Goddamn

ReviewAndRant Feb 19, 2020

5

Note: this is from a video review, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixsjUN6hg4The two-episode OVA randomly titled 'Goddamn' doesn't give away much in terms of what it might be about (while it does somewhat touch on religion, that isn't the point or genre, although that moment happens to be of sociological interest). It features scenes of nature in between semi-comedic interactions of a mechanical sort - the weather is also of import, although it doesn't really matter ultimately as the protagonist is almost immune to disasters despite their constant occurrence. It has a similar atmosphere to Nasu despite being set on a different continent and being about car, as opposed to bicycle racing, although they are more than a decade apart. It also derives some of its comedy from characters' conversations, and often hammers the point, and uses as a repeated prop, the potential dangers of, say, driving really fast up a mountain (which can mostly be 'funny' confined to an animated medium).The environments here may be of more interest than either the comedy or sport, as in the limited time it doesn't quite establish a consistency that others in the same genre (e.g. Slam Dunk adapted at around the same time) develop over tens of episodes. It is still, though, chilled out somehow despite the accidents that would normally, and in real life, easily turn the comedy into a tragedy.Some may approach this from a technical perspective, but anime isn't usually a documentary, as if it was characters wouldn't end up with only a few scratches, and so it seems it would detract from any potential interest if it was treated as such. In comparison to Nasu it isn't quite as 'existential' as the latter half of the cycling story turned out to be, but as usual all have differing focus (this doesn't then have as much commentary as Nasu's first episode which may be perceived as monotonous).Overall, it may be yet another atmospheric OVA animated in the 90s, as so many seem to have been, when studios were possibly not in the mood for much longer series as in earlier decades, but then not even a few more episodes that became standard later on and in recent times, and as such it is a sort of pilot.