... bad:  Bludgeoning Angel Dokoro-chan.

Simply put, it's stupid.

Okay, I can give you more.  Dokoro-chan is an angel.  She goes to live with a boy.  Stop me if you've heard this one.  She's from the future, and he's marked for death because later on he apparently invents immortality, with the side effect that all women are frozen at 12-years of age.  The Angels have decreed that he must die to prevent this.  Dokoro plans to stop him without killing him.  Except that she's got a hair trigger about using her spiked bat, Excalibog to smash, eviscerate, bisect, or otherwise kill him.  (It's about as casually employed as Lum's electric shocks) and then she re-animates him because she doesn't want to kill him.  Okay, everyone who's heard of the show knows that much.  And of course there's a rival angel from the future who really wants him dead.

Apparently this formula is SO tired that they pretty much abandon it a few episodes in.  His human love interest falls by the wayside, he falls for Dokoro-chan.  The rival forgets about killing him for real and Dokoro's younger sister (Stated as 9, but built like she's 19) shows up to live with him.  The setup now totally forgotten, it becomes a limp mish-mash of "Wacky Hi-jinks ensue" with very little to recommend it.

Let me spoil the only good moments to save you from watching this turd.  In the beginning, when Dokoro insists on going to school with him (Why do they ALWAYS do this?  At least Lum stayed home) the boy insists that she keep the fact that she's an angel secret - as if the halo isn't a giveaway - and that trope is instantly subverted as she introduces herself as an angel from the future, and everyone in the class is totally cool with it.

The other is when Dokoro and Zakuro (the built younger sister) read a book of Japanese folklore and are terrified of the story of the seductive demoness who hides in cracks in the walls.  That was kind of amusing although the rest of the episode about them bathing together is utterly worthless other than for fan service (which can only be satisfying if you DON'T know who the characters are.)

... good:  Magical Witch Punie-Chan.

So it starts with a princess in this ultra-saccarine, primary-colored magical kingdom... I thought it would be something unwatchable meant for 6 year old girls.  I mean, her magical wand is a heart with a Candy Cane wedged through it.  And she's being sent to earth to spend a year.

Then I saw the opening credits, with a song about fighting being the only way to survive, and she is pictured cutely dancing in front of the flaming Temples, schools, and even flying over the burning city-scape of Tokyo.  And her magical catch-phrase?  "Lyrical Tokarev, Kill them All."  It's a hilarious take-down of the Magical Princess genre, and when forced to fight without magic, Punie reveals her brutal abilities with wrestling submission holds, breaking bones, crushing skulls, and choking out her opponents.  And it's necessary, because everyone's out to kill her, including her cute little sisters, and the daughter of the royal family that Punie's parents usurped.  After all, what's royalty without death schemes for succession?  Even her cute little "Mascot" wants to kill her, when he's not playing along with the light fantastical magical girl motif.  And that facade is very, very thin with Punie, she's a brute.  ( At one point she's about ready to nuke the world to hide her embarrassment because she can't even pass a basic math test.  The world is saved by her Mascot teaming up with an old Vietnam buddy who shoots up the school with an Apache helicopter, providing the distraction that allows Punie to put her own name on someone else's test.)

Violent, yes, but hilarious as a send-up of the genre.

The whole show is so absurd I was laughing throughout.

Posted by: Mauser at 02:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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