Potemayo - It's only been a year since it was broadcast, and it's hard to believe this one won't show up here eventually. I kind of thought we'd have seen an announcement by now. This was the fan favorite show for summer 2007. It's about two potato-cats, or mochi mochi. They both show up inside Sunao's refrigerator. He's a middle schooler. His dad is away on trips a lot. His dad is a flake.

His mother died of a disease, and Sunao hasn't really gotten over that. He doesn't tend to react much emotionally to anything. Over the course of the series, having Potemayo become part of his life eventually breaks through his shell, and he starts allowing himself to feel things again.

Meanwhile, the other potato cat, Guchuko, establishes an entirely different kind of relationship with Kyo, one of Sunao's classmates. Kyo isn't a bundle of problems; she seems happy and well-adjusted, and is just about as different from Sunao as she can be. Guchuko is also just about as different as she can be from Potemayo, and they don't like each other.

The show has a sentimental undercurrent but overall it's light and amazingly fun, full of well-conceived characters with fascinating relationships. One of the best shows of recent years.

Magipoka is not one of the best shows of recent years, but it isn't terrible, and it's the kind of show I'd have expected to see licensed here. Uma is a witch. Pachira is a vampire. Liru is a werewolf. Aiko is an android. They're all princesses, and somehow or other they end up on Earth, living together, trying to understand what's going on. The show is effectively an extended man-from-mars joke. Think of it as Bottle Fairy with less cute and a lot more fan service and without the weird tragic alternate explanation for events.

It's not like dumb fan-service comedies are unknown in R1 release, after all. Maburaho got licensed, and Magipoka ain't as bad as that.

Dai Mahou Touge is the one that puzzles me the most. This is a black comedy, a send-up of the "magical princess" genre, and it is absolutely brilliant. Punie is a ditzy magical girl, sent to Earth from the Magical Realm to spend a year, so as to prove that she's worthy to become queen.

It's all an act. Deep down there's a dark side to Punie, utterly ruthless, who never surrenders. Her cute animal mascot is Paya-tan, a dog with a horn who will cheerfully knife her in the back if he thinks he can get away with it. This show also features Pyun and Potaru, Punie's twin sisters. They're killer lolis who would terrify the killer lolis of Higurashi.

Everything about this show is right. Just when I thought it was getting into a rut, they started varying the stories. I never knew what was coming next, and I loved every minute of it. I don't understand why no one has released it here; it's a masterpiece.

Banner of the Stars III Sigh, it's only two more episodes, and it's the only part of the Crest/Banner series we haven't seen yet.

Amaenaideyo As I was saying, "it's not like dumb fan-service comedies are unknown in R1 release" and this is another candidate. Your basic harem setup: Ikko is 16, the only boy at a temple, surrounded by cute mikos all about his age (plus or minus). When he sees a girl naked, it fires up his magical power and then he can do amazing things like super exorcisms. So they keep facing big crises which require his power, which means one of the girls has to take her clothes off for him. And so on.

As pandering fan-service comedies go it's far from the most supid concept ever, but no one will claim it's great art, either. It was successful enough in Japan to get a sequel. If someone was willing to release Magikano here, why not this?

Aishiteruze Baby There's this high school boy who's something of a playboy. Tends to woo a lot of girls, and doesn't really take life very seriously. Then a 5 year old girl shows up. It's his cousin; her mother has abandoned her and she has no where else to go, so our hero has to become her parent. And as he takes care of her, he starts to learn responsibility.

Pixy says this is really good. It's interesting that the voice of the kid was done by a seiyuu who was 10 years old at the time; makes me wonder how she sounded. It's fundamentally a sentimental comedy with little fan service. It's not a lolicon show.  It seems like one we'd like to see.

There have been much worse shows than these that have gotten released here. How did these fall through the cracks?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 02:50 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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