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Afro-Ken is certainly a weird little OVA; it’s not really about anything in particular, and yet still manages to be entertaining. Based on a line of toys by the people who brought you Hello Kitty, Afro-Ken is about a cute dog with an afro and all of his friends, most of whom are also cute dogs with afros. The “story” introduces the different dogs and features silly little elements of their lives… and that’s it. It’s not really a story at all, but it does what it needs to do: look cut…e and advertise toys.

And look cute and advertise toys it does. Afro-Ken covers dozens of unique character designs, but features little else in the way of characterization. On that note is the way these characters appear: the entire OVA is done in 3-D, but rather than going for a more realistic look, the animators appropriately chose a simplistic, silly style. While not particularly remarkable, (the movement of the dogs is often choppy) again, it does what it has to.

That’s not to say that Afro-Ken is without it’s merits. The first lies in the music: the one prominent song (used for both the opening and closing) is fun and extremely catchy, with silly lyrics such as “there is a dog with a big afro / that follows me around wherever I go / my daddy says it don’t exist / but I can see it in the sky and even in my rice bowl dish”. You gotta love it.

The other good point of Afro-Ken? It is dang fun. You can’t help but crack up at the jokes or “awww” at the cute little dogs with crazy hairstyles and their antics (my personal favorite is probably Afro-Ken swimming across a photo of the Statue of Liberty). As a matter of fact, this is one of the only anime that my three siblings and I all enjoyed, and it left us all wanting Afro-Kens of our own. It’s certainly a pointless experience, but it’s one of those shows that satisfies your need for the bizarre and the cute all at once, without confusing you or making you feel like you need more. And at one episode of less than thirty minutes, how can you deprive yourself of that?