Dear Brains Base,
What the HELL have you created here?!
This show is sneaky. I mean, it is written and directed by the director of the crack-fest Hoshi no Umi no Amuri, so I was sort of looking forward to this series. It then commences to have a terrible first episode and an even worse second episode. I nearly gave up on it because of how uninspired those two were. But no. This show waited until the third episode to reveal its true colours. It’s completely bizarre true colours that are wrong on so many levels.
And don’t get me wrong, this IS a fanservice show. But the fanservice is the most bizarre fanservice I’ve ever seen. Stuff like Seikon no Qwaser is just thinly disguised porn. Series as Hoshikaka just use horribly uninspired and forced fanservice as cheap ways to sell dvds. This… is on a completely different level. This show is crazy. It’s absolutely crazy. The fact that it has a character who walks around completely naked save for a hat and a cape is just the tip of the iceberg.
this show is episodic, and beyond the fanservice it also has the craziest ideas to base its episodes around. Episode six was the most surreal by far, having the entire cast bounce around the world chasing a youkai who blows up everyone he touches like a balloon. This episode? You know these scenes where a character tells a bad joke and as the punchline, everyone falls over? This episode turned that into an art form by introducing a youkai who does exactly that. Some of the visual gags based around this were just beyond weird.
After the first episode I really wouldn’t have guessed at all that I’d say this, but I love this show. Sure, the only show that has more fanservice this season is Seikon no Qwaser and all, but I love its limitless energy and creativity that goes with the most creative ideas it can think of, no matter how stupid or wrong. This really is a breath of fresh air compared to the shows that are either just complete porn or just use the same kind of out of place fanservice over and over again.
Also, what also completely surprised me about this series is how good the background music is. I mean, it completely fits with the energy of this series, and actually creates even more energy this way. The songs are all catchy beyond belief and make sure that there hardly is any time to catch a breath. And you know what? It has the composer of Tokyo Godfathers doing the soundtrack, and the same guy will also do the soundtrack for the upcoming Noitamina series No.6. There’s another reason to look forward to that one.
Beyond that, I also chose this week to blog Enma-kun thanks to a very intriguing news item that popped up. If this is what I think it is, then the summer season is looking even better than it already has. For starters, this means that it’s going to break the record for the most amount of TV-series to premiere during one summer season (Anime is dying? Hah!), but more importantly: the director of Utena is finally going to make another series!
It looks childish, just the story of a bunch of penguins. But it all just seems too…strange. First of all you have to wonder why Emna-kun of all things is going to air promos for it (promos that I unfortunately have yet to be able to find), because it airs in the middle of the night; a really weird time to advertise kids’ shows. Second of all, kiddie shows hardly ever introduce themselves like this. In particular the fact that this will be 24 episodes has me intrigued. I could be wrong here, of course. This could be just another show aimed at 3 year olds. But something’s telling me that this show is pulling a Kaiba.
Rating: ** (Excellent, as wrong as it was)
The music are covers of old japanese songs from the Shouwa era which plays a big role in defining the setting in Enma-kun. Also, did anyone tell you that this show is an adaptation of a Go Nagai manga who’s known for Mazinger, Cutie Honey, Shameless School and Devilman? Of course it was going to be senseless! As for Enpi-chan, she’s actually from an erotic parody manga spinoff of Enma-kun called Dororon Enpi-chan of course. In that manga, she also have two companions, Kappako (female version of Kappaeru) and Yukiko-hige (male version of Yukiko). I’m hoping they would appear in this reboot but I doubt it.
Haha, agreed with you, psgels. This show is so wrong yet so hilarous on many levels. This is the kind of fanservice that I don’t mind watching.
Dororon and Azazel have been surprises for me, too. Enma’s a bit too juvenile for my tastes, but it’s still quite entertaining in that old-school Nagai over-the-top “anything goes” kind of way that makes modern anime seem timid and toothless.
I dropped after the first EP. It was good, but just did’nt like their jokes.
This is one of the cases of so bad that it’s good. I’d have to think twice before labeling this as a kiddie show, considering the contents so far XD
I see nothing as so bad it’s good.
Only good. This show is awesome, only underage morons dislike it.
Err… this is Go Nagai. If I were you, I wouldn’t expect it to start heaping on the drama and existential angst like Kaiba did.
As someone who grew up on Kunihiko Ikuhara, I am ecstatic about Mawaru PenguinDrum. I didn’t really think it was goin’ to be a kid’s show (not that it would really matter), but assumed that penguins were just goin’ be a major symbol in the series. And according to ANN, Enma-kun will be showing new/”different” trailers for Mawaru for the next six weeks. So for now, it’s the waiting game I play…