"Chikyû Bôei Kazoku", also called "The Daichis: Earth's Defense Family", is a 2001 action-filled, comedic anime series which consists of 13 episodes + 1 special.
Basic plot: Dai Daichi is a hyperactive young boy who lives his normal life with his dysfunctional family; Mother Seiko and father Mamoru are in the brink of divorce, while his sibling Nozomi has to do all of Seiko's housework.
Suddenly the family get to see their future as a group of defenders, meaning they are chosen to become an Earth defending family, and fight against aliens threatening the world. So Dai gets hyperactive and wants to fight, Nozomi just doesn't want to fight at the beginning but accept it later, Seiko gets more obsessed with money, while Mamoru is babbling about how much each of their attacks cost resulting with Seiko's anger. The question is, will this family ever get to work together against these aliens, and eventually get to live happily together again sometimes. Or will they get divorced anyway, even during their fights against aliens...? Find it out by yourself.
Well, this anime only consists of 13 episodes + 1 special, which I already mentioned at the start of this review. But I saying this because being a short anime, this series tend to be pretty funny and somewhat entertaining at times. Even with lots of action scenes which mostly involve weird-looking aliens, this anime also has lots of humor. Sometimes some scenes of childish humor as Dai runs around and pulls up several girls' skirts at the school he is attending, just for fun. Also, in one of the later episodes, there is at least one scene of urination. I just loved the idea about Seiko's car getting transformed into a flying vehicle with tons of weapons.
To be honest, I think this anime is just too short with it's 13 episodes. With all the absurd scenes of action and humor which kept me entertained throughout, this series should rather have deserved to have at least 26 episodes.
This anime was originally broadcast in 2001 on WOWOW, a Japanese TV channel. In North America it was released on DVD by Geneon, but never broadcast on TV. Like most other anime I've reviewed earlier, this anime simply doesn't exist in Norway where I live; you might have to buy this anime through a web site, or maybe stream this on the Internet.
But still, if you like watching funny anime series which have lots of action, humor, and even solid animation, this anime can be a good choice despite only having 13 episodes + 1 special. My overall rating has to be 7/10.
