May 14, 2020
Don't watch this expected a show with a deep plot or something that revolutionary. It is a simple series of short animations films presented by YKK. What is YKK? In short, they are a manufacturing group based in Japan that's known to as the world's largest zipper manufacturer. That's right, this is is a series of shorts meant to promote their zipper products. The products are even listed on their official site along with which episode the product is used in.
There are currently 7 episodes. Fastening Days 1, 2, 3, and 4. For some reason Fastening Days 3 and 4 is divided into
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3 "episodes" for some reason on youtube but put together are roughly 10 minutes long. I guess you could say its really 4 episodes but it's just divided weirdly on YKK youtube channel and official site for Fastening Days (which just plays the youtube versions).
I'm making this review mostly cause I think the low score is unreasonable despite the positive reaction from a majority of viewers. Maybe they were expecting a full fledged series with a well developed plot. You won't find that here.
Enough the background of Fastening Days and I'll get into some light spoilers to the Fastening Days 1. You have orphaned two kids taken in by a windowed grandma. They invent a device that can shoot and attach zipper that the two kids use in creative ways to help and protect the people of their town. This can vary from zipping up a kiddie pool, helping a couple stay together by zipping their sleeves together or stopping a disaster from happening to the city. All of which are meant to promote a Zipper product.
Got to give YKK props and the directors who worked on this for the creative ideas to use zippers (specifically YKK products that they wer probably told to include). Also there's a bear that's invention left by the grandma's husband that can apparently understand human emotions. Obviously not explained by anything of the films and this is information I got from the character bios from the official website.
There's little to no explanation to the characters, the plots are simple at best, the animation can be repetitive (zipper pool scene) but at least the art and voice acting are pretty good. Non of the films are trying to be anything more than than a product placement with some child-like imagination and that's OK. Back when I saw this in 2014, I was quite fatigue on anime which is why I tend to prefer western animations but this was a breath of fresh air that I needed. It reminded me of why I still enjoy Japanese animation by letting relive that child-like awe.
Think of it as when seeing a Ghibli film. Now those typically have a more though out plot and a better budget. However, there's a consistent feeling that Disney and Ghibli films make their audience experience. I believe that's a kind of child-like nostalgia from how imaginative or creative or silly one was as a child. Fastening Days achieves that and that's why you should give it a watch. It's available on youtube and the official site in Japanese audio, Japanese audio with subtitles, and English audio.
Side Note:
The dub isn't too bad either but I know Japanese audio "purists" will refuse to listen. For dub listeners, it's pretty good and it's not like most Japnese Engrish. Some characters are voiced by either Japanese, British or American voice actors. The Japanese voice actors for the dub are more obvious from their accents but they still do a good job for the dub. A very strange dub but it gave amazing results.
It seems to voice actors change sometimes from film to film. Possibly due to the availability of the actors at the time. There are also different directors for Fastening Days 3 and 4. You may find a new character in the 2nd film annoying but I believe they got an indian voice actor for an indian character. (Based on the accent I heard). Unfortunately non of the voice actors are credited on the official site of facebook page so it's hard to tell.
Some may turn to the Japanese audio cause it's more at home or familiar in quality. Regardless of what version you watch, both are good.
Some may also enjoy that there is a very diverse range of background characters in the films which is refreshing to see from the same typical designs of some anime. It's not just skin tones, its race, accents (a little bit) and hair styles.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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