Comments on: GIMME GIMME GIMME!

GIMME GIMME GIMME!

Lord_Pall — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:35:21 -0800

Kure Kure Takora was a Toho produced, short form children's television show from the Japan in the early 1970's. Meet the Cast: Kure Kure Takora, aka Gimme Gimme Octopus; his closest friend, the coin vomiting squash Chonbo; jellyfish bully Tororo; Monro, the sexy walrus who gets around; Debura,the grizzled and world-weary badger; Biragon, lazy trust-fund iguana; and last but not least, the picked on, Sea Cucumber Gang. An exhaustive listing of videos for all 220 episodes, most with plot breakdowns.

The lyrics and translation of the title song so you can sing along - KURE KURE KURE KUREPPE KURYARUKA KURYARINKO Nandemo hoshigaru KUREKURE TAKORA Gimme Gimme Gimme Scheming win or lose Scheming little thief (child pickpocket) You'll do anything to get what you want, Gimmie Gimmie Octopus

By: jtron

jtron — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:51:25 -0800

I love this show so so so much and so does my friends' 4-year-old son for whom I copied my DVDs. Works great for entertaining drunks at the bar, too!

By: p3t3

p3t3 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:56:22 -0800

Could have sworn this had shown up on MeFi, but maybe not. It at least made some rounds a while back when it got a few mentions on WFMU's blog. They even posted the snazzy theme song. Good stuff!

By: po

po — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:06:22 -0800

This is so many kinds of awesome. When I grow up, I want to be in this show.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:22:45 -0800

I have a set of 257 episodes in fairly high quality that I got via bittorrent years ago — I've watched probably a quarter of them, mostly by playing the whole directory on shuffle. It's loud, bright, colorful, and disassociative. This rip on The Pirate Bay appears to be the one I've got

By: JHarris

JHarris — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:44:16 -0800

Ah! The show with the baby dumped into the river!

By: lapolla

lapolla — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:28:14 -0800

wow. so. totally. awesome. you know of kikaida, yes?

By: p3t3

p3t3 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:54:07 -0800

Kikaida rocks! There's a proper US DVD distribution of the original 70's Kikaida epsiodes with English subs. It used to air on Hawaiian TV (and possibly other locations?). Personally growing up in the midwest, I remember Ultraman would show up on the tube once in a while, and later Tranzor Z (Mazinger Z), Voltron, etc.. But I think Kure Kure Takora was either too early or too wacked out to import.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:11:02 -0800

Gimme gimme octopus? We've already had one example of octopus erotica deleted recently and a show with a title like this has got to be more of the same. Let's investigate further... From the bittorrent .nfo blasdelf refers to above: While the episodes only run 2 and a half minutes each, you'll be treated to acts of: (snip) * Love triangles that cross not only species but also plant/animal classifications Why oh why are so many Mefites so determined to foist their seafood/human sexual relationship agenda on the world? Next thing you know, they'll be demanding Octopus/Human marriage and *then* where will we be?

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:51:08 -0800

Works great for entertaining drunks at the bar, too! The first time I saw Kure Kure Takora was in 1998, on a degreaded 3/4 inch beta tape at the club where I was a VJ. Every time I played it it would always get caught in the ancient deck, and I would have to reach in and extract it from the bowels of that infernal machine. I played that tape until it disintegrated. Not so much because I cared for the drunks, but because it entertained ME. It was like The Banana Splits on mushrooms. I was in LOVE. And that was before I heard the soundtrack. Sure, it's all in Japanese, but I doubt being able to understand what the characters are saying would shed much light on the plots or anything. Next thing you know, they'll be demanding Octopus/Human marriage and *then* where will we be? One plot synopsis I read starts out "An octopus and a peanut are in love with the same walrus..." They're waaaayyyyy ahead of you.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:55:34 -0800

(The peanut is actually a squash.)

By: geos

geos — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:51:40 -0800

racist? it's interesting to know that the Octopus's MO is lying cheating and stealing... he has a striking simple sambo appearence which I had thought was accidental. now i'm not so sure.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:01:59 -0800

I saw this in the basement of Two Boots Pizza on Avenue A in NYC about ten years ago and the whole room was sooooooo high.

By: CheeseDigestsAll

CheeseDigestsAll — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:44:21 -0800

Kure Kure Takora's greatest fear is being doused with vinegar and being served as Sudako. Pretty much sums up modern life, I'd say.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:48:09 -0800

Fantastic! Without knowing much of the series, it makes me think of Kogepan (ten 4-minute anime episodes about a little burnt bread person and its friends) and Yo Gabba Gabba! (wacky little kids show, made by MC Bat Commander (Christian Jacobs) from The Aquabats), though neither are as violent and weird.

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:26:05 -0800

Coin Vomiting Squash is the name of my new band.

By: everichon

everichon — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:36:44 -0800

I put this on our tv one day, while my 8-year-old nephew and some of his friends were over. There were no subtitles. They loudly protested how dumb it was, but stood, gaping and arrested, through the entire DVD.

By: sarcasman

sarcasman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:13:16 -0800

So that's what the side characters are? One very special acid trip in a Minnesota winter involved guessing which combination best described those characters (eg walrus-unicorn-carebear for Monro...), and generally trying not to lose our minds while watching the craziness. At some point we began discussing each character in terms of emotional archetypes, at which point it was agreed we should turn it off. The song, however, was a bit trickier to escape.. from loudly repeating inside our minds.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:23:59 -0800

Here's a thought for you guys. Maybe this show isn't all that weird, really. Instead, maybe American kids programming is so tame and withered from decades of psychologist overthinking, regulation and parent pressure that when we see a wonderful kids show that isn't so encumbered by those things, we snap awake and think how odd it is. Also, that a kids show not burdened by these thing can also be somehow appealing to adults. It's the same reason John K. finds it hard to find work doing kids cartoons even though he created Ren and Stimpy, and it's why classic Sesame Street is still so appealing yet "not recommended for children," while the current Street is about as interesting as plain oatmeal.