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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Avoid | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:897#1552] |
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This was a complete waste of time. Super Milk-chan's mostly notable for its inclusion on Adult Swim and ADV making two different versions of the series for an English dub. One version features a literal translation of the original Japanese versions of both TV seasons of the series (a 1998 one with a number of short episodes and a 2000 one with full half-hour length episodes) where it seemed like the delivery of lines was flat and ADV was putting little effort into. The other version is a gag dub in the style of Ghost Stories that retains the basic character elements of both seasons, while Americanizing elements of its story and comedy and peppering in crass humor and pop culture nods, which clearly had more effort put into it compared to the literal adaptation. The gag dub also features live-action segments featuring the English dub voice actors of the series. Like Ghost Stories, I felt the attempt at a gag dub was pointless considering how forgettable the original version of this series was and the live-action segments took away from the anime with their abrupt transitions in the middle of the animated content and the comedic delivery from the voice actors feeling awkward and forced. About the only plus that I'd give the ADV gag dub is that they made Milk-chan's character more foul-mouthed and rude than her original version, as her rudeness in the original version seemed too restrained. Outside of whatever bits ADV did to attempt making Milk-chan more marketable to American audiences, both seasons of the series aren't exactly memorable for comedy. Both mostly run on a repetitive plot structure that involves Milk-chan verbally lashing at her crew, getting a call from the President of Everything for a mission after some verbal spars from Milk-chan, a random convenience comes along to resolve the problem that Milk-chan and pals deal with, and the group take credit for it. The second season has some more repetitive elements tossed in to drag out episode length where Milk-chan outwits her landlord wanting her to pay off an outstanding debt for her house, the President of Everything musing over a random predicament and Milk-chan's crew visiting Dr. Eyepatch for a random invention to help out with their current mission. The missions involve satire of certain elements within Japanese current events and culture to a great extent with the series being quite blatant in its exposure of its gags, though the anime's dry comedic delivery and the cultural divide between America and Japan make these efforts quite inaccessible to many American audiences (if there is any appeal). It also doesn't help that the animation to both seasons isn't very impressive with simple and crude details on characters and scenery, as well as frequent use of animation shortcuts like reused frames and speed stripes being milked. Overall, Milk-chan is a mostly forgettable anime title for what it attempts to milk with comedy and stands as a major example of ADV's downfalls as a distributor from their licensing binge on anime titles, regardless of any questionable quality or marketability they would have to American audiences. Even ADV's efforts to Americanize the title's content with their gag dub felt totally flat as it tried to be completely dependent on crass humor and pop culture nods to hook in fans. Definitely don't waste your time or money on this one. Last updated Saturday, February 08 2014. Created Saturday, February 08 2014. | ||||||||
| Watch |
 Sluggysan
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[series:897#2307] | ||||||
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There's a few variants on Super Milk-chan: there's the original short-cartoon series, which usually goes by just "Super Milk-chan," then there's the episode-length series, "Oh! Super Milk Chan," and finally the ADV Films adaptation, "The Super Milk Chan Show." The key difference here is that the ADV version is substantially rewritten, with more American jokes, and has live-action segments featuring the English-language voice actors. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim aired the "Oh! Super Milk Chan" version, which is where I was first introduced to it; I later got ahold of the ADV dvd's, and have been able to do a little compare n' contrast action. (By the way - the ADV release contains two discs in each volume: the original and the adapted versions.) Personally, after lots of watching both versions, I'd have to say that although both versions do have their advantages, I'd have to give the race to the ADV version for several reasons: the jokes work much better when they've been rewritten for American pop culture, and Milk just doesn't seem quite, well, rude enough in the original Japanese. (I'm guessing by Japanese standards, she's quite the pottymouth, but it just doesn't quite wash out here.) The animation in both versions is the same, of course; quite stylized and bright. Which winds up begging the question: if the ADV version makes more sense, why did Cartoon Network buy the more literally translated version? I'm guessing two reasons: (a) the ADV version doesn't cleanly cleave into tidy 30-minute blocks, and (b) the live-action segments must've caused much indigestion over at Williams Street. In their defense, the live-action segments aren't THAT awful. I think the original "video otaku" segments were probably a bit better, and you're probably not going to see the voice actors in front of cameras much in the future, no, but you won't hit the chapter skip button... much. By far, the best batch of ADV live-action is in the fourth volume, where they go to an anime con, and a fair bit of hilarity ensues. Overall, I can recommend this anime with a few caveats - both versions have merit, but the ADV adaptation will probably make the most sense to Western audiences. It can get a bit grating, so it is best enjoyed in small doses. And do keep your finger near the chapter skip button to get around the live-action if it gets obnoxious. Last updated Sunday, August 13 2006. Created Sunday, August 13 2006. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:897#628] | ||||||
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Some strange ads have been airing on Cartoon Network lately, supposedly about some sort of series called "Super Milk-chan". I initially couldn't believe this was in fact genuine anime, since I'd never heard of the series and the brightly colored, and simple yet highly stylized characters looked more like the Powerpuff Girls than anything Japanese. Also, this show wasn't airing on Saturday night, which is traditionally when Adult Swim shows genuine anime. Some sort of American parody of anime, perhaps? Last night, completely by accident, I caught the first episode. Sure enough, the credits revealed that the show was indeed a Japanese production. another unusual thing was the ADV logo at the beginning--has Cartoon Network ever shown anything from ADV before? I've just done some internet research, and was surprised at how many Milk-Chan websites exist. Apparently this is a sequel to a run of fourteen eight-minute segments that aired back in 1998. Described by reviewer John Yung as "the product of a demented genius or bored animators (or both)... Milk-Chan has it's own unique spin on humor". The series employs parody to a "blatant extent", and, like Excel Saga, is a "truly bizarre anime show". "Milk-chan is indeed funny, but sometimes it's too bizarre for its own good". I get the impression that a lot of the humor may be lost on those unfamiliar with life in Japan, and that the profanity has been toned down somewhat for Milk-chan's Cartoon Network run (she repeatedly used the word "dumbass" last night). Perhaps the idea was to expand on the channel's pack of pathetic superhero shows, such as Birdman and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. If the ads leading up to the premiere hadn't been so confusing, I'd have had a fresh VCR tape in the machine last night! Having now watched a couple of episodes on a rented DVD (each DVD includes some of the short episodes along with the half-hour ones), a couple thoughts come to mind. The uncensored DVD version didn't really feature a whole lot more profanity than the episodes beeing aired on Cartoon Network--maybe one or two questionable lines per episode. The dub version actually seems more vulgar than the subbed one (episode two featured the "F" word). Most important, this series *really* needs a set of Vid-notes, as in Excel Saga and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, to explain the numerous Japanese cultural tie-ins. For example, Milk repeatedly tricks her landlord into going away by claiming that certain personalities are in town, but I haven't the slightest idea who these people are or why the landlord's being a fan of them would be amusing. This is, after all, a "satire of [Japanese] pop culture", and how many of us can claim to be familiar with that? For this reason, and because DVD extras are minimal, and also because it has shown up on Cartoon Network (in censored form, of course), I get the impression that ADV didn't exactly consider Milk-chan a high priority project (then again, maybe I'm being too cynical; maybe Milk-chan being shown on Cartoon Network represents ADV's willingness to "sacrifice" one decent show in order to stir up interest in it's other anime titles. Perhaps it's a mistake to assume that any anime that is shown on Cartoon Network will neccessarily be mediocre [despite titles like Blue Gender]. After all, who would have expected such a brilliant show as Cowboy Bebop to show up on Cartoon Network?). The thought occured to me recently that the very fact that anime almost always has to be censored in order to air on Cartoon Network suggests why I prefer to watch Japanese anime over American TV programs--because, in it's original form, it's *not* censored, and it doesn't have to be "politically correct". You just don't get this kind of unconventional entertainment from the media here in the US! Last updated Monday, January 10 2005. Created Friday, November 12 2004. | ||||||||
