Potemayo

Title: Potemayo Manga, Anime: Potemayo was originally a four-panel comic strip that began running in the four-panel magazine Moeyon in 2004, but made a move to Comic High! in 2005, and was done by Haruka Ogataya. It is still currently running, and two collected volumes are out in Japan. It has yet to be licensed Stateside. The manga adaptation was done by JC Staff (well-known for its work on Excel Saga and Revolutionary Girl Utena) and directed by Takeshi Ikehata (well-known for directing Genkishen). It ran on Japanese TV from July 6th to September 21st of 2007, and has yet to be licensed Stateside. Story:Ah, how to attempt to describe Potemayo? Well, one morning, a middle school boy Sunao Moriyama is getting breakfast, and opens his refrigerator door to find a chibi girl with pink and yellow hair, cat ears, and a rabbit tail, who can't say anything other than "Honi!", and is cuteness personified. He decides to adopt it, and names her Potemayo. Later in the day, while he's at school, his refrigerator spawns another chibi girl, this one with purple hair, a scythe, and hair clips that shoot laser beams. She has a tendency to slice things apart with her scythe, and then put them back together with duct tape. She ends up getting adopted by one of Moriyama's classmates, Kyou, who gives her treats and dubs her Guchuko, and she shows her thanks by leaving dead carcasses of animals on the girl's desk. The series more or less follows the daily life of Sunao and Potemayo, and Guchuko and Kyou, along with their classmates. This series can best be summed up as CUTE and CRACK. The episodes are fifteen minutes each and, for the most part, standalones, with no real continuing plot elements (except towards the end for a few episodes). It's really hard to describe Potemayo's humor, except that it's hilarious, and made of WIN. It's something you have to see for yourself to understand, really. This was a great pick-me-up during finals week, and had me laughing out loud quite a lot, which caused my roommate to look at me funny. Definitely watch this if you're looking for a good laugh, or for simple, pure randomness. Art: Potemayo's art is really neat. JC Staff uses the gradient shading that we saw in Red Garden to great effect, and the backgrounds are done in watercolor, and actually look quite nice. And it goes without saying that the character designs are excellent. I dare you to look at Potemayo or Guchuko and not go, "D'AWW!". Music: The background music for this is fairly standard for a comedy series, and doesn't stand out all that much. It's not miserable, though. Same goes for the ED. The OP is absolutely adorable and singable, though, and is quickly climbing the play count list on my iPod. Seiyuu: I applaud Potemayo and Guchuko's seiyuu (Kana Hanazawa and Ayumi Tsuji); they managed to get the full range of emotions and convey their characters' feelings when the range of their lines is, at most, two or three words. And the other seiyuu do an excellent job as well. Length: Potemayo clocks in at twelve episodes (which, with two fifteen-minute episodes per full half-hour episode, comes out to twenty-four episodes). This ends up being perfect, as if they had pushed this any farther, it probably would've started to get stale. Specials: To date, Potemayo has three special episodes, which are the normal length. They succeed in situations that are even crackier than they were in the series, though they probably could've fit these episodes in at some point in the series if they really wanted to. Ah, well, though. Overall: A cute and cracky pick-me-up with a neat art style. Watch this. NOW. Story: 8/10 Art: 9/10 Music: 9/10 Seiyuu: 9/10 Length: 8/10 Specials: 8/10 Overall: 51/60; 85% (B )

If you're looking for something unique and original Go watch this show. When I say original and unique i dont mean artsy or psycologically significant. Its just a strangely funny and entertaing show. Most anybody can really appreciate the humor in this show. Story: It is a Slice of life, so most of the story is just the day to day events of a boy, his classmates, and his weird little chibi monster thing. Art: The art works well with the story and has a nice watercolor look to it. The design of Potemayo and Guchiko are mind numbingly cute. Sound: No complaints. I thought Potemayo's voice wasespecially well done and All the character voices match extremely well. Laser beam sounds were also very cool, you'll understand the reference within the first episode. Characters: All of the characters were great. Some were great in a very disgusting and creepy way, ie. Mudō Kirihara. Potemayo is extremely cute and insane. All the characters worked well and i found none of them to be unnecessary. A big cast with some really memorable characters. Enjoyment: Hell of a lot of enjoyment. Conclusion: If you took the time to read this review or even skim it, you have plenty of time to at least try the first episode. This anime will win you over with just the first episode. The best opinion is your own so dont hesitate yo try it out.

What is there to really say about Potemayo? I honestly don't see how anyone could connect hateful words to this series. Based on the attitude or feel of the show, I can't point out any factors that I necessarily disliked. It's more like I can only point out what was left to be desired. Then again, I never watched the specials, so maybe those could fill in the holes left in my heart when I finished watching the 12th episode. Potemayo is basically about a dude who wakes up to find an adorable yet odd creature in his refrigerator, and with this creature hedecides to continue living his everyday life. Comedy and Cuteness ensue. This show isn't moving in any general direction, mind you. As in, there isn't really much of a story to base a discussion on. It's simply a slice of life. It's the definition of SOL, mixed with a little supernatural. (Potemayo and Guchuko could be considered supernatural beings.) Though, despite this, the show is very enjoyable. It's kind of like comfort food but... it isn't bad for your health. If you're feeling down or just want to relax, Potemayo is a great show to sit back and relax to. The best comparison I could give you when talking about the feel of the show would be Acchi Kocchi/Place to Place. These shows are EXTREMELY similar and if you enjoy one, you'll enjoy the other. The music is simple, but its simplicity is what makes it so pleasant. It consists of strings(Violin/Cello/etc.), piano, acoustic guitar... and that's about it. They mix well with the visuals and together they create a comforting atmosphere. I'm cutting this review short because as I've stated before, there isn't much to say about Potemayo. This is not a bad thing. The show is simple and straightforward. There isn't anything bad about the series, you just leave... wanting more. It doesn't feel finished and it's one of those shows where you wish it were longer. You want more content. You want to see more snuggling between Sunao and Potemayo. All in all this show is adorable and funny and you should watch it. And with that being said; Honi. Honi. Honi.

Potemayo was a comedic manga strip by Ogataya Haruka. In 2007, J.C. Staff. The studio behind Shakugan no Shana, Honey and Clover and Nodame Cantabile just to name the ones I've reviewed.) Now, they have done some really good comedies so it's entirely possible that this could be highly amusing. Of course, it's also possible that this is a major blemish on their production history. Let's take a look and see which is more accurate. Story: The titular Potemayo is a strange creature that emerged from the refrigerator of our protagonist, Moriyama Sunao, for no apparent reason. She starts following him to school and getting intoshenanigans. Things are further complicated when a second creature, Guchuko, cuts her way out of his fridge with a scythe. This isn't one of those comedic series that even attempts to have any kind of narrative. Rather, it's an absurdest comedy about Potemayo and Guchiko being around a group of strange people and engaging in hijinks. So, how does the comedy hold up? There are quite a few funny moments, especially the Guchiko scenes. The series has a lot of energy put into it as well. The problem is that they're outnumbered by scenes that aren't funny. The series uses a lot of puerile humour involving bodily fluids and excrement because mucus and poop are gross and, therefore, must be hilarious. The humour involving romance is also a huge problem, being more unpleasant than actually amusing. We've got gay jokes and jokes about brothers who have more than just a familial interest in their sisters. You may commence eye-rolling. Characters: The characters are mostly adequate for a comedic work. Most of the major characters do interact well for comedic purposes even if they aren't particularly well developed or fleshed out. The issue is that some of the characters are used primarily or entirely in a very narrow way for jokes that are terrible. Nene's brothers, Yasumi, Kaouru and Mudou all fall into this category. Art: The art is pretty bad and I'm not just saying that because it's in the hyper chibified style that I'm not a fan of in general. The backgrounds are really blank. The character expressions are minimal, and I would love to know how characters with glasses manage to keep them on when no one has a nose, and actions are frequently animated sloppily. Sound: They did get some really good actors for this series. Unfortunately, most of them don't give their best performances. Kitamura Eri, who played Sayaka in Madoka and Saya in Blood+, puts virtually no emotion in her role. Tsuji Ayumi and Hanazawa Kana deliver their lines primarily in grunts. Which does make sense given that they're playing abnormal creatures who aren't human, but it still isn't conducive to strong showings. Kugimiya Rie plays two roles, much like she did in Bleach as Nemu and Karin. One of those roles is fine. The other, Nene, is really painfully high-pitched and hurts your ears. The music is pretty decent overall. Ho-yay: There's certainly a bit. Kaouru has a romantic interest in Mudou, which is played for laughs as a running joke because... gay people exist. Yeah, that's his character's entire “joke.” There are also a few scenes where things get homo-erotic between Kyou and Nene, but they're relegated to a single episode and played as a joke. So, the ho-yay factor is going to be a 5/10. Final Thoughts: Potemayo has some things going for it. The scenario is creative with plenty of comedic potential and it does give a few laughs. Unfortunately, those funny moments are over-shadowed by the decidedly unfunny puerile and unpleasant moments. The art is pretty awful and the voice acting is below average. All in all, I would only really recommend it for people who find human excretions funny or who can tolerate the problematic scenes in order to reach those moments that are legitimately funny. My final rating is going to be a 4/10. I've got quite the queue of requests going into August with some of them being really long. We've got Dragonball, Gintama, Claymore, Welcome to the NHK, Mawaru Penguindrum & Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Next week won't be any of them since they're all too long for me to finish in a week, but I'll have the Dragonball review up as soon as I can. In the meantime, next week will be Murder Princess.