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PuniPuni Poemy

Review Date: 2005 June 28 17:26

Reviewed by: Spike

Released by: ADV Films UK

Age Rating: 18

Region: 2 - UK

Length: 60 minutes

Subtitles: English

Audio: English 2.0 Stereo
Japanese 2.0 Stereo

Summary

Life seams pretty bleak when evil aliens murder Poemi Watanabe's parents, but she doesn't get mad, she gets even. First however, she moves in with the Aasu sisters, a family of deranged superheroes and discovers something amazing about herself. After discovering the magic powers in dead fish, falling in love with an octopus at school, fighting off a terrorist threat and giant robots, she has to come to terms with the fact that she too is a superhero... all while trying to fulfil her true ambition of becoming a voice actress! Coming from the team that brought us Excel Saga, is the strangest, rudest and out and out insane anime ever made.

Review

If you haven't seen Excel Saga, read no further, as this two part OVA can really only be considered as a spin-off from that series and there are so many in-jokes and references that form the structure of this show that watching it without seeing Excel Saga first will leave you pained and confused, although it is likely to do that anyway (Viewers of the legendary FLCL might get away with it).

The animation actually looks quite slick, which is good as the show operates at such a fast pace that anything less would probably have missed entire scenes. Most of the music in the show is simply reused from Excel Saga apart from the themes, the beginning one however seems to harbour more than a passing similarity to the Wedding Peach theme. The dubbed version of the sound track is certainly funnier as it contains a more figurative rendition of the script while the subbed version is allot closer to the spoken Japanese, both are good, but it is certainly allot of fun seeing what the ADV team have put together with most of their normal restraints removed.

Poemi herself is needlessly energetic, hurling herself into every situation with a form of recklessness that defies belief, showing little if any thought towards the outcome of her actions, and referring to herself as Kobayashi (the voice actress) as she apparently cannot stay in character. Most of the other characters are in some ways similar, as most of them seem to be in different degrees dense and insane, though most seem to be exaggerated copies of characters from Excel Saga. And then there's the aliens, who have an, er. shall we say a rather unusual physical abnormality (I don't think I'll ever be able to hear the phrase 'boingy boingy' again without involuntarily flinching, but I digress). There is little in the way of character interaction, well none that doesn't count as fanservice anyway, and that isn't really what the show is about. Where Excel Saga was a comedy, this is a parody, taking on magical girl shows, the poor voice actress who plays the part of Poemi and the director and even Excel Saga itself in huge swathes as well as any other film, show, or genre it feels like taking a side swipe at along the way.

Overall PuniPuni Poemy is probably one of the most insane anime ever made, and it's obvious that it was done deliberately as the box proclaims 'If this anime doesn't offend you somehow, we haven't done our job!', and through all of this it doesn't really matter about the storyline or who the characters are or how they interact, because the show is basically a string of sight and verbal gags sewn together with the thinnest of plots and unleashed on an unsuspecting anime-viewing public, it even comes with a strange pig-latin 'weird subtitle option. I can heartily recommend PuniPuni Poemy to anyone who dearly loves Excel Saga, FLCL, or any other insane comedy anime, but as this DVD is ten times as frantic as these, viewers who do not have a taste for these sorts of anime are advised to stay clear. The only other thing I can say about this DVD is that it makes for an excellent defensive weapon, lending this to an over-curious friend or relative can prematurely cut short the barrage of questions over your 'strange hobby' although it may lead to not being invited to various weddings, christenings and bar mitzvahs.

Rating: 6/10

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