Review of Damekko Doubutsu (2005)
A number of animals from various different species—including some mythological ones—fail to live up to others’ expectations, but still have a good time in a special “useless forest”.
Refined yurui. Cute comic fantasy resembling a fable except insofar as the animals look like people in costumes, and the only moral message is that you shouldn’t try hard or worry. Out of a five-minute runtime per episode, 90 seconds are always spent on the intro music.
The title means “Hopeless Little Animals”. This does not seem to be simple moe, since everybody occasionally deforms into a more realistic mode, but rather an unusually strong variation on the post-bubble theme that you don’t have to be number one. A celebration of underachievement with lots of smoking and drinking.