Mid-Series Review: Chocolate Underground

Sep 27 2008 • Anime

After the first episode showed some promise, I bought the book by Alex Shearer. It was a quick read and thoroughly entertaining. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for its anime adaptation.

Chocolate Underground: Mid-Series Review

So far, the book is better.

Although Chocolate Underground is only 13 (very short) episodes long, the anime deviates from the book right from the second episode. ¹ A mystery is introduced involving a secret underground chocolate consuming society, forcing Huntley and Smudger to hit the books and track down the chocolate, Hardy Boys-style. My initial reaction was that this would be a good thing, as it would establish the anime as something separate, but so far, it’s just turning out to be bad.

Huntley and Smudger find a chocolate party, hidden in an old mine. In the book, this is their idea and it happens after they establish their chocolate bootlegging business. In episode 6, it appears that the boys are just about to start making their own chocolate. In other words, so far, the anime has reversed 2 key events. Normally, I’m not one to quibble about manga/anime differences but the emphasis of this book is the ingenuity of kids. Taking away the culminating point of their efforts and giving it to someone else from the start leaves a question - what can Huntley and Smudger do to top that?

Another piece of adaptation damage is that Mrs. Bubby’s influential role to the boys has been diminished by the introduction of Louise. Mrs. Bubby is far more interesting in the book; here, she seems like any old boring grandmother. With the plot reversal, it remains to be seen if Mrs. Bubby will receive more a spotlight but my guess is that she won’t. Louise seems to be the love interest of both boys, as indicated by the Valentine’s Day chocolate dilemma. The only characters that are sort of consistent with the book are Frank and Myrtle, the two snitches.

If this series were a standard 30 minutes with 24/26 episode show, I would drop it immediately. However, because each episode is only 3 minutes with 13 episodes, I’ll finish it for the sake of finishing it.

You could argue that it deviates from episode 1 with the creation of Louise but in terms of plot…. [↩]

Tags: Chocolate Underground, mid-series review

Comments

Added on Sep 27 2008 at 11:14

wah so short, 3mins per episode. ok time to watch this chocolate anime

blissmo

Added on Sep 30 2008 at 13:02

Sadly, chocolate turns me off

usagijen

Added on Oct 02 2008 at 01:28

I actually bought the Bootleg book before the anime aired and never got to read it since. I got turned off by the anime and was too afraid to read the book. Seeing how you mention that it’s actually good makes me want to pick it up again… will prolly read it during a not-so-busy time (after the Fall season anime pruning :P)

Caitlin

Added on Oct 03 2008 at 07:24

@usagijen: I think the book took me about 2 hours (I had to keep putting it down for stuff) but it’s a quick read. It’s clearly slanted for children but it’s far more entertaining than the anime.