Anime Review: Onara Gorou Features a Fart as the Main Character

Fart Anime For The Soul

By Ghia Vitale

Onara Gorou (also called Onara Goro) is a short-form anime series that focuses on farts. In other words, fart anime is a thing. "Onara" means "fart” in Japanese and Gorou is the name of the main character/fart. Warning: This anime isn’t compatible with Smell-O-Vision of any kind!

According to Anime News Network, this anime is a collaboration between Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting and the animation company ILCA. Amazon cites Asian Crush as the studio. This anime was initially released in Japan during the summer of 2016. But like any decent fart, Onara Gorou is lingering beyond that period of time: It’s available on Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime Video. The famous voice actor Takashi Taniguchi is the director of this anime series. He provided the voices for notable anime characters such as Harry Anders from Hellsing and Montblanc Cricket from One Piece.

Am I immature for wanting to review a fart anime? Maybe, but there’s also a deeper reason for me writing this review: Unfortunately, Taniguchi passed away on December 28, 2012. Onara Gorou is his latest work as an anime creator. His crowdfunding campaign for this anime even reached its goal of 1.5 million yen. Clearly, he felt invested in giving life to Onara Gorou and therefore, I want more people to know about this anime he directed.

The farts in this show almost look very peculiar, but unique nonetheless. In fact, when I first saw art of Gorou, I thought he was a mushroom. In my opinion, the farts’ appearances in this anime remind me of a mixture of an egg and a mushroom. It wasn’t until I looked up the show and learned the meaning of the title that I realized I had struck fart anime gold. Then I proceeded to watch the entire series of shorts on Amazon. 

Gorou is “the most admirable of farts.” When Gorou first appears, people are reluctant to value a fart’s insights. But the people in this show quickly come to look to Gorou for advice. When confronted with Gorou’s wisdom, they are awestruck with inspiration, enlightenment, and so much more. Gorou isn’t the only wise fart in this show—there are other fart characters in the show who are also proper sages. Sure, the advice these farts give isn’t always good or accurate, but nonetheless, the other characters are stunned by their insight and moved in a way they never thought was possible. 

Watching this anime will give you a whole new perspective on farts. In Gorou’s universe, each person’s fart looks just like them, but in fart-form. Not only that, but the farts in this anime are highly sentient. They’re capable of doing everything from feeling love to shapeshifting. It really makes me wonder what I would look like as a fart. I wish I could just fart and have a sentient being poof right out of my butt to give me advice.

I’ve gotta be honest with you: The first time I watched this anime, I didn’t understand the appeal of it beyond fart humor. But once I watched it a second time, it cracked me up! I had a similar “delayed reaction” when I first watched Napoleon Dynamite in high school. Since my first time watching this series, I’ve watched it 4 more times just for fun. This anime grew on me fairly quickly and I completely understand why the crowdfunding efforts were successful. I think the entire concept of this show is very imaginative and funny yet also heartful. Although I mostly watch kawaii cat anime, it’s fun to fart around with absurd anime like this every now and then.

Watch Onara Gorou via Crunchyroll. You can’t smell anime farts through your screen, so it’s worth a shot! Once you check it out, feel free to get at me on Twitter to let me know what you think about it.