[Anime Review]/Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox

Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox is an animation out of Korea by Lee Sung-gang of of My Beautiful Girl, Mari fame and while it's a bit older now (6 years actually) it's definitely one of the more beautifully animated films that I've seen in awhile. I have to be honest and say that typically Korean anime doesn't hit the radar around here much (even though so much animation is done there). That said, I'm glad that I sat down and and gave this weird yet beautiful movie a shot.

I wouldn't go putting this on Studio Ghibli kinds of pedestals, but it is very close to being up there. The animation alone sets it apart from a lot of others and it's whimsical nature did remind me of Miyazaki's work a great deal. That said, it definitely isn't without it's faults. The 85 minute run time seems a bit too condensed and it seems that the production team couldn't manage to get everything in that they had wanted to. So, it definitely does get hurt a bit by the short run time and too many ideas being presented, but makes up for it in many, many ways.

• Genre: Supernatural/Romance/Comedy
• Length: 85min
• Rating: 7.5/10
• Recommendation: Give it a spin if you're looking to get lost in some beautiful animation for an hour or so. The story is a bit funky and lacking in a few areas but it's the little moments that make this one work. 
• Where to Watch: Netflix

Our story begins with a brief explanation that 100 years ago aliens, called Yoyo's, had crashed on earth and had been discovered by a small, five tailed fox, Yobi, who lived nearby. They're definitely a strange lot and full of odd ideas about humans, but they seem perfectly content to have Yobi around them and in their home. They're also quite the mischievous bunch when it comes to protecting their crashed ship and home, as we find out rather quickly in the opening scenes.

While we don't really find out much about their lives prior to the events of the movie, it's easy to see that they all do care for each other quite a bit as well as Yobi. The fact that she's 100 years old, by human standards, yet still very young among her kind is key point to things here as well. That said, we're introduced to this lot of screwballs during a "test of courage" type of set up. You know, kids go into the woods with just flashlights, have to retrieve an item and bring it back. Usually there's some kind of story about the woods being haunted or the such to go along with that. This time though...they really are, or are they?

This is also where we meet the rest of the cast in our strange little story. Primarily that of Hwang Geum-ee, a student at a summer school/camp for "mal-adjusted" kids run by a demanding, yet caring, Kang. Outside of Yobi and the Yoyo's, Geum-ee is the next big piece to the story here. Big surprise, eh?

Now during their little walk in the woods Geum-ee drops something very dear to him while fleeing the supernatural and stumbles across the small white fox who has decided to claim it as her own. The dream-catcher comes and goes throughout the movie in a couple of places and serves as a reminder to many things as well.

It's shortly after this that the Yoyo's make their first test flight of their now fixed (mostly) spacecraft. As one can probably guess, this doesn't work out so well for them and the one called "Naughty" ends up taking the brunt of things. Not handling this well at all, he runs off and finds himself at the dilapidated school that the camp is using. It's at this point where Yobi decides they will try and spring Naughty from the clutches of the humans before something unspeakable happens to their friend. They are idiots and stupid as Yobi puts it. However, you've probably guessed that this doesn't go according to plan at all and the new plan is hatched.

Yobi will pretend to be a human and go to school with them in order to get Naughty back.

Now, I'm sure you can tell that all sorts of problems and situations will come up from this plan and they do. Just what those are, I won't say in order to not spoil many of the really special moments that happen after this point. Needless to say, there is a lot of her trying to hide her true identity from the other students and anyone else that's around, including a rather sneaky fox hunter. Some of what she comes up with is pretty ingenious as well and the results aren't always what you think will happen. Especially when she realizes what it will take to join the humans...

Overall this is a fun and enjoyable trek into the supernatural that presents some incredibly touching and beautiful moments throughout it. It's also not completely devoid of the weird and strange things that happen in such a tale either. I mean we've got greeiving bears, evil rabbit spirits, shadow men, a floating bathtub that talks and aliens called Yoyo's. All that and this doesn't even touch on the weird that is the students at the summer camp either. They're special in their own right and I really won't go into too much detail about them due to not wanting to spoil the fun.

Again, there are some issues with the story feeling pushed and the fact that the smaller moments seem to be more interesting and entertaining than the backbone of the film, but as long as you go into it knowing that...then I think it'll be something that's an enjoyable way to spend an hour and twenty minutes or so. Personally, I'm just sad it took this long for this to find its way to me...