Pinky Street

So. I get why everyone here seems to be so hard on this little OVA. It's a weird little two-episode children's show chock full of some of the worst CG ever put to screen, that was only made to push some bizarre Barbie clone. Indeed, that's all it really is. It is a bad, low-quality product. However, the second episode is what gets me- while the first episode follows Mei, a young girl who wants to be more feminine, the second follows Keiichirou, an otaku who collects these dolls. This absurdity is so genuinely hilarious that it shocked me at the very start- I hadto pause it to brace for what was to come. I won't get into specifics here, but he is just about as much of a menace as you'd imagine he'd be, and not even the characters of Pinky Street really know what to do with him. This is like if MLP had a dedicated episode where a brony was transported into their world for a day, and they were all kinda uncomfortable about it. I guess the folks up at Pinky Street headquarters knew their market well enough to make a dedicated episode for each half of their fanbase- little girls and dudes in their 20s. I cannot emphasize how funny this contrast was, and it is for this reason that I believe the story is the strongest aspect of this title, and also absolutely recommend it- whether or not they meant for this to happen, the people behind this anime have produced comedy gold. The art is a mixed bag, with that warm yet simple Saturday morning 2000s style reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh! for the traditionally animated sections, and CG portions which are lengthy and nauseating, terrible in all respects even for the time it was produced. The CG alone drags it down so much, as it is actually hard to watch, especially when they cynically repeat animations despite the whole anime only having a run time of 24 minutes or so. How many corners do you really have to cut if your whole anime is under half an hour? I get this is made for kids, but that's insulting, even to them. The sound is unremarkable, with a grating looped track that plays during the CG portions. However, the VA work was pretty good, as the genuinely unsettled reactions from the various characters at Keiichirou and his antics are pretty great. As for the characters themselves, they're all pretty generic, serving the roles that are required of them throughout, with the sole exception of Keiichirou. He provided such a hilarious and absurd contrast in the second episode that he made this OVA worth watching, and as such he is easily my favorite character here. Overall, Pinky Street is supposed to be a cynical boilerplate moneygrab designed to push product, and in many ways it is, but it is also a hilarious look at certain aspects of Otaku culture from an angle rarely explored. As such, for this anime's brief runtime and the second episode's potent comedic absurdity, I definitely recommend Pinky Street for the spectacle alone.