Wonder Momo

I was gently wandering in my, like, 20 first episodes of the new series freshly released this season and decided to begin with the shortest. "Oh, cool, only 7 minutes per episodes... and there is only five of them ! Aaaand they're all out at the same time ? Holly molly, what a great dealy I mady thery !" And I have never been so right in my entire life. Wonder Momo "The me that only I can be" If you didn't understand everything right from the beginning with this sentence alone, then abandon every hope of truly getting what really is this state-of-the-art piece of animationgoodness. Momo is a normal highschooler a bit clumsy but with a heart biiiig like that who dreams of becoming an idol to make people happy. Sadly and despite all her efforts, she doesn't seem to be idol material, but one gloomy afternoon will she be met by a strange stranger in a strange coat, who will entrust her with a glowing pink ball of magisciencalieny powers melting in her chest and thus giving her the power to transform into the legendary WONDER MOMO and fight the evil armies of black-full-body-thighs-bad-guys with her hoola hoop signature move. Everything you'd expect and love is there, from the unexpected first battle in the school gymnase, the photography-geek-boy-not-really-boyfriend-material-but-kinda-who-will-help-her-through-her-identity-crysis-classmate witnessing her true identity, the best-ennemy-to-be-best-friend to shocking reverlations about her family which would put the Star Wars serie to a shame and an fully epic final battle ending in the best way possible for a maximum enjoyement. All that in only 5 episodes of 7 minutes, not even one of them looking like the previous. The characters all have their own personnality, goals and distinct traits, while the unexpected situations cleverly put them together to achieve a same goal, thus reinforcing their relations while developping their psychology and bringing the intensity of the plot another step forward. All of them served by original and unforgetable soundtracks which make truly honor to the incredibly outstanding and yet powerfully colorful animation. NAMCO is offering us one of their best work, so oustandingly good in being awfuly bad that it litteraly deserve to be call a masterpiece.

There's no doubt about it- Wonder Momo is patently generic slop. I don't think it quite deserves the savagely low score it nets on MAL, but that being said I don't think it's worth watching either. It's a cheap, blatantly obvious ploy to remind you of a game that Bandi-Namco owns, with no spirit or creative merit behind it at all. The show might as well be an ad. You can tell they were pinching pennies at every corner, from the exceedingly short runtimes to the frequently reused shots. They even skipped out on the final fight scene, presumably to save money. Even though itprobably wasn't going to be good anyway, this was regardless a garbage decision that made them look terrible, and robbed this title of any reason to watch it. Even the hyper-niche Wonder Momo superfans, should they indeed exist, would be pissed with such a decision. Still, there are much worse titles out there, and at worst, Wonder Momo is cynical and cheap, not an active abomination that would warrant one of the lowest scores on the site. The art leaves something to be desired, aiming for a generic style and falling short of even that. The sound is fine, meeting the most basic standard of quality, even if Momo does sound kind of annoying. The characters are basically nonentities, failing to be developed even in the slightest, and this includes Wonder Momo herself. Overall, while this title isn't legendarily bad, it is still not worth a second of your time, and should be ignored.

Story: 5 The story is an odd one that makes the main character pretty unlikable. The plot twist in episode 3 makes no sense and has no buildup. Art: 8 The art would be really good if it was made in 2004. For 2014, it's not outstanding. Every time the aliens show up, the art style changes completely from more realistic slice-of-life to the most hilarious thing you'll ever see. It's clearly done for comedic purposes, and I enjoy it a lot. Sound: 8 The theme song is really catchy. One thing I enjoy is that in 4/5 episodes, the end credits song is different, which was a pleasant surprise.The voice acting for the main character is not great. Character: 4 Around episodes 2 and 3, Momoko really had something going for her, but they didn't really build on that. The aliens are really funny though. Enjoyment: 10 This was laugh out loud at every second. Whether laughing at the cliches, the dialogue, or the fight scenes, it has a little something for everyone. Overall: 8