Anime Meta-Review
I'll make a habit of it
Index's
Home
Alphabetic
Quality
Genre
People
Recent
By Date
Title Info
- alias: Chou Kuseninarisou
- seen: 1-6
- type: TV
- grade: watchable
- made: 1994
- Review created: Recently, but I didn't record the date.
- mod: none
Lightweight, but good fun, this anime contains a pleasant mix of shoujo, action and comedy. The story follows the very strange pop idol Nagisa who yearns for a normal life. When told that her fame makes that impossible she cuts her (bright pink) hair, don's a boys outfit and enrolls at a violent and run-down high school, since no one will expect to find an idol there. The really scary thing is she fits in well, because she was brought up in a remote martial arts dojo. This combination of good natured violence, laziness and poor social skills means she's soon a respected boy. Although when she falls in love with another boy (who's also a martial arts master) in both schoolboy (he knows who she is) and idol forms things get more complicated. Add in a lot of strange stories, an immense number of other characters, and you have some enjoyable but light hearted and lightweight comedy.
And actually the other characters are even weirder. Her pet blue bear as a background character, a bunch who show up to practice their `idol dramatics' and then vanish, and the dueling fathers both looking for a strong disciple keep this anime at a fast pace. In addition there are lots of episodic characters and events to keep things going. Sadly the energy and humor dominate over depth, both in dialog and story, which limits what it is capable of. As an example the romance element is fairly basic, with the relationship being firmly in place almost immediately. On the positive side most of the characters, with Nagisa at the forefront, are good fun and some of the situations are quite inventive. It also doesn't overplay the transgender situations and humor too much, and Nagisa honestly is such a boyish character that it almost seems `correct'. Good fun, but the style, shallowness and seeming lack of any direction will irritate many.
And sadly the animation is not going to make appreciation any easier. The animation is basic, very cartoony, and is fairly clearly limited by budget. Both the line and color are very simple, backgrounds are primitive and the character design minimal. Thus while there are quite a number of action scenes they are either very primitive or happen entirely off screen. This is not a problem because they aren't the focus of the show, but if you were hoping for some Ranma style martial arts action then you are out of luck. The voices are enthusiastic rather than complex and the music is limited, with Nagisa seeming to have a very small idol singer repertory.
Aaargh, Lord Carnage puts this is in the Hime Chan category (not a positive from him, but is from me) in this review which concludes with, "recommended only if you have an extraordinarily high tolerance for things that screw you up in the head" which I don't think comes out as a compliment to either this anime or my tastes :) Thankfully the Anime Review give some support in his review which suggests if you can handle shoujo and absurd humor, and the bad animation, you'll probably quite enjoy it.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:20 WST 2009