Licca-chan was a franchise back in the nineties. I’m not sure how popular it was back then, but over the course of ten years, it got four OVAs (two of two episodes and two of one episodes), a 52-Episode TV-series and a movie, so it must have done something right. Don’t expect me to check all of them out, but the very first installment, a two-episode OVA called the Wondrous Yunia Story, piqued my interest because of Tomomi Mochizuki’s involvement with it. It also had a really famous character-designer of its time: Akemi Takada, who also designed the characters of iconic series as Maison Ikkoku, Kimagure Orange Road, Urusai Yatsura and Patlabor.
In the end, this turned out to be quite a charming Alice in Wonderland-esque story. It is about this regular girl who suddenly ends up in a fantasy world, but it’s surprisingly creative and well produced: the animation is smooth, and the different designs of the places she ends up in are really creative. There are fish and whales swimming in the air, a talking dodo plushie, stacked boxes of trees and floating castles. It makes no sense whatsoever, but all of the ideas that were put into just these 50 minutes make this one worth watching.
The parts at which Licca is still in her own world at home are also surprisingly realistic: Licca’s family just feels like a real family, perhaps with more children than usual (she has a twins and triplets as younger sisters), which really gives it an advantage over the usual shows that feature a kid transported to another world.
Now, as for the disadvantages… you really want to watch this one for its creativity, because the plot is just a vehicle for that. It’s childish, the main villain is stupid and it just makes no sense. In the end, this feels more like a field trip than that something serious is going on, because of how easy the creators make it for the heroine. The heroine also has her charms as a lead character, and it’s not like there are any annoying characters in this series, but that’s also all that can be said about the characters.
I liked it a lot, though. The whole fantasy atmosphere of the story worked well with me. This is an OVA that really set out to create a dream-like world that just runs on your imagination and did so quite well without dragging on (which is why I’m not going to check out the TV-series for Licca Chan) This is an OVA that mostly has been forgotten, but it did not deserve so. It’s especially great to show your kids if you have them.
OVA Episode Rating: 8/10
Awww, you’re not gonna watch the series? Phoo. I hear it’s really good.