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Megami Paradise
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Title Info
- seen: 1-2 of 2
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- genre: dumb_fun
- made: unknown
- Review created: Mon Jan 15 13:54:47 EST 2001
- mod: none
Well, I knew enough about this anime to not expect too much. But even I didn't expect anything quite this transparently shallow. If I simply stated that it was essentially just enough plot to support a fight between under-dressed teenage girls that would probably be enough to capture the essence of this anime.
Still, here's the longer version of the same thing. In some alternate realm there is the `Goddess Paradise'. This realm has architecture and clothing strongly derived from a shallow understanding of classical greco-roman imagery, which seems to be the standard model for these pantheistic models. It also happens to be occupied by nothing but nubile and attractive young maidens swanning around in a very fan service friendly way. Where are the old, the ugly and those unconcerned with their appearance? Who know's, perhaps they put them to death. On the other hand, if they are all immortal astral beings, why is there still a cute young child in the cast? Ah, shouldn't think about it too deeply, as the creators obviously didn't.
At the center of the realm is a magical object called the astro-star which absorbs evil from the real world. The queen of this realm (known as the mamamega) must, as the last act of her rule, purify the stone of the evil it contains. Although, of late, it seems that the power of evil is growing. In any case, the successor must prepare herself for her ascendance, and one part of this is gathering a group of shrine maidens to support and defend her. She picks a cute, but somewhat insecure, young girl and also charges her with finding the other two. This young girl knows who she wants, a magical harper and a master swordswoman, but neither of these two are too impressed with the (currently) largely ceremonial post. Of course when things go wrong in the purification ceremony, and enemies of the goddess realm appear, they find themselves drawn into the conflict.
Mind you, it shouldn't take a nobel prize winner to guess that the enemies are also attractive young women. Their evilness being made clear in their preference for black and even more skimpy clothing. In essence it's like a magical girl show where all the shoujo elements have been cut out. Having the girls inherently magical and in another plane of existence means all that boring `normal' stuff is cut out of the equation. No mysteries, no domestics, no `normal' friends, no parents to hide the secret from. You can get straight to the magic and conflict between improbably cute scantily clad girls. It's basically a pretty shallow shounen fantasy. And the enhanced fan-service, including flashes of nudity, make it clear who the target audience is. However, other than this element, which is not inherently evil, there's not a lot else to dig your teeth into.
Then again, there's not too much chance of a lot of character and depth in something only two episodes long. And while there's hints the creators were hoping for more, that seems to be the limit. As for the two episodes, the production values are quite good and eminently watchable, they're just so completely subsumed by the rather shallow focus. Still, the girls do look cute enough, there's some reasonable magical effects and even a handful of nice action sequences. If you're comfortable with accepting the artificiality of the production the animation shouldn't stand in your way. The voices are fine, although dialogue is limited, and the music is reasonable light vocal stuff.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:22 WST 2009