Super Doll Licca-chan

I decided to watch this anime because I thought that the concept of an anime from the '90s with over fifty episodes but less than 1000 user votes was unusual; i.e. I expected it to be more popular. 52 episodes is a lot more than the much more common numbers of 13 and 26.

Now, however, I understand why.

I am aware of the fact that I'm well outside the intended audience of this anime. It's extremely kid-friendly. If you expected to see anything along the lines of violence or fan-service in this, then start looking elsewhere. I don't think that this means I can't be critical ... of this anime, however; after all, UFO Baby, another extremely kid-friendly anime that ran for even longer than this did, was a lot more enjoyable to me than this was.

Now then, what are the specific reasons for why I didn't like this anime?

For starters, the characters aren't interesting in any way overall. They all seemed very one-dimensional to me. The kids' personalities can be summed up with the following; Licca is cheery and tries to be brave when necessary, Sumire is Licca's clumsy friend, Dai is cocky, and Tomo is smart. If they do change in personality as the story progresses, then I sure didn't see how. As for the older characters, it's basically the same deal; the way they act in the first five minutes of seeing them is how they act for the rest of the story. Finally, the Doll Knights, who are meant to be the most interesting characters in the show, can all be summed up with one word: Brave. In my eyes, they all share the same one-dimensional personality, which is a real shame.

Adding to the uninteresting characters is the uninteresting 'story'. In case you thought that the synopsis sounded interesting, don't get your hopes up; the majority of the show is frustratingly formulaic and repetitive. Most episodes follow this pattern: The villains formulate a plan to catch Licca, the villains succeed in trapping Licca for a couple of minutes, someone calls on at least one of the Doll Knights to save Licca, and the Doll Knight/s does so. It's not until the final ~8 episodes that the show is not repetitive any more.

The character designs aren't impressive. To me, only four of the characters, excluding the Doll Knights, have unique designs. The rest of them, who don't have unique designs, are about on par with the background characters in terms of how unique and distinctive they are visually. In fact, some of the recurring characters have simple-looking black-dot eyes without sclerae. How's that for artistic effort? As for the environmental art, it's nothing special.

The music of the opening and ending themes is unimpressive. I'm rarely ever impressed by such themes, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if others have a very different opinion from me about these. The background music that plays during the show is decent, but not memorable.

With all of these criticisms, I suppose a score of 6 might be a bit too high going by my opinion of the show, but I can't bring myself to dislike it any further. I don't dislike it to the point that I'd start an argument with anyone who claims to love the show.

Overall, I think this show is best suited to viewers under the age of fourteen, or anyone who can't get enough of the magical girl genre. There just isn't enough to make it a highlight for the average anime viewer these days.