Kentucky Fried Chicken: The Animation, a review!

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This was a week of celebration for me! Recently, my anniversary post on Getter Robo Armageddon was curated by @curie, and moreover, I was also whitelisted by @minnowbooster. So what better way to celebrate with a review of Kentucky Fried Chicken: The Animation, also known as Kentakkii Furaido Chikin: THE ANIMEESHON (ケンタッキーフライドチキンTHEアニメーション) in Japan.

Just what makes this anime special? Well, generally, anime that cover the fast food industry are unheard of. At best, they get the occasional reference in other anime which couldn't care less about properly representing them.

But that was till I came across Kentucky Fried Chicken: The Animation a few days ago. This obscure anime OVA gem was produced as a collaboration between KFC and Toei Animation in 1989, but due to its limited VHS release for the Asian market, unfortunately not a lot of people have seen it.

That was until a few days ago when someone managed to get hold of a tape and uploaded it on the usual anime torrent site I regularly use.

This OVA runs for about an hour, and it basically tells the life story of David Harland Sanders who was born in 1890, as the eldest child out of 3 in the family. The early minutes of the OVA are quite depressing, where we are shown a scene of young David having to work his ass off already at age 10 as a farmhand, foregoing his childhood for survival. His parents also worked hard to provide for the whole family.

Later on, we have a time skip now showing young man David doing varied jobs such as being a steam engine stoker and an insurance salesman during the Great Depression. All these scenes of him constantly working show his dedication to the life he was given. One part that bothers me though is that they never show the too dramatic parts of his life, such as how bad his relationship with his stepfather was following the death of his dad when he was young or the fact that after getting married, he lost a son from infected tonsils. I know the point of this OVA is to promote KFC, but it would have been nice to show these scenes, to give David some well deserved characterization.

Throughout its hour run, we are also bombarded with KFC facts, such as how David managed to be recognised as a Kentucky colonel, or how many KFC branches are there today in the world by the time this anime OVA was produced.

Following the depression, we finally see David starting out his new restaurant known as the Harland Sanders Café in Kentucky selling fried chicken. This was also the time when he developed his famous secret recipe which he would then use to kickstart the KFC brand in 1952 by opening up the first chain in Utah. Obviously, we only get KFC's success story up to 1964 when David, now known as Colonel Sanders decided to sell his baby to a bunch of investors. We all know how critical he was of the deteriorating quality of the food following the sale.

Afterwards, the last part minutes are focused on the success of the KFC brand as a whole, and since this OVA was for the Asian market, we also get to see some live footage from Asian customers who are all talking about how much the joy KFC brings to their sad pathetic little world from Japan all the way to Vietnam and the Philippines.

Overall, I'd say this OVA made for an alright watch, but I think it was remade today, with better production values, it could be a bigger hit and make us appreciate the junk food we eat a little more. By the way, I just fed you bullshit. The Kentucky Fried Chicken anime doesn't exist, sorry for the disappointment. I was just looking for a reason to post fried chicken in the anime tag.

I also bought some KFC today to make up for it.