Tsunami.No.Anime

There are few times when I watch a show that I sit there and think to myself, “Am I honestly watching this?” To which I answer, “Yes, I have no idea why but I also don’t really feel like stopping.” Bubblegum Crisis 2040 is one of those shows. I can’t think of a better show to watch and feel a constant bang of wtf-itis than this one. Spoiler: No, Silya will never get a grip (and she gets laid so don’t bother thinking that she needs to).

Bubblegum Crisis is a remake of an OVA done in 1992 and can best be described as an excuse to put naked girls and mecha in the same show. The story is that after a major earthquake in Megatokyo (the real one, not the pedo one), robots called Boomers become a common place necessity around the world as replacements for manual and dangerous labor. Having rebuilt Megatokyo and made it into a colossal economic hub, boomers are heralded as both great helpers to man and also as subhuman trash. Little does the populace know that boomers can go mad and start killing for no reason. A small group of women, in “hard suits” known as the Knight Sabers, fight to defeat these mad boomers and protect the citizens.

Of course, thats just the first half of the story. There’s also a lot of butt rock, some badly thought out conspiracies that never fully materialize, constant PMS, random singing that can best be described as an alto cat being strangled, and a technological singularity. But really, the only reason to watch is girls with boobs in mecha outfits.

The characters in BGC2040 are all one dimensional. The moment you mean the character and note their peculiarities they will not change for the rest of the show. Silya will always be a fruit cake. Linna will never be sure what to do. Nene will be cute and a 5th wheel. And Priss will be a bitch (though she gets a soft side eventually, but you see it coming from a mile away). The men in the story either get killed, fall for one of the chicks, or run away so they don’t matter.

The realism of this show is hardly worth mentioning. At every turn there is something so impossibly ridiculous that even the best of us who can suspend their disbelief will, at least once, go “wait a minute, thats not possible!”. Thousand of gallons of liquid nitrogen freeze an entire building and its contents at one point in the show.. that is, the entire contents, minus the 5 humans who were directly below the tanks when they burst… Yeah. But to be fair, the whole concept of humans creating artificial intelligence that becomes its own species and finds itself into the world is pretty interesting and they pull it off quite nicely.

Honestly though, the show isn’t as bad as I make it out to be. Remember, this show was made in 1998 when cyberpunk was the style to have. BGM2040 is probably the definitive anime series of that era (the pinnacle being Akira). THe band, the bad music, the bad computer graphics, the annoying sound effects, the retarded episode titles and name plates, and the open, ambiguous ending they all make sense when you stop and think what the date was. I thought to myself at least once, “Were we really this weird 9 years ago?” And the answer is yes, yes we were. So taken in context, BGM2040 is actually a pretty good show.

Overall, even taking into account the context, concepts, and the amount of boobs, the show falls short of overcoming its mediocrity. But thankfully for people who love 1998 it just evened out. I am thereby giving Bubblegum Crisis 2040 a 2.5 out of 5 stars. “technological singularities are fun! so is impending nene + boomer rape” - From my notes on the show

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Wow, its taken me a week to write this review. In that time of procrastination I kept thinking one thing: What in the world can I say about Pani Poni Dash? There’s just so much.. stuff in it but at the same time a whole show about nothing. So here is my attempt at reviewing one of the most hilarious and ridiculous animes ever. Spoilers: lawl.

The plot of Pani Poni Dash is best summed up as such: Genius Becky, an 11 year old graduate from MIT, teaches a high school class in Japan fully of weirdoes. Hilarity ensues. Really, thats the plot. Nothing else of significance happens in the show. There is no plot, at all. However, what it lacks in plot it makes up for in sheer amounts of funny.

The humor of this show is hard to pin down. Most of it comes from three sources: 2chan, anime and manga references, and obscure cultural references. All three of these make the show extremely unfriendly to people who have either never been near something like 2chan or 4chan or have little experience with the Japanese geek culture. There are so many of these references that there are whole wikis and documentation devoted to explaining them to the viewer. (some subbers put the notes at the top of the screen so have the pause button ready) Even so, there are enough weird antics to go around even for the connoisseur of pratfalls and bad puns.

If nothing else, this show has some great characters. Each main character has a unique trait that they keep through the whole show. There is no development to speak of, but this doesn’t mean you cant like them anyway. The traits all come into play in the seemingly weirdest places and add much hilarity to whatever situation the cast is in. Here are my favorites. Becky is a precocious preteen who is extremely tsun-tsun (look it up) but very cute. Himeko is a complete airhead who likes crab and saying “Maho!”. However, I would have to say the best character for me at least was Ichijou. Im a sucker for non-sequiturs and Ichijou is probably the queen of the unexpected. Her quasi-insanity coupled with her serious expression and calmness no matter what happens crack me up something fierce.

Obviously this is not a normal review because of the lack of normal things I focus on in anime: story and characters. But that doesn’t mean that a show lacking in either or both of these areas cant be great. Pani Poni Dash! is something that every anime lover, internet fruit, or culture otaku (yes the descriptions are intentionally jumbled) should probably watch. Sure, you wont get half the references even if you are told what they are, but you will still laugh. I did, a lot. Therefore, Pani Poni Dash! receives a prestigious 4.5 out of 5 stars. MAHO!

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