Haré+Guu

Haré+Guu (ジャングルはいつもハレのちグゥ) is a Japanese anime, based on an original manga which ran in Monthly Shōnen Gangan Twenty-six TV episodes were made, followed by two OVA sequels: Haré+Guu DELUXE and Haré+Guu FINAL.

The surreal, comical and occasionally serious series focuses on the story of a 10 year-old jungle boy named Haré and his misadventures with Guu, a liminal being who usually presents herself as a young girl. The jungle where Haré lives is somewhere in Malaysia according to VOL.8 of Hareguu.

Characters
Many characters in the series have names relating to weather (including, most obviously 'We-da'). The show's title has a double meaning, sounding like a weather forecast (Mostly fair skies, but then Guu) and a normal title (The Jungle was Nice, then came Guu). Many fans avoid translating the title, some simply referring to it as Hare Nochi Guu or (as the show does) HareGuu. Some fans of the show simply just refer to the show as Guu, being that Guu is a unique character.


 * Haré(ハレ) (Hale in the manga)
 * The usually patient and sweet-natured Haré (whose name means 'fair weather') is usually troubled by Guu's joy in creating chaos and he is prone to anxious rants or tantrums whenever Guu does something unnatural. This is accompanied by a sudden downpour of rain. Haré is used by his mother, Weda, to do household chores and he is teased by Guu for having an Oedipus complex, exhibited in his competitive nature trying to keep Dr. Clive away from Weda. He gets worried about any other male character trying to win over Weda, such as Asio, coming to a boil in an episode where he throws himself into a competition over rights to her for a year, with Dr. Clive, Mari, and Uigher. Haré tends to think about things too much, and Guu takes advantage of that by psychoanalyzing Haré at every opportunity, and playfully taking advantage of Haré's neurosis. Hare is also seen reading the Hare+Guu manga. On episode 7 he becomes 11 years old(possibly a gift from Guu from one of her moments of breaking the 4th wall.).


 * Guu (グゥ) (Goo in the manga)
 * Guu's stomach is a world filled with buildings, hundred legged cats, and a nice young couple of lovers that have been trapped there for ages (but apparently don't mind their predicament). Other than Haré, no character seems to be aware of Guu's strange nature (or for that matter the bizarre circumstances surrounding everything else in the series). The weird events that occur because of her are only ever acknowledged by Haré. Everyone who is eaten by Guu, only to be spat out later (excluding Haré) dismisses what happened as "sleeping" (occasionally, dreaming about Guu's Stomach world). Haré even dismisses his first time in Guu's Stomach but is quickly proved wrong. There are other strange things Guu can do, which defy the laws of physics, logic, and reality, such as (but not limited to) superhuman strength, elongate her body parts, breathe underwater, teleport, time travel, cause people to switch bodies, read minds, cause disco music to play suddenly, switch her face (from a cute face to a completely plain face), transform into a giant kaiju monster version of herself, and incite mental breakdowns in Haré, though the latter is more of a talent than an actual power. She apparently has more than one stomach and cares enough about the people and creatures she swallows to keep dangerous things away from the area she keeps her 'guests'. Despite all this, Guu actually cares for some of Hare's personal problems, and often gives him advice with profound sayings- a lot of her powers are used to make Hare learn a lesson.


 * Adult Guu (Big Guu in the manga)
 * A resident living inside Guu who is separate from Guu and can take over whenever she feels like it. Fortunately for Guu and the rest of the residents inside her stomach, she cares about them and their wants and desires, going so far as to steal Ame from Hare.  She's also the one responsible for ripping off the village elder's chest hair, making him permanently traumatized of Guu.  She also appeared one time to act as the school doctor after Clive tried unsuccessfully to give Guu a physical, causing Guu to tie-up Clive. Big Guu becomes a frequent visitor to the outside world when they are all in the city.


 * Weda (ウェダ) (Ueda)
 * Weda is Haré's mother. She is carefree and inclined to binge drinking. Because of her laziness, Haré looks after her and does most of the "housewifely" things. She left life in a rich home at the age of 14 when her father disowned her for becoming pregnant and refusing to divulge the father's name (out of fear that her father would destroy Clive's life). She raised Hare in the jungle by herself which, due to her chronic irresponsibility, is quite difficult to fathom. She may have survived on the fact that she's a brilliant hunter, second only to the Elder.

Despite her flakiness, Weda does love her son very much and sometimes tries to give him advice and cook lunches for him; unfortunately she is a terrible cook and usually injures herself badly when she tries to cook anything but shrimp au gratin. She is extremely maternal despite her sometime immaturity, since she enjoys mothering Marie and Guu, is delighted to discover her second pregnancy, and tells Hare that if he vanished she would follow him anywhere. Weda's relationship with Dr. Clive is an odd one, since she seems to be very fond of him and bears him no ill will, but inexplicably seems to regard any romantic overtures as jokes. She seems to be unaware that Asio and Uighur are in love with her, and she regards the Stupid Couple with contempt and irritation. In the OAVs, she becomes pregnant with her second baby with Clive, and later marries Clive. Her older siblings send assassins to kill her to take her out of the family will but she is usually saved by Robert.


 * Ame
 * Hare's baby brother. Born in the OVA, Haré+Guu Deluxe, but has barely any significance in the story. His name comes from "Megumi no Ame" (Rain of Blessing), When Haré goes back in time, and met up with the past Weda, he claimed that his name was Ame rather than Haré, and when he got back in the present, Weda remembered the boy from the past while naming her 2nd child.


 * Marie (マリィ)
 * A student of the school that Haré and Guu attend and Reiji-sensei's younger sister. Mari is friendly towards Haré (Later turning into a crush), and imagines herself as a tragic, shōjo manga-esque character. She really loves Weda because she never had the chance to have a mother, and pictures Dr. Clive (father figure) as a part of her family as well. She gets extremely jealous of Hare whenever he goes to the city, always imagining Hare hooking up with various women. Her love for Hare has become very aggressive.


 * Dr. Clive (クライヴ)
 * The doctor of the school, Clive is apathetic towards everyone in the jungle, unless they happen to be female. He came in from the city shortly after the series began, and had a 'relationship' with Weda while she was 14 years old, which, as Weda admits, resulted in Haré's birth. The anime and manga state that Dr. Clive is Haré's biological father but despite this, he engages in violent arguments with Haré (most of the time the center of it being Weda). Highly perverted, he uses every opportunity to "reignite his old relationship" with Weda, which usually end in failures until he chases after Weda when she leaves for the city. Later she becomes pregnant with their second child, prompting the doctor to propose marriage at last. He has white hair when the series begins, but eventually Hare dyes it black so Dama will stop stalking him. In the anime it is shown that Dr. Clive was an abused child, with a highly perverted mom that hated him, which may explain his promiscuity and his antipathy towards young boys. He is fond of Marie in a paternal manner, even wearing clothes she makes for him and telling her that her food is delicious. His body language and high-strung nature (as well as his awareness of Guu's weirdness) are very similar to Hare's.


 * Reiji-sensei/Lazy-Sensei (レジィ) (Leiji)
 * Reiji is the teacher of the students of the school. He likes to stay up all night watching anime, so he falls asleep during the day. The school does not have many students so they all are in Reiji's class. Unfortunately Reiji would much rather rest than teach. In fact, the only "lesson" he seems to want to teach is "mid-morningsiestas." Later in the manga, Rebecca is captured by her pokute family and Lazy rescues her, convincing the pokutes that Lazy is the right love for her, despite his trying to convince them otherwise.


 * Chourou/Village Elder (ボーア)
 * Chourou is an old man with a lot of chest hair, which he feels is a sign of his strength and manliness. Adult Guu steals it and this is used as a plot device. (As a result of this he has taken to calling her "Lord Guu" and keeping a safe distance.) As the village elder, he leads the pokute (recurring and common creatures in the jungle) hunts, and has dozens of recipes in which pokutes are used. He falls in love with a cat that looks almost like him which he ends up giving to Hare (much to Hare's chagrin) and even disappears for a while when his chest hair growth goes out of control. By the ends, he's merely a furball with a head. His chest hair later becomes a warp zone between his hair and a fuzball in a closet in the city, in which Hare uses.


 * Toposte (トポステ)
 * Toposte is the grandchild of Chourou and like him, does not wear a shirt. He initially does not have chest hair like his grandfather, though he fears it is genetic. He attends at the school. When he does ends up growing chest hair, he accepts it happily after learning that the chest hair is how Chourou got girls attracted to him back when he was young. In the city, he is mind controlled by his chest hair and takes over his new class, becoming an idol because of his chest hair. But he is saved by Hare and Guu when the chest hair is removed. When everyone returns to the jungle he is still being sought out by Yumi-sensei, but he eventually returns her feelings.


 * Rebecca (レベッカ)
 * Weda's drinking friend who was raised by pokutes that take care of her, even after she started living in the village. They have been revealed as the source of her "magically cleaning" house (of which she has no knowledge). She is used as a female stock character, filling out various roles as Weda's friend. Later, her pokute family tries to take her away, but because of Hare, Guu, and Lazy, she is saved.


 * Uigher/Wiggle (ウイグル)
 * One of the older students, the lack of influence he has on the storyline is occasionally used as a gag. He is madly in love with Weda, but never gets to prove his love, usually resulting in a comedic attempt to hang himself. Even after Weda gets married to Clive, he still fantasizes and pursues Weda. After they all decide to return from the jungle, he ends up staying in the city. Guu once ate him and because it took a while for everyone to realize, Hare found him as nothing but a pile of goop. When he returned to the real world however, he was a woman. It is now believed that him and Gupta may have actually been born woman.


 * Gupta (グプタ)
 * Another upperclassman in the school, he is fairly impulsive but not particularly mature. Starts off with long blonde hair, gets it cut short and blackened when Dama first appears, then it grows back out to a brown color later. In the manga, it frequently shown that he is in love with Ravenna. In the manga, Guu swapped everyone's genders to teach Hare a lesson and later turned everyone back to normal, but she has yet to switch Gupta back. It is now believed that him and Gupta may have actually been born woman.


 * Waji (ワジ)
 * An obnoxious student who always laughs when he talks, and tries to encourage Guu to do the same, to questionable results. He is sometimes found weeping in the forest for unknown reasons. Some theorize it is because his father beats him.


 * Ravenna (ラヴェンナ)
 * The oldest female student in the school. She is a bit air-headed and unsure of herself. Completely lost in her own world as she fails to pay attention or care about events going on around her when she runs errands for her mom. Currently in a relationship with Gupta, but when he went to the city and Guu made him a woman, it is still unsure whether or not Guu made her a man so the relationship stays the same.


 * Pokute (ポクテ)
 * Creatures abundant in the jungle, often seen in people's houses. They look like armless rabbits with human faces. Pokute were supposedly sent from the heavens as protectors, although the villagers use them as a food source. Despite where they go in the world, the cast will always find pokute.


 * Tomoyo
 * One of three people living inside Guu's stomach world. A kind and friendly office lady, she does not seem to mind living inside of Guu. Seiichi and her are good friends and are even possibly a couple. She takes care of Haré's pet bird Hee after Guu eats him.


 * Seiichi
 * One of three people living inside Guu's stomach world. Like Tomoyo, he is a friendly high school boy who doesn't seem to mind living inside of Guu. He is good friends with Tomoyo and is even possibly her boyfriend.


 * Hiroko Yamada/"Angry Yamada"
 * One of three people living inside Guu's stomach world who first appears in episode 8 of the TV series. She is a 22 year old who attempted suicide by throwing herself into the ocean and was rescued by Guu, who swallowed her while fishing (and while bringing in a massive haul of various sea life, she technically didn't catch any fish). Unlike Seiichi and Tomoyo, Hiroko is mentally unstable and bipolar, making her dangerous and unpredictable. In fact, she tried to kill herself in an elaborate plot to take revenge on her cheating husband by dying, going through hell, and coming back as an evil spirit to haunt him for the rest of his life. She now spends most of her time in Guu's stomach world drinking alone on a hill, where most of the other inhabitants have now learned to avoid. Became fast-friends with Yumi-sensei when Guu had swallowed Yumi for a short time.


 * Ashio (アシオ)
 * A servant at Weda's parent's estate, he has very scary eyes (though it wasn't always the case, was stated to have beautiful eyes when he was younger). Loves Weda, but she thinks of him as a brother. He is often the one who goes to pick up Weda after nights where she had been drinking specifically heavily (revealed to be quite frequent due to Weda's habits). Often coming up with ideas that seem not to be possible, Haré is put off by him from their first meeting. It has been revealed that Ashio is a superhero, much like superman but with lasers and healing powers.


 * Bel (ベル)
 * Another servant, she is prone to gigantic nosebleeds when thinking of Weda as a child (this implies she has a perverted obsession with Weda). She and Asio have often been used to fill in the story of Weda's past. Though Weda is quite happy the two of them returned, their odd tendencies often frighten Haré, who is quite easily unbalanced by their (and Guu's) acts that seem to defy the laws of physics. Hates Clive with a passion. In the manga, it is implied that Bel is actually a man in drag. She likes pretending to be sick in order to try and get Weda worried so she will stay with them in the city. She is also terrified of bugs.


 * Sagin (サギン)
 * A reticent boy. Along with Rāya, he seems to be part of a running gag in the series as both of them never talk, or are always interrupted when they are about to. (Like having a video interview with everyone, where when their turn came the camera switched to the next person immediately when they open their mouths.)


 * Rāya (ラーヤ)
 * A reticent girl. Along with Sagin, she seems to be part of a running gag in the series as both of them never talk, or are always interrupted when they are about to. (Like when Haré asks for an answer from everyone, and the camera pans over everyone, skipping past Sagin and Rāya when he looked at them.) She only speaks two phrases in the entire course of the anime series and OVAs- "The Crotch" and "Briefs".


 * Robert
 * Weda's trigger-happy bodyguard after she, Hare, and Guu go to the city. After graduating high school, he arrived in the city and was beat up one night, and was later found by Bel. It's because of her that he got his job. At first he doesn't get along well with Weda, saying that she wasn't worthy of Bel's love, but that changes after they foil a bank robbery. He may or may not have feelings for Bel (as episode 23 implies). In addition to being trigger-happy, he is a paranoid lunatic and once tried to kill a boy who bullied Hare causing him to ironically protect his own abuser from Robert. After Guu switched everyone's genders, it took her a while to change him back.


 * Yumi-sensei
 * A substitute teacher that took over for Lazy while he was sick. Ironic since she absolutely hates children, and has never had a boyfriend.  Extremely short fuse.  She exhibited a 1-way attraction to Hare after Hare was so nice and understanding towards her plight, and eventually breaks it off in the end to be with Toposte. In the end, her and Toposte end up becoming a couple.


 * Dama
 * Hairdresser from a close by village that became obsessed with her long-lost white-haired husband, and unfortunately she mistakes Dr. Clive for her dead husband and even spins an elaborate fantasy life explaining why he doesn't know her. After spending most of the series stalking Clive, she is eventually told to live for new love, and starts training her body to be in top shape. Meets, fights, and marries the bank robber, only to get seduced by an assassin later.  After realizing she was only being used by the assassin, she resumes her happily married life with the bank robber. Later, Dama has an affair with a famous assassin in order to gain some excitement from her calm lifestyle with her husband. Robert later helps her to give up that life. She is found by Hare in Guu's stomach on their most recent trip to the city. Dama's sister is Tama, whom she used to get along with but now they fight. The two merged once while fighting and Hare and Guu had to stop her. She was able to separate from the merged self and stop her sister. They now get along once again. She works as a singer at the bar her husband runs. Recently, Hare caught sight of her in the shower and the traumatic event is preventing him from returning to the jungle because just the thought brings back the memories.


 * Tama
 * Dama's twin sister who looks exactly like Dama but with white skin. The two were best friends as children but as they grew, Dama became more popular, especially with their teacher as the two were teenagers. Tama and Dama were eaten by Guu and spent some time within her stomach in the RPG simulated world she created. In one story in the manga, the two sisters meet up, argue, and merge into a giant Dama/Tama monster that fights Hare, Guu, and Hare and Guu from a short time in the future. She plays piano as her sister sings in the bar.


 * Bank Robber
 * Complete video game nerd who gets along with Hare due to their mutual love of video games. They'd be friends if he wasn't constantly taking Hare as a hostage.  Eventually marries Dama after being bested by her in battle. He now runs a bar in the jungle.


 * Rita
 * A self-centered girl around Hare's age that attends school in the city, who only cares about herself, and pleases others to not make enemies so she can get ahead in life. Hare ends up becoming her first true friend. She seems to eventually grow a serious love for Hare.


 * Chet and Addie
 * Dubbed the "stupid couple" by the village, they're a couple that have been madly in love with each other for the past few years. Chet claims to have come from England on a research trip, only to stay in the jungle when he laid eyes on Addie.  A running joke later in the series is that whenever Chet and Addie are together on screen, they're usually doing something that needs to be blurred out. While Hare and friends are in the city, Guu sometimes pulls the couple out of nowhere when they are needed. It is unsure whether or not this is because she currently holds them in her stomach. The true story behind them is that Chet, ever since he was a child, wanted to go to the jungle. He got good grades in school and excelled all for they sake of being able to go there. When he got there, he was given a guide so he could find his way around. The guide was Addie. After touring around for a bit, she got very mad at him for hitting on her so much and she yelled at him and said she doesn't like him that way. But later, to be nice, Chet goes to find his way in the jungle without help, where he gets sick and lost. Addie goes to find him and does, where seeing how far he would go for her happiness, she returned his feelings.


 * Yohan
 * A student that went to school with Hare and Guu in the city. He is secretly in love with Rita and usually beats up Hare for being so close to her. At first he is fat but when the group returns to the city later he lost a lot of weight. By the time Hare and everyone leaves the city, he has accepted Rita and Hare's "love."


 * Bartholomew
 * Weda's older brother who has sent hitmen to kill her in order to take her out of the family will.


 * Donna
 * Weda's older sister who also sends hitmen to kill her.


 * QP/Pretty
 * A very large, musculer bald man who everyone met on an island when their plane crashed on their way to the city. His name is meant to be very ironic. He first protected the gang when they were trapped on the island but he sometimes appears in the city when Guu pulls him out of nowhere. He and Robert have become rivals. He has five children: Simon, Sam, Samuel, Sandora, and Sean. He is currently a woman because of Guu and he/she works as a maid for Hare's grandmother's mansion.


 * IT 1
 * A black haired man who shows no emotion. He is actually a human form of a cockroach, changed into human form by Guu to get Hare to stop being afraid of bugs.


 * IT 2
 * The sister of the black haired man. Neither show any emotion or compassion for anything, except for their home.


 * Alex
 * One of the assassins who was sent by Weda's siblings to kill her. He was the one who caused their plane to crash. He is very childish and is never serious. He is sometimes referred to as a yankee because of the way he stands. He is very loud and completely surrenders when captured by Robert.


 * Shirley
 * Alex's friend who helped him with his assassination attempt. She is very shy and only ever opens up when it comes to Alex. It was because of her that Robert decided not to shoot the two when captured.


 * Alva
 * Bartholomew's son and Hare's cousin. Despite being her nephew, he was one of the assassins sent to kill her. He wasn't told by his parents to kill her though, he just wanted to make them happy. He ends up going with everyone back to the jungle. He is usually getting lost, causing him to be returned to home by a rather oversized pokute.


 * Lloyd
 * One of Wigle's roommates in college. He is very snobby and is always taking his girlfriend out and buying her expensive gifts.


 * Sarah
 * Another one of Wigle's roommates. She is that typical snobby teen girl type.


 * An
 * Another one of Wigle's roommates. She seems peppy and excited all the time, but she is actually very sad. She once kidnaps Hare in an attempt to gain a large sum of money from his grandmother to pay for her family's debt. But she is stopped and thanks to Hare is still excepted by everyone.


 * Yuuki
 * Wigle's last roommate. He is very quiet but nice. People usually avoid him though because he has a scary face.

Plot
Unlike the manga, which was more focused on the romantic affairs of Weda (mother of Haré), the anime plot emphasises comedy and the "special" relationship between Haré and Guu. The OVAs are mostly a continuation of the TV series, expanding upon it with several new characters, a bigger focus on Weda, and answering unanswered questions.

Additional information

 * The original stories are drawn as manga by Renjyuurou Kindaichi and the early 100 chapters are titled as Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu (ジャングルはいつもハレのちグゥ)then changed to "Haré+Guu(ハレグゥ)".
 * Also, the original Japanese manga (at least, the early stories), spelled Guu's name in Romaji as "Goo".
 * The very last episode of Hare nochi Guu Final is a cliffhanger ending, as we are left with Hare, Guu, and Weda returning to the city, and "See You Again" is written at the end of the credits. This leaves an opening for a possible 4th series, even though it contradicts the word 'Final' in the title.
 * The closing song "Ohashi" by 0930 [Okusama] was changed because Bandai Japan wouldn't allow AN entertainment to use it. They told them to use the soul funk music, an instrumental cover of "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" by McFadden & Whitehead heard in ep 3 as a replacement.
 * The platform game Caverns of Hammerfest, by the French company Motion Twin has a quest called Guu's Mystery where you have to collect items related to the show such as Chorou's hair. The message upon completing the quest advises you to buy a Hare + Guu DVD.