Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai!

This anime is one of a kind. There's a pretty big name behind it, Mamoru Oshii, and this was before his GiTS and Patlabor fame.

The anime consists of 6 ~30 min episodes. As soon as you start watching it you can feel something is "off", especially in the scenes that are slightly zoomed out. Each scene looks like a stage and the camera doesn't move too much to show us the rest of the room, the main characters appear to have seams on their arms and necks, and when zoomed in their eyes look slightly more "pitted in" - they seem to be puppets. In fact, this whole thing seems like more of a theatrical play than anything else! A satiric tragedy, no more no less. A lot of the elements of your usual play are there, including soliloquies and moments when the characters are talking to the audience in a monologue, the character that servers as a catalyst, the "actor" that plays multiple roles, and so on.

The story is as follows, we have a modern Japanese 3 member family living in a soulless high rise in the middle of nowhere, sort of "isolated" from the rest of the world. It's a Sunday and the dad, Kinekuni, is lazing around because he works hard during the week to pay off their loans. The 17 year old son, Inumaru, is observing the outside area through his binoculars, while desperately wishing to be the main character. The mother, Tamiko, is in her bedroom, and she really hates receiving guests on a Sunday. All three of them seem to be on edge. Suddenly a guest appears - Maroko. Maroko claims to be Inumaru's granddaughter from the future, and she came here to meet her ancestors even though this is taboo in the future she comes from - something we find out once an agent from the future appears wanting to take Maroko back. This event sets off the plot. The mother, disturbed by Maroko ruining the family dynamic, leaves. The father and the son, decide to keep her in their home due to being enthralled by her for their own selfish reasons - Kinekuni wants her to take care of him, Inumaru falls in love with her and wants to run away with her in a main character fashion. This event brings total ruin to the family unit, sending them all in different directions that bring them misfortune.

Each episode begins with a short that describes nature's weird ways of animals caring for their children or passing off their children as someone else's - all foreshadowing and mirroring what happens in the actual story.

Meanwhile, the story itself is a satire of Japanese ancestor obsessed culture and how that weakness is comically exploited for one's own gain.

There's some interesting ideas explored in this ova besides it being a critique of the modern stifling Japanese family, including the power of uttered words and social constructs and the reason why people seek stories which was my personal favourite. Because we cannot witness our very own beginning and ending, we seek it in the form of stories!

All in all, this OVA was very peculiar, and if you don't like theatre you won't like the anime either because it's presented as a theatrical play. I really enjoyed it and I think it stands out.