Anime Review No. 28, "Hanamaru Kindergarten"

I’m the Eclectic Dude, and I review it for the lolz.

Well, after a fun scifi adventure that is Tenamonya Voyagers, I follow it up with….Hanamaru Kindergarten?! Wut?!

Koume, Hiiragi, and Anzu in foreground, with Tsuchida and Yamamoto in the background  

Yes, seriously. This 2010 slice of life series of 12 episodes is something not within what I normally review, which is obscure OVAs/series from the 90s. But I will try nonetheless. The director is Seiji Mizushima and produced by Studio Gainax. Gainax is better known for titles like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gurren Lagann. Indeed, this is the company that later in 2010 put out Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (P&S w/G), one of the raunchiest anime I’ve ever seen in recent memory. Though to be fair, P&S w/G is far more memorable than this title, as I didn’t heard much of this series since it came out.

So, let’s see what’s up with this series by looking at the first episode. The first episode is actually two short stories mashed into one episode. After a short opening music sting, the first of two main characters is introduced, Tsuchida-sensei. He is a new kindergarten teacher going to his first day of work. This is a bit unusual as being a male kindergarten teacher must be a rarity even in Japan.

He meets up with Anzu, a kindergartener. She instantly becomes infatuated with Tsuchida-sensei, which is a little odd. The first part of the episode deals with the first day of school. Ah, what fond memories of that, let me tell you. It did bring some nostalgia to me. Anyway, Tsuchida ends up falling for Yamamoto-sensei, another teacher working at the same small elementary school he works at. Uh-oh, I smell a love triangle (maybe).  

Anzu also meets some new friends, as you do at first day of school. Hiiragi is a blue-haired girl who is stoic and overly serious. Koume is a brown-haired girl who is shy, timid, and reserved. Anzu is a rather cheerful little girl who is happy, talkative and makes friends easily. She is also very brave, as she goes up a tree to get Koume’s ribbon back after a wind blew it up there.

The second part deals with mainly Tsuchida-sensei. It turns out Anzu’s mom was his senpai (senior) back in high school. She was already married to the art teacher at the school. I like how casually this information is revealed, when such a thing would be a big deal here in the USA. Oh, well.

The rest of it contains scenes of domestic life of the characters introduced in the first part. Then, the next day, Anzu confesses her love to Tsuchida. He is expectedly surprised at this, even more so when Anzu’s mom gives her blessing. Oh noes….hijinks are to insure….I guess.

Final thoughts: I thought it was OK. The fact that Gainax put out a slice of life series so mundane and ordinary when they have also done series like Gurren Lagann, FLCL, Evangelion, Abenobashi is quite a surprise. They seem to be their best when they are loud and bombastic, not quiet, calm and peaceful. Granted, some of the humor is on par with their other stuff, but that’s about it.

I am not sure if I will watch this further, as it seems like every typical slice of life story. The only difference being is that it deals with kindergarteners. That’s about it. It is average, at best. If you like slice of life stories or a Gainax fan, then I recommend checking it out. If not, well then pass it up. To be fair, kids can watch this with not much trouble at all, if that's a consolation.

Laterz,

The Eclectic Dude 

Anime Review No. 27, “Tenamonya Voyagers” (April Fool’s Day Special Review)

Hello, I’m the Eclectic Dude I review it for the lols.

Well, Happy April Fool’s Day everyone! This special day calls for a special review, because why the heck not. I know the perfect thing to review-Tenamonya Voyagers!!!!!

DVD Cover with the main characters (L-R: Wakana, Ayako, and  Space Trash Paraila) with Inspector Yokoyama near top

Never heard of it? I don’t blame you. Tenamonya Voyagers, a Sci-Fi 1999 OVA done by Studio Pierrot is in that category of ‘rare, obscure” in anime. It also has the distinction for being one of the early titles of anime released exclusively on DVD back in the late 90s/early 00s. But being one of the first, does that make it good?

The story behind Tenamonya Voyagers involves the adventures of 3 young women in space, at some point far in the future. Two of them are humans-Ayako, a new teacher and Wakana, a student athlete. Both ended up at a school on a far off planet of Meldonia, Ayako having a teacher job and Wakana getting there via an athletic scholarship.  However, once they get to Meldonia, the school got shutted down (valid since it took them light years to get there). Anyway, without much to do, the two decides to return back to Earth, despite their limited resources to do so.

Fortunately, a solution comes from above, literally. A giant mecha falls onto the planet, demolishing the school. Out of it comes Paraila, a mysterious young girl who seems more than she appears. Together, they are determined to get back to Earth, the home in a vast universe so to speak. But, it turns out Paraila is a former boss of the Space Mafia who is hoping to get back to Earth for her own selfish reasons. Turns out, some past space treaty left Earth as ‘neutral territory’ wherein any criminal that lands there has ALL their criminal charges wiped clean. In addition to be pursuing by the Mafia, the Space Police have someone on her trail as well-an obsessive policewoman from Hiroshima, Yokoyama.

Sounds pretty good, eh? Well, unfortunately, not only it is rare/obscure it is also unfinished. Only 4 episodes got made. Yeah, spoiler alert, they don’t make it back to Earth and the final episode ends on a cliffhanger. However, unlike Legend of the Last Labyrinth, which suffered from cutbacks it seems, this title suffered from probably low sales. A sad fact of life for OVA collectors, in that a lot of them were released by video every few weeks or months and the continuation of many titles depended on sales of the videos. If sales were good, then OVAs got more episodes and vice versa.

Which is a shame, as Tenamonya Voyagers is a very good OVA. The animation is quite excellent, for its time. Upon first watching it, I did a double take when the fact that this was made back in 1999. It looks good enough to be something made from the early to mid 00s. Characters are extremely expressive and back grounds are well done in every scene of the 4 episodes.

The direction is also something of note as well. Akiyuki Shinbou directed this OVA, yes the same guy who was involved in Galaxy Fraulien Yuna OVAs and Detatoko Princess (both I have reviewed previously). Here, in my opinion, is the best OVA/series he did pre-Studio Shaft. His trademarks are on full display here, be it use of texts on screen, interesting camera angles and wacky/tippy lighting and color effects. He gives it some pacing and quality that one should view the OVA as all 4 episodes at once, as it feels like a movie at times.

The story and characters are well a mixed bag.  It is essential a ‘girls on the run in space’ story, but with a few unique twists thrown in for good measure. The writing is filled with lots of humor, both sophomoric and more subtle. The characters are overall fun and enjoyable to watch. Ayako is a distressed young teacher who is in way over her head at times, but gives enough laughs at times so the audience is totally annoyed at her. Wakana and Paraila basically serves as bouncing boards off each other, Wakana wondering why go through the hassle of going to Earth with a known criminal and Paraila just not giving a crud about what anyone thinks or says. And Yokoyama, the policewoman on the trail of Paraila is basically a crazy badass who probably joined the police just so she could capture/kill people, making her a passable antagonist.

OP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkL-5_eGV0s

Finally, the music is also worthy of note. In particular, the opening, which it is basically a marching band tune set to well weird imagery. The rest of the soundtrack is very much like the OVA-space epic and all that. Granted, they do recycle some soundtrack parts a few times but thankfully it’s not too annoyingly overused.

Not that to say it’s all good. The story is rather unfinished and this fact is no more evident than in the fourth and last episode, where the production team just threw their arms up in the air and said “Feck the plot, we’ll just do something ridiculously awesome”, apparently. Now, there has to be the best way to end an OVA that probably had no chance: Just end on a note of ridiculously awesomeness. Check it out for yourself, I am not spoiling here.

This gets a good recommendation, if you are a sci-fi fan or like parody series as well. It is not that hard to find it, as Amazon.com has it for dirt cheap. It is well worth it, as Tenamonya Voyagers is a joke; a huge, entertaining joke, to be fair, but a joke nonetheless

‘Til next time ^_^