk and peeing, because monster pee is so funny.

Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but I can't help but bludgeon this fudgin' OAV. So little to do with Chrono Trigger, so much to do with stupid.

If you want Chrono Trigger anime style, stick to the FMVs on the PlayStation version of the game.

This was Chrono Trigger, it was weak, I beat it up so gimme my damn silver points already!Carlos/Giancarla Ross

Recommended Audience: Only for extremely rabid (and forgiving) fans of the game.

Also, there is slapstick violence, and one extended scene involving one of the monsters getting dead drunk and subsequently taking a leak. DEAD SERIOUS.



Version(s) Viewed: digital source
Review Status: Full (1/1)
Chrono Trigger © 1996 Square
 
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