I was looking through a list of anime downloads today after I found out that there was a second season to Galaxy Railways, when I came across a series called “Ahiru No Quack.” Now, that word “Quack” just jumped off the screen for some reason. I Googled it and found that it’s a Japanese animated series set in Holland, about a duck named Alfred J Kwak who is raised by a mole named Henk, and was written for children. Okay, so it’s about a duck, that’s all I needed to know! I downloaded the four episodes that were posted.
It started out innocently enough. A duck named Johan Kwak is friends with a mole named Henk. Johan comes in the spring to visit (when Henk wakes up from his winter nap.) This spring, Johan meets Anna, and as ducks do, they raise a family. Some funny Warner Brother’s type sequences with a hawk trying to steal one of the eggs, and later when Alfred hatches, the hawk tries to catch Alfred. Then things take a turn for the dark – two land developers (an alligator and what looks like a hippo) come in and destroy the Kwaks’ home to build a theme park (looks suspiciously like Disneyland.) So the ducks have to find a new home. Second episode opens up with the Kwak family carrying their nest (an old wooden shoe) towards Henk’s grandfather’s house. Alfred runs off, as he has done all through the first episode, and Henk goes to find him because it is pouring and little Alfred could get lost. Meanwhile, the two land developers are driving down the street looking for a decent music station on the radio, and in the rain don’t see the Kwak family crossing the street. Henk hears the crash and arrives in time to see a wooden shoe dropping to th
e ground.
I almost cried.
The next scene shows Henk at his grandfather’s house, trying to convince Alfred that he has to eat something. Alfred is sitting on the ground pouting with his little stuffed duckie, and the duckie is wearing Johan’s scarf.
Wow. This is what Japanese kids are watching? How horrible! The series plays up how cute this little duckie is, and yeah you know that somehow he got separated from his family if he’s being raised by a mole, but… but… to show that his family gets run over – by the same two that destroyed their home no less! What an awful cartoon!
Somehow I don’t think I’ll be able to look at ducks the same way again.