Puni Puni Poemy

...How to describe Puni Puni Poemi. Well, really, all you need to know is that it's Excel Saga's spinoff/sequel (in that it has Nabeshin in it, and refers constantly to Excel Saga through inside jokes in the script/art/music), centering around Poemi, who likes to be called Kobayashi (basically Excel in a preteen package, which makes her all the more hyper; I pity her seiyuu, and am amazed at how fast she could speak all those lines), and her randomly and absurdly becoming a magical girl. Basically, they parody the magical girl genre, the voice acting/anime business, and fanservice. They regurarly break the fourth wall,which is made of LOVE. It's a bit more crude than Excel Saga was, but as it's an OAV, they can get away with it (they even joke about it). Like Excel Saga, it has it's moments, but it's not made of brilliance. Still, good for a laugh if you're bored.

This Anime is so stupid. There is no easier way to say that. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT? Let me explain what I mean. It’s really hard to talk about this show because it’s just all over the place. At one point, it just feels like they are stalling for time so they can make it run two episodes long. The show starts out with a bit of an epic concept about someone wanting to take over the world and make it a place of beauty and sweetness. This wouldn’t be so bad except that right after the opening song, we get… stupidity. AHyper, overactive girl screaming at the camera for the whole show is not my idea of a good show. This is just made for people to feel uncomfortable, isn’t it? Because the aliens having large balls knocking around from where their genitals would be, little kids showing off their ass, all the sexual images and jokes, and the very hyper girl messes with me. What else can I say about this show? I really have no idea… From the baby that predicted danger by pooping, to the S&M Dominatrix, there is so many jokes that just seem to fly over my head. I blame Japanese jokes that are culturally sensitive and toilet humor being there for no reason. The artwork is all over the place. The opening is part anime, part live action with a young Japanese girl looking like she is running around on a beach. What makes it even more unsettling is that they put so many nudity shots in the beginning over this running girl that I just get thrown off faster then you can say Parody. Then when we get into the show finally, we get noodle legs and arms all over the place. Nothing keeps its proportion and things just seem to have a really high cartoon physics that gets on my nerves at times. Sure it works pretty well in Loony Tunes, but then they are not trying to milk it for all its worth. In shows like Loony Tunes, there is a time and place to use those physics and they don’t distract from the overall story. In this case, it really does. Whenever she moves, I feel like any OCD that I have is going to go overboard because I get distracted by her movements and can’t understand the story… if there really is any story to begin with. Still I do have to give them props for the amazing amount of color in this show. And… That might be all that I can give it. Character designs when they are still are pretty bland, little children sexualized way too much (of course, that happens in many more Anime, not just here), and the backgrounds are generic. The music isn’t all bad. The opening song is kind of fun and playful, much like most songs from Excel Saga (another show I really am not a fan of but has decent music). The English voice acting is really terrible, and that mostly is with Poemi. Her voice is either two high, to energetic, or to out of control that I can barely understand her. Nothing she says seems to be of any importance because they never give you a chance to hear it. The third person speaking that she does also gets on my nerves very fast. I understand, she is trying to get into a rule of a girl named Poemi, I understand that the original voice actor, Yumiko Kobayashi, was trying to portray that she is playing a character playing another character. But does that really mean she has to keep saying her own name? Just saying Poemi did this or Poemi did that would be enough. Flipping through the different names made me miss her real name for a long time, making me think that the magical girl was just named Poemi instead. I give props to Cynthia Martinez who probably never got a chance to breathe trying to read the lines for Poemi though. Its one thing when it’s animated for your original language, it’s completely different when trying to dub a show where the artwork has already been done. This is not the show for me. Looking at it compared to others like this, this is pretty much the bottom of the barrel. From the artwork, the jokes that really do not work outside Japan, and the voice acting adds up to a big mess to me.

First off, I came across the series back when I used to scout animes I watched. I finally came to watching it. It was good. Once I saw it in FULL CONTEXT, it was better than I could ever imagine. So I will rate this series by 10 points. STORY: The series follows the pattern of a normal magical girl series: Main character has a miserable life, comes across tragedy, finds transformation device, and becomes magical girl, with identity known to not many people. This series improves on the storyline by making more people respect the main character (with the character's best friend getting an overdoseon respect), but sort of declines once you get to the idea that the main character is repeatedly f*cked by the talent agency. Overall, the story is very good. ART: The backgrounds combines city and country into how I would picture Fukuoka. The art is shiny and magnificent, while sometimes, the art just disappears, making the room disappear all of a sudden. Outstanding, no? SOUND: Clear sound. Makes you really get an earful of the full volume treatment. I would call the sound outstanding, but I'll rate it great, since Poemi's fast-paced talking makes the sound seem a little distorted. CHARACTER DESIGN: Varing body shapes, artistic shading, and moe eyes? The character design is awesome all the way! OUTSTANDING! CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Simply put, character develops slow to none in this series. But screw development, the descriptions are good enough! But backgrounds are pretty bleak, like how Futaba exactly became prototype lesbian. I know it's supposed to be funny, but I just don't care. MUSIC: A lot of the music comes from Excel Saga. Others are written by Yumiko Kobayashi. One even bacame prototype for a Naruto track. AWESOME! WOMEN: A lot of the female characters are either cute or sexy, and that's really awesome that Ishino made the characters designed like that! But I could live my life without Shii continually groping herself. WATCHABILITY: If you've seen Excel Saga, you'd get a lot of the jokes. But watching enough magical girl/hentai series would get you to understanding the jokes a lot clearer. But seriously. This series is watchable if you try. You might have second thoughts once hearing Poemi's voice, but the jokes will keep you glued to your seat. PROMOTION: This got me to thinking about watching the series once I saw the English trailer. After seeing a lot of scenes cut out, I watched the original trailer. I respected the series more after that. OTHER: Could really work on [as] if they had the right to air it. Or Excel Saga. That way, more of the jokes could be clearer. (BTW, [as] is Adult Swim). but when I first saw images for the series, I thought the series was different, and made my own version with about most of the Aasu sisters replaced. I even went as far as to give Poemi fake parents (with KumiKumi in prison and Nabeshin the first villian, leading to a Star Wars V-esque reveal), make Futaba a magical girl herself, and imagine the series on FOX with none of the ADV VAs. I even thought Nabeshin was working for ACROSS! Good thing I scrapped thatidea before my brain overdosed on my own brew of awesome. OVERALL: Awesome. Best magical girl series ever. 9/10.

Puni Puni Poemi is a spinoff of Excel Saga with even shoddier directing and even more cheap fanservice. The entire OVA felt like Episode 26 of Excel Saga except bad. The art at least is passable and hasn't changed from Excel Saga. The sound and characters are regurgitations from Excel Saga. Poemi is basically a clone of Excel minus Excel's awesome voice actor that basically made the character. Poemi's voice actor (ironically enough) pretty much failed to make Poemi funny or enjoyable. Characters in this series are either slightly entertaining or annoying. Visually and literally, many characters completely unoriginal compared to Excel Saga. Character design inthe series was very weak. Despite this, Puni Puni Poemi delivers a moderate dose of fun and a supercritical dose of fanservice. The series is inundated with innuendo and sometimes straight out sex scenes (nothing is shown as this is not a hentai). The absurdity of the series delivers funny in a similar way as Excel Saga, which is one of my favorites. All in all, Puni Puni Poemi is many steps down in every way from Excel Saga. The premise of Puni Puni Poemi is similar to that of Excel Saga it just isn't executed very well.