The Supergal

Title:The Supergal
Maris the Chojo
Rumic World: The Chou Onna
Rumik World: Maris the Chojo
Rumik World: The Chou Onna
ザ・超女(スーパーギャル)
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , ,
Notables: FURUKAWA Toshio
Original Concept - TAKAHASHI Rumiko
A super-strong, bikini-wearing space detective tracks down the kidnapped heir to a fortune.


"ザ・超女" is an English/Japanese mix, with "ザ" ("za") being the sound pattern for "The", "超" ("chou") = "hyper-, super-, ultra-" and "女" ("onna") = "woman, female". This being pronounced as "The Super-Gal" (スーパーギャル) is the original title while Wikipedia has it under the English release name ↗Maris the Chojo.

[1 OAV episode based on the manga of the same title. Previously licensed by Central Park Media, but currently is unlicensed. See also: Rumik World: En Tripper, Rumik World: Warau Hyouteki ]
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 7 6 6 5 5 Ggultra2764 [series:272#1552]
A rather underwhelming entry from the Rumik World series, Maris the Choujo is a comedy that milks off the inconveniences that Maris' superhuman strength give her in her job as a space police detective, yet the efforts with comedy didn't really hook me in. Beyond Maris putting up with the occasional calls from her family and dealing with a rival opponent from her women's wrestling days as a comic villain, there isn't really much that would hook me on this one-shot story. Unless you're a diehard Rumiko Takahashi fan, you're not really missing out on much here.

Last updated Saturday, April 05 2014. Created Saturday, April 05 2014.
Watch 7 7 7 6 6 AstroNerdBoy [series:272#436]

As with many early Takahashi-sensei works, they are the ground work for her future titles. Maris clearly has the influence of one of Lum-chan's alien friends from Urusei Yatsura with the character Maris taking that role. The fox youkai character of Shippo from Inuyasha seems to clearly have roots in the fox character of this OAV, named Murphy.

The OAV itself is rather uninspired. The humor of the series is dirived from a few elements -- Maris being six-times stronger than a human, thus breaking many things, Maris's rivalry with another woman from her old home planet, whom she used to wrestle against in the women's circuit, Maris being poor and wanting to hook up with this rich prince, and Maris's family troubles where her dad drinks to much and her mom is an airhead, thus causing great damage accidently due to their great strength. The jokes are weak and never even made me smile. I've no doubt some Japanese culture comes into play here with the family jokes, but it didn't do anything for me. The story is just as weak.

As a side note, the animators did throw in a tribute or two to Lum-chan, with tiny cameo glimpses. That's understandable considering the popularity of Urusei Yatsura. So Stretch wasn't imagining things. ^_^

Bottom line: this is a really old OAV and it shows in the jokes and the way it tells its poor story. Fans of Takahashi-sensei will want to watch this just to see everything by her, otherwise just skip this one.

Last updated Monday, November 14 2005. Created Monday, November 14 2005.

Watch Stretch [series:272#628]
I found Maris to be fairly amusing, but not funny enough to be worth expanding it into a series. For some reason, the humor that I liked best seemed like it didn't really have all that much to do with the plot of the show; somehow it reminded me of the animation in old episodes of "Monty Python". A good example would be my favorite part--where a futuristic helicopter locates Maris wandering in a canyon and the pilot announces he's going to attempt a "tricky landing". I noticed that the animation of spaceships maneuvering about seemed rather crude. Several times I thought I recognized Lum from Urusei Yatsura, only to conclude that it was just one of the usual charachters seen from an unusual angle. I most certainly did recognize some charachters from well known live-action movies.
(5/03)

Last updated Tuesday, May 06 2003. Created Monday, April 28 2003.
Watch 5 5 7 5 0 5 Kaitou Juliet [series:272#137]

If only this had been a series rather than a single stand-alone episode! Maris is an engaging character with a little "problem" that's full of comic possibilities: She's six times stronger than a human being, so unless she wears special restraining equipment, she tends to break everything she touches. Her job as a space detective could have led to all kinds of adventures. As the pilot episode to a series, this would have been very respectable indeed.

To me, the great strength of Takahashi's comedy lies in her ability to create a multitude of wacky characters and weave them together into tangled subplots. Obviously, in only 45 minutes, she's severely limited on both counts, so Maris falls short of her very best comedy. But it's still fun as far as it goes, and worth checking out if you're a Takahashi fan. Watch for a cameo appearance by Ryuunosuke and her father from <i>Urusei Yatsura<i>!



Last updated Wednesday, August 08 2001. Created Thursday, April 19 2001.

Other Sites
NameURL
Rumik World http://furinkan.com/
An excellent fan site for all things made by Takahashi-sensei.

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