Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru

Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again - How it feels great to turn young again, even if it's fiction. In the Bible, it is stated in the Book of Genesis that there exists the Garden of Eden, which has the duality of the Trees serving different purposes: the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God does not give the prohibition for the Tree of Life, and it's free to be consumed...so why not take this idea, and turn it into an original work? And that's what you get with mangaka Kagiri Araido's Twitter/Pixiv web manga series: Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru a.k.aGrandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again, a rom-com series about elderly people's regression when they eat from the supposed "Tree of Life", and live life to the fullest, as portrayed in their young adult days. They say, "Second Chances are hard to come by", and this context is given to the main elderly couple of the Saitos: husband Shouzou and wife Ine. After building their apple orchard for much of their lifetime and noticing that one particular tree has grown a golden apple, they don't think much of it and consume it just like any other normal apple, only to find themselves regressing in age. Manifesting romance back in their lively days, and serving as the comedy gag, both Shouzou and Ine begin to re-experience the days of their youth once again, inspiring the people around them and taking the jab of professing how great it is to be young again. The one-word-liners to describe this show, would be heartwarming, surprising, wholesome, and uplifting, because that's the motive of the original source material to weave daily moments into life that can be enjoyed once again. That being said, Shouzou and Ine's direct influence being their son of Yoshiaki, his wife of Kaede, and their child-cum-granddaughter Mino, it's just relentless comedy gags aimed at the young to ever be so surprised that their parents/grandparents, with all of their infinite wisdom and adding their regression, makes for lots of hijinks that even affect their neighbours and especially the grandchildren, forming their own rom-com circles that you can't help but chuckle at (even if the jokes may be hit and miss). The fact is that while this show doesn't have a plot around it, it uses its setting to good effect, and ultimately comes up as a decent-to-good show that you can watch in your free time. And for that, the show does its sole job well. Like everything else in the anime, you can take it or leave it as it is. The production by studio Gekkou is rather decent (with a few eye-popping comedy moments), as well as the OST alongside Koresawa's OP and Shouzou and Ine's ED, both of which I feel are just mind-numblingly slow (given that this is a show that has "young" in the name) and giving them the speedbump up would've helped things be livelier. It's a chill anime that definitely screams the one-off episodic treatment, but if this show is your jam, then feel free to just rest in the laurels of the feel-good show that's just a comfort to watch.

Even today I still hear people say that anime are just cartoons for children. With the end of Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru I reaffirm that anime is only a medium to tell stories of all kinds, in this case it was a quite emotional one. The stories of the grandparents who rejuvenate at first seem like they would put the grandparents in all kinds of scenarios to tell a joke. Although due to the sketch format some segments were like that, throughout the 11 chapters they also talked about serious, sad, romantic and family things. The grandparents only needed 5 minutes on screen to let us know,without ever mentioning it, that they love each other and have great chemistry. Without exaggeration, we may be facing one of the best, if not the best, couple of the season. The anime uses an hourglass to explain and handle the entire phenomenon of rejuvenation. One thinks that it will only be a visual aid for the viewer but they really make the most of this narrative element. Seeing how the clock can be turned over, broken, erased and the consequences that this has on the grandparents is something quite interesting to see. On the other hand, a lot is also played with grandparents, playing with the theme of aging and rejuvenating at will, but no matter what version of them they show us, love will remain unchanged. This anime has a speech about the passage of time that makes you feel very nostalgic no matter how old you are. Seeing how some things are forgotten, no longer used, towns that naturally become ghosts or businesses closing due to lack of customers, are issues that you don't see so far away. If you live in a small city or a village you may even be able to understand more closely everything that is talked about here. Rejuvenating grandparents make you understand two very important things: 1.- Time passes for everyone and there is nothing we can do to stop it. 2.-Due to the above, we must enjoy our loved ones as much as possible. You never know when it will be the last time we see them. As you can see I gave this anime a 10, it's just that it's a tricky 10. This anime may seem like the best, the worst, or average to you, depending on how much you can connect emotionally with the grandparents. In my case, this anime came at a point in my life where the topic of grandparents hits very sensitive chords. That's why more than a 10 for its quality, it's a 10 for how it made me feel. In this way, it is not something that I could recommend indiscriminately because what I liked was too personal.

This anime revolves around two grandparents, Shouzou and Ine Saitou, as they turn young again. Before this show aired, I read the synopsis for this series and was immediately intrigued because the possibilities that you could do with a story like this is seemingly endless, and on top of that, the concept of giving grandparents the opportunity to do new things that they never could’ve done when they were younger is very wholesome by itself. When this show actually started airing, I was immediately sold on the cute and comedic dynamics that this show presents due to both Shouzou and Ine turning young again. Ontop of the whimsical nature of everyone else’s reactions to two grandparents being basically young supermodels, the main couple finally gets to experience new things that they never could have experienced during their prime days, which makes the overall perspective that this series presents hit hard. I really like the themes of taking in the simple moments in life and holding your loved ones close, and although this is a very unoriginal message in storytelling, Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again’s narratives deliver on those themes well through fun and heartwarming characterizations. If I were to offer any form of criticism for this anime, I will say that some of the editing isn’t that great (which seems to be a running theme for this seasonal slate of anime), more specifically the audio mixing. Sometimes the backing soundtrack in this series just overpowers some of the seiyuu’s performances, which makes it difficult to hear some character voice lines. I can’t imagine watching this anime in raw Japanese because without the subtitles, it’d be near impossible to hear what some of the characters are saying, especially when it comes to Mamiko Noto’s voice lines for Ine. Another aspect that I have to point out is that this show can be kind of repetitive sometimes. I don’t mind some sense of repetition in more laid back movies and shows like this, especially if the writing is mainly revolving around fleshing out the characters’ lives and their relationships. However, Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again occasionally reuses some of the same comedic tropes and plot points, which makes viewing this show a bit boring at times. Regardless, these minor setbacks don’t hold back the overall cute atmosphere that this show brings, and, for the most part, accomplishes in being nothing but straight wholesomeness. If you need a short and relaxing anime to watch, give Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again a try.

There are pros and cons, but I Give 10/10 For the original and very healthy story. I would give Oscar to this. Spoiler-free review with all pros and cons: This anime is the true definition of Love. There is not much romance, but it shows what true love should be like. I feel jealous of them as all the characters in the anime. Because Today people lack the concept of true love, and as said the main pro is the Concept of love, "will always love till death does you apart". It's So touching, it's so cute, it leaves you with positive and fuzzy feelingsinside you. Con: Lacks romance, I understand they are old, but needs more romance. But I guess when you're from previous era and generation there was not much time and opportunities for more romance, so definition of romance was different during that period. Everyone will enjoy this anime who loves the concept of love.

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