Crayon Shin-chan Gaiden: Alien vs. Shinnosuke

Lazy and uninspired sci-fi movie riff in 13 episodes featuring a hollow story with no redeeming qualities.

This genuinely feels like an attempt to cash-in on the Shin Chan brand and not much else. It should be noted that there are a few lazy sci-fi references to justify the scenario but not much more than that (ex.: Ripley fighting the alien queen in a loader is recreated). This is a shame since I really like what they were doing with the main series, thus this just feels like a gargantuan waste of potential.

The story is absolutely absurd and makes no sense even by ... anime standards. The characters are all fairly one-dimensional and Shin-Chan's stupid behaviour nearly gets one of his friends killed and puts everybody's life at risk. I really disliked the plot and without going into any detail it just seems like the writers couldn't come up with anything coherent or interesting about Shin-Chan and co being trapped on an alien ship, which is frankly shocking and unforgivable.

All the characters are flat and one-note. There is no real reason to root for any of them and any danger they are put in is eliminated or ignored via lazy writing that relies on deus ex machina to get out of any difficult situation. The Shin-Chan series thrives off of engaging characters and how Shin-Chan interacts with them, but there is never any interesting interaction here.

The main issue is that in the 8 minute episodes there is often very little to laugh about. Given the series is based on using a child as a protagonist to poke fun at adult society and make jokes throughout, this is a bad development. The story isn't gripping or interesting, the scenario isn't explored in any new or intriguing ways; but overall it's just not very funny or entertaining which is a cardinal sin.

If you take Shin-Chan and strip away the humour, the amusing storylines, the charm of the series and its varied characters; you are left with something akin to this. They removed all the strengths of the main series and just added a lazy and poorly written sci-fi plot by the numbers without any heart.

If you're a huge a fan of the series and want any excuse to spend time with Shin-Chan and the gang you might consider it, but for everybody else this is a hard pass. I recommend watching something else instead...