Genres: action, science fiction Number of episodes: 26 Objectionable content: Significant Plot Summary:
Hibari Hanagokanei is a very enthusiastic preteen that would love to have a patapi mascot (a very popular tamagotchi-like toy) and dreams a lot about a boy, whom she calls “ojiisama” (prince). One day, an ecchi old man tells her that her prince is waiting for her in the local hill. Hibari runs to meet him, but she only finds a patapi mascot that falls of the sky into her arms. Not only has she proven that his prince is real, but he gave her a gift. Nevertheless, a big-breasted woman tries to steal her new patapi, which transforms into a Diva. Vintage: 1998-04-04 to 1998-09-26
Here’s another one I blind bought on a whim and I just finished up the first disc (ep. 1-5) earlier.
This is definitely one of those B grade animes and does tend to get rather repetitive in a magical girl kind of way. However, with that said, I am actually kind of enjoying it thus far.
Agreed, this is not the greatest anime out there (B grade anime? Hmm…yeah, I would agree). Very, few magical girl series are. And yet it has a certain charm that made me keep on watching till the very end.
Its one part Pokeman-esque, one part Bubblegum Crisis-esque, one part Slayers-esque, one part…well you get the idea. They threw everything in but the kitchen sink…wait…that might be in there too? And in the end came up with an entertaining little series.
I tried to watch this on VOD and found it annoying and given the ages of the characters, the fanservice a little creepy. I did watch the entire first two episodes before I gave up on it.
I got the impression it was an older show that were I to guess was dubbed back in the 90s when quality anime didn’t grow on trees. It’s probably alright if you’re young and just getting into anime in general.
Interestingly enough, though it’s a late 90s anime, it was actually dubbed in 2005.
It’s got a fairly low production value as far as animation goes, and it gets pretty shakey from time to time, but over all, it isn’t too bad.
For the most part though, it’s like a Pokemon/Magical Girl cross, with all the excitement and fanservice to go with it.
I can easily see how people wouldn’t like it though, what with the super high pitch cute voice of Luci Christian (a la Duck in Princess Tutu) and the double redundancy speech pattern of Tiffany Grant’s Suzume character, that alone, would probably turn most people off of it.
As most of you know… this is not one of my favorite genres… but that said…
I was watching it faithfully (until it got pulled).
The voices were what got to me the most… especially the blue-haired one with her ‘proper’ speech.
The story was generally ok, although I did fast-forward through the part where the ‘divas’ transformed, it reminded me of “Wedding Peach”; same footage every time.
With all that said, I’m a little sad that I didn’t get to finish watching it, just to see if the ‘Prince’ ever showed up to be good or bad.
Now that you mention it I remember seeing it wasn’t that old, but it made me wonder if it was released subbed when it was new or something. It’s sort of the M.D. Geist of magical girl shows IMHO -
Just finished up DVD 4 (ep. 15-18)
Though this series isn’t all that special in terms of uniqueness, it does have it’s moments.
Episode 15 was a rather fun one and actually made me glad I got the series.
A beach episode, the 4 main patapi go off and have a little adventure on their own in a cave, and do battle with crabs!
The production values on this remind me more of 80s rushed animation rather than late 90s, but even with that flaw, this series had all the correct elements for me to really enjoy it.
Even with all the repetitious flashbacks and transformations, it had a certian charm to it, that, while not really unique, gave an air of “feel good” to it making it all its own.
Though not really a series I would readily recommend for most people, it does have its merits and charm.
I just watched the first episode on the online player. I have a feeling that I won’t love this series, but I’ll watch a few more episodes to see how it progresses.
Slick
I know of the infamy of this show but I’ve also heard the legend of the commentary tracks. With the RightStuf sale going on for the Complete Collections of this title I was tempted to finally try it out but I was warned that the thinpak and complete collection do not come with any extras, defeating the point.
Still feeling the fallout of one of ADV’s worst decisions, pared-down thinpaks, all these years later
Buy it for the show itself. It’s classic “let’s throw everything but the kitchen sink” type of show, with the kitchen sink added in later.
Pure WTF gold.
I bought the few singles that RS had lying around since I got a report that one of my anime bros bought the thinpak when buying up tons of Sentai stuff on the last sale (he’s not exactly known for keeping his collection well cataloged lol).
This had to be a very early Luci Christian role; I almost didn’t recognize it.
