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| Rent |
 Stretch
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[series:968#628] | ||||||
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Though I have more stuff than I know what to do with, I'm expected to ask for some sort of Christmas presents. Since ADV was having a sale, and online reviews of Komugi-chan were fairly favorable, I added it to my list (By the way, I notice that our illustration above lists this show as a Pioneer presentation, but ADV is clearly in control of it now). It came in two volumes, with two episodes in the first one and three in the second. The first volume was moderately amusing, but didn't really grab my attention and I shelved the second volume for several months. I finally got around to watching episodes 3 & 4 recently, and found them to be distinctly more entertaining than I recalled the first volume to be. I think my favorite moment came in episode three with a quick Speed Racer parody--best of all, they had the authentic music, not a cheap knock-off song! The VA commentary was worth a listen, though as usual it's all about the American dub rather than the work that was done in Japan, which I would have greatly preferred. I hear that Soultaker is actually pretty dark in tone. In contrast, Komugi-chan reminded me of Puni Puni Poemi--even before Nabeshin turned up!
Last updated Friday, March 07 2008. Created Monday, March 27 2006. | ||||||||
| Rent | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
 AstroNerdBoy
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[series:968#436] |
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I don't know anything about Soul Taker, from which this series spunoff. I get the feeling that for Nurse Witch Komugi-chan, the previous series was a movie in which Komugi-chan and Kousuke-kun were actors in. I'll have to watch Soul Taker now but I can assure you that you don't need to have seen it to watch this title. The first two episodes aren't anything special. We have the mahou shoujo parody where some girl is chosen by some magic critter to be the magic girl and defend the world. As seen in titles like Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy (TV), Komugi-chan's best friend Koyori-chan somehow is the evil mahou shoujo who never remembers anything when she returns to her normal form. Of course Komugi-chan can't tell that Magical Maid Koyori is her best friend Koyori-chan. So this aspect of attempting to carry on its own story while parodying things like Power Rangers, Gatchaman, and other Japanese things makes the parodies less effective. With episode 3, the "big story" is mostly gone in favor of pure parody and humor. Komugi-chan is still a mahou shoujo and there's still Magical Maid Koyori, but any actual plot that had been attempted in the first two episodes is gone. This is a good thing as the writers appeared to look to the king of parody title, Excel Saga, for inspiration. Komugi-chan becomes much less annoying and much more fun as a character. Speaking of Excel Saga, episode 4 was the highlight of the series. In this episode, Japanese professional wrestling gets parodied some, but the majority of fun-making is directed at the anime industry. This was an absolute hoot and a delight to watch. Nabeshin even shows up (the credits just list his seiyuu as a Nabeshin look-alike, but I'm pretty sure this was the real thing) and if you've seen Excel Saga or Puni Puni Poemi, you should get a nice laugh. Bottom line: some nice parody moments that are better once the attempt at carrying a plot is dropped. Certainly worth a rent for some mindless fun.Last updated Saturday, April 09 2005. Created Friday, March 11 2005. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:968#967] | ||||||
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Are you into nurse-cosplay magic-girl anime?
Last updated Wednesday, February 16 2005. Created Wednesday, February 16 2005. | ||||||||
