| about
trismugistus.com
and digital-bondage.net
are my web sites.
trismugistus.com
is where I upload my anime, manga and tv&film reviews,
and also where I occasionally post short stories and
longer works I've written.
digital-bondage.net
is my wallpaper site and provides anime, manga and other
desktop wallpapers in a variety of resolutions. I also
have a few tutorials and some resources, such as psds
for you to download.
I also run a site called scan-city.org,
which provides scans from the latest japanese anime
magazines for you to download and use in your wallpapers.
You can also read my blog here
or check out my anime list here. |
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| details |
| The Genre: Comedy |
| The Format: 6 DVD Box Set from ADV |
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| The plot: The good news? She's an MIT grad.
The bad news? She's an 11-year-old MIT grad. So
while Becky Miyamoto may be intellectually able,
this MIT prodigy is painfully ill-equipped to
deal with a group of temperamental teens - especially
THIS group.
There's the bitchy heather, the spazz, the angry
nerd, the identical twins, the invisible girl,
the freaky class president, the drama geek, the
Nancy Drew, the gamer, the princess... Whew! Add
to that her pathetically abused stuffed bunny
buddy and idiotic aliens watching her every move
and it's no wonder that Becky's prone to crying
fits, tirades, and flipping the class the bird. |
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| opinion
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| Generally speaking, if you can basically describe
something using some sort of combination of the
words "whacky," "bonkers"
or "madcap" then it's not going to be
my cup of tea.
If, on top of that, you can also say the humour
relies quite heavily on slapstick (you know, where
people get hit with things and fall down) it's
even less likely to be something I'll enjoy.
Well, I say that, but thinking about it, I'm
not sure it's entirely true.
If I was asked to list my all time favourite
cartoons, then many of the old Warner Brothers
Looney Tunes cartoons would be right up there
at the top. And those are madcap and bonkers and
even a little whacky. And among my favourites
of the Looney Tunes would be Wil E Coyote, whose
entire raison d'être is slapstick.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that, fundamentally
I don't actually have a problem with slapstick.
In other words, I've just wasted my time writing
all that and your time reading all that... haven't
I?
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Well no, the point sorta stands. If you
told me we were going to the cinema to watch
some new mad-cap, slapstick comedy, then
I would still groan and role my eyes. The
reason being that when you have those things
nowadays it always seems to be hampered
by two problems.
Those problems are noise and speed.
Taking Wil E Coyote as the best example,
one of the keys to making it work is the
pacing. Things happen slowly, with great
build-up. We know Wil E is going to get
hit by the boulder or blown up by the dynamite
or fall of the cliff in the end, but that
doesn't stop them from building things up
slowly.
And when things happen, alright they might
be quick to some extent, but they're also
slow. Think of the long falls off the cliff
with Wil E waving at us. Or him standing
there holding up the tiny umbrella to try
to fend off the falling pile of rocks, waiting
for ages, peaking out and then getting splatted.
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Secondly, Wil E never speaks. Roadrunner never
speaks. There's no narrator. Nobody says anything.
Everything is conveyed through the brilliant score,
with a few well placed sound effects. And if those
weren't there, it would still make perfect silent
television.
We aren't constantly assaulted by a horrendous
barrage of shouting and screaming. The music isn't
jarring and screeching; the sound effects aren't
continuous and at a volume that makes it feel
like they're competing with the score.
So I don't like slapstick when it does those
things.
And as you've probably guessed, the point is
that Pani Poni Dash is a whacky, madcap and bonkers
slapstick anime. But the twist (and everything
needs a twist) is that I didn't hate it.
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Now, it's not entirely true that it's of the
standard of Wil E Coyote, but it is a lot more
measured and gentler than a lot of stuff I've
seen. It also tries to mix in stuff that isn't
entirely slapstick, and there are some scenes
where nobody shouts at all. In fact, sometimes,
nobody even speaks.
It's something of a refreshing change, I have
to admit.
Not so long ago, I had to sit through several
shows that just made me want to peel my own corneas
off with a rusty potato peeler. The worst offender
was a show called Puni Puni Poemy, which was nothing
but a barrage of noise and flashing colours that
really did my head in.
Puni Puni Poemy was an offshoot of Excel Saga,
another show I hated with a passion. Is there
really any need for all that shouting and running
about? I mean, what's actually funny about shouting
and running?
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Nothing, as far as I'm concerned.
But anyway, Pani Poni Dash didn't rely
too much on these things. There was much
more in the way of situational comedy, comedy
based on social situations and comedy of
the weird.
Speaking of which, my favourite bits were
those involving Mesousa and the vending
machine cat, which were downright odd. Mesousa
is actually a rabbit and is sort of intended
as a parody of mascot characters, but instead
of being all bright and bubbly, he's constantly
depressed. Plus, being a rabbit, he lacks
thumbs, so he can't really hold anything
properly. So he's useless and nobody takes
any notice of him.
Another thing I enjoyed was the way in
which Pani Poni Dash broke the fourth wall
was quite elegantly done, in my opinion.
It sort of didn't really make direct reference
to it, it was just sort of there for you
to enjoy if you noticed it.
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To some extent, Pani Poni Dash is a parody
- it takes quite a few things common in anime,
like young people doing adult jobs, magical girls,
high school, aliens and the like and pokes gentle
fun at them. It's never really malicious in the
way it does this and the parody is done with more
than a little affection to great effect.
However, it's not all great. The series is a
full 26 episodes long and towards the end a bit
of fatigue can start to set in. There are quite
a few running gags, and if running gags aren't
your thing, then it will just come across as repetitive.
Also, the animation quality isn't exactly the
best. The budget perhaps got stretched a bit thinly
across the 26 episodes.
The English VAs do a fairly decent job, though
this is one of those shows that kinda doesn't
work when it comes out of its native tongue. And,
of course, with a lot of Japanese culture specific
jokes and references to other anime shows, we
have lots of potential "I don't get it"
moments.
Thankfully, this is an ADV release, so we're
not short on accompanying extras that take up
the challenge of filling in such gaps. If there's
one thing you can normally say about ADV releases
it's that they take care of the viewer on this
front. |
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| summary |
| The Summary: As far as madcap and bonkers
slapstick comedy goes, this is about at my level. |
| The Score: 3/5 |
| The Pictures:
(click for larger versions) |
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