Chrono Trigger OAV
General Information
This page thanks to CuteLucca.
Background
According to Internet legend, "Nuumamonja" was released at a Japanese trade show to coincide with the official launch of Chrono Trigger. However, it may also have been a companion piece to the 1999 rerelease. In any case, after a fansubbing group (Hikari no Kiseki) got its hands on it and supplied it with English subtitles, it began making the rounds at anime cons in the US and gained a small bit of popularity.
Reaction to it is usually mixed; it doesn't feature any of the playable characters (except for a couple shots of the backs of Crono and Lucca's heads) and features NPCs instead, including Johnny the racing robot from 2300AD and Gato (aka Gonzales) from 1000AD. So a lot of people who go in expecting animated adventures featuring our heroes go away disappointed.
The actual stars are a Poyozo and a Nu who make up the musical group 'Nuumamonja'. The story follows a pretty nonsensical sequence of events as these two bungle their way through the Millenial Fair; there's really not much of a plot, climax, or resolution involved, making the whole thing feel a bit flat.
It DOES, however, have TONS of references to Chrono Trigger; every creature in the crowd is a monster you fight in-game. Masa and Mune's combined form competes in the drinking contest. Leene's bell rings to signal the opening of the fair. The music is also ripped directly from the game, so this may be either a good thing if you're a reminiscer, like me, or a bad thing, if you're hoping for instrumental versions of the game music.
Animation style is a bit low-quality, just typical Saturday morning stuff, and was probably handled by the same studio as did Dragon Ball, since Toriyama did character designs for both that and CT, and 'Nuumamonja' has that same light-hearted animation style.
So. You may like it, you may not. I think it's cute, but I would have preferred Square to have made a video featuring the main characters if they were going to bother making a film.
Total score: 3 out of 5. Main value lies in trying to recognize all the characters and in Gato, who is a freakin' badass.
