An excessively dark and surreal CGI anime series (also known as Ga-Ra-Ku-Ta) created by Ryuji Masuda of Popee the Performer fame about the titular Mr. Stain, a hobo who lives in the dark, somewhat dilapidated square of a city, the titular Junk Alley, where a wide variety of strange (and sometimes dangerous) characters and creature live out their lives. Stain regularly hangs out with his best friend, the brash cat Palvan, and roots through the junk piles for interesting things.
Stain often chooses things from the junk heaps that set into motion events that that threaten to (and usually do) cause him and the denizens of Junk Alley tons of harm; From a baby fish becoming homicidal, to a breakdancing robot that never stops grooving.
The series is 14 episodes long with each episode being a "Volume" centering around one object that Stain finds as well as the consequences. Nobody talks in these shorts , instead pantomiming and making grunts, yells, and other sounds to move things along. It appeared on the Latin American version of [adult swim] briefly, and has since seen a DVD release by Funimation. While it has excessive amounts of Horror and Deranged Animation, it also has enough tender and interesting ideas to have formed a cult following.
Tropes Associated with Mr. Stain on Junk Alley
- Ambiguous Gender: Baby.
- Attention Whore: Handsome Stain, a handsome version of Mr. Stain (from a mirror) that competes with him for Lifa's affection. This desire to show off is what makes her go out to find the real Stain.
- Body Horror: Well let's see...There's Palvan getting his face erased, Stain getting an eye plucked out, and Stain having a Lomeria sprout out of his head.
- Cats Are Mean: Palvan, though he dips more into being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold due to being a friend of Stain's, who sticks by him and even adopts and raises Baby after Stain saves him/her to be with Lifa.
- Crapsack World: subverted, Junk Alley IS a dangerous and decrepit place to live, but all the weirdness and danger actually seems to be confined to that one area, the few times we see the rest of the city outside, it seems pretty normal.
- Deranged Animation: In absolute spades.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: occasionally, though it's subverted as unhappiness is not at all what is being portrayed when eyes go dull. The first time it happens, for example, Palvan looks almost horrifying as he stands outside Stain's window.
- Downer Ending: S1-T3, the toy robot gains sentience and wants to be free and fly high in the sky. Unfortunately Stain just can’t seem to effectively help him with his dream. In most cases like this, hope would still be found and eventually a solution but in this case, the poor little robot just gives up on his dream and his sentience and simply goes back to being a toy for Stain. Certainly not what you’d call a happy ending.
- Fish out of Water: One episode focuses on a Little girl who makes the mistake of wandering into Junk Alley. One of her mittens gains sentience to help her.
- Jerkass: The policeman in episode 13.
- Jerkass Victim: Which makes him dying at the end and having his soul replace Stain's be rather cathartic.
- Killer Rabbit: Eaten the Fish from Episode 1. and to a lesser degree the Pylons.
- Mood Whiplash: A real big offender to site some examples:
- Stain is saved by Palvan in the first episode, leading to their first bonding moment as friends, then Palvan smashes Stain over the head with a glass bottle in revenge for something similar Stain did earlier.
- A semi-intense scene where Palvan is gouging out one of Stain's eyes is immediately followed by them casually hanging out after a fade to black.
- The Final episode has Palvan drinking sake and releasing a casual fart after a beautiful scene where Lifa and Stain connect through their music.
- Nice Guy: Stain, for all his boneheadedness, he's got a strong sense of responsibility and kindness about him.
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Nightmare Fuel: The show loves this, from over the top to more grounded stuff. has its own page. - Status Quo Is God: Averted in some cases, awful things happen to the characters, but its usually never permanent, and Stain is back to searching junk piles again. The stuff that IS carried over into other episodes are usually beneficial to the characters lives.
