Paniponi Dash!

Pani Poni Dash is a very light hearted and hilarious slice of life comedy thats fun for the whole family to enjoy. Don't worry about that middle finger on the first episode since thats the only vulgar thing in the whole show. This style has beend done a million times over and I believe Pani Poni Dash is one of the reasons why this style of genre keeps being made over and over.

Story: (Fair)
The story is pretty simplistic but follows the basic of a classic comedic sitcom (issues that can be solved in under 30 minutes). The story evolves a classroom whose teacher just ... happens to be a 11-year old (age varies by episode) loli super genius from MIT. How or why she is even teaching a class of high school girls is pretty irrelevant. Rather the story and issues involved herein don't involve normal everyday issues that people can relate to. Instead, they tend to take the wacky and outrageous approach, while plugging as many parodies, one shot gags, sight jokes, and pop culture references in one show as they can. Once you watch this show you can tell its style has influenced a large amount of situational comedy anime that you watch today. Some of the situations I couldn't get into simply because it was just TOO Japanese (you'll understand when you start watching).

Art: (Good)
The art style switches between the common form of detailed and simplistic styles and they're all placed in the right spots worthy of laughing. Theres so many sight gags and one shots in almost every scene you'll be actively looking allover the screen trying to see the next joke. The art works for a large majority of the time. It doesn't feel like one style is being over used over the others. Theres even times where some rather cute fanservice is involved. This show definitely did it's homework when it came to visual hilarity. The art even stays pretty truthful to its manga counterpart. Huge props for Hekiru Hikawa and making this stuff up, especially the animals.

Sound: (Great)
The sound is pure comedy. But then again its hard to screw up on the sound music and voice acting these days. But with so many things happining in every episode that its hard not to give this show a high score in the sound department since they parody everything from 8-bit Nintendo songs to dragon quest references, along with the random Japanese authentic sounds. Its so great its almost too much but one cant help but laugh through the whole thing or at the very least get hyped up from all the different parody songs they have. On top of that, the op and ed theme songs are one of my favorites i've laid my ears on. My personal fav's are the last two op theme songs. They definitely get you in the mood to watching an episode of Pani Poni dash. Of course they use the seiyu's to sing their own theme songs and as you would expect they sing them pretty well.

Characters: (Outstanding)
The shows bread and butter are by far the cast of characters that make up class 1-C. They're all rehashes of cliche' characters but they have their own twist to make themselves one of a kind in the Pani Poni universe. For example, a loli genius... school teacher? A smart type... with a large and shiny forehead? A shy quiet... masochist? Sure they sound lame but put them together and you get a pretty good cast of sitcom characters. Even the supporting cast is just as hilarious as they spit out pop culture onomatopoeias like adding "dot com" or "of the year" or "omega" to their sentences. The voice overs do their job very well especially Becky, Himeko, and Mesousa. Oh god Mesousa, there will not be another animal character as cute (and pathetic) as Mesousa. Its such a perfect style for a comedy thats not used often. Also, on a side note, the dubbed version is just as good as its Japanese counterpart if you ever take the chance to watch the dub. On top of that, you would never notice that the voice of Himeko also does the voice for Rukia Kuchiki.

Enjoyment: (Very Good)
I loved all the characters in this show, even the cooked salamander and pig-looking guy. Some of the jokes wont reach some audiences since it's very Japanese in its joke telling. Thats my only gripe is that if you're not really knowledgeable about Japanese culture or your anime references aren't up to date, you might want to wait on watching this show. But if your hip and cool like me (joking of course), this show will be a laugh riot!!

Side note: Some of the best parts of the episode happen after the credits!!

If I could be given a chance to describe Paniponi Dash! In one sentence, I would say it’s a very chaotic and experimental take on the slice-of-life school comedy genre of its time. It mercilessly bombards you with random referential humor. It doesn’t follow a distinct format in delivering its jokes. Whatever Shafts in the creator's minds on what they think is funny, they will insert it regardless if it makes sense to the overall theme of the show or not. In most cases, the show is not even identifiable as a school comedy but a jumble of genres instantly shifting themes from time to ... time.

This review might have some minor spoilers but Paniponi Dash! the story is not the main focus of the show so you won't be losing much on the experience.

First of all, we need to discuss the show's story. To summarize Paniponi Dash! It's all about Rebecca’s daily struggles in managing her main class while at the same time confronting bizarre forces lurking in the corner as the story goes on. The only twist the story has to offer to differentiate it from the rest of other slice-of-life school comedy is that Rebecca is an 11-year old genius that graduated top university in America. After Graduation, she flew to Japan to become a high school teacher. . In my opinion, she is better off doing things that might benefit the human race with her self-proclaimed superior intelligence, than doing a profession she literally has no passion for. That alone for me as an initial story doesn’t impress me or appeal to me even if it’s just a comedy show.

But wait! There’s more! Not being satisfied for being just a plain old-school comedy. The show also has the audacity to add some sci-fi and paranormal stuff in the mix. It is revealed in the first minute of the show intro that Rebecca's intellectual potential has caught the eyes of these weird-looking mushroom head aliens and decided to monitors her every action 24/7. Does this show bother to explore an interesting story as to why Rebecca is special or explore the origin story of why is a genius in the first place? The short answer is no. It was never mentioned again in the next 26 episodes and the aliens only serve as trouble makers to do more weird shenanigans to Rebecca Life thus feeding the show with random SciFi and paranormal humor. The show even bothers to show the alien daily lives in a comedic fashion that serves no real purpose aside from Gag Filler. And that’s what will you expect in Paniponi Dash Main Story. The spoiler ends here.

The main heart and blood of this series is comedy. I usually put the comedy in a separate section when I made reviews for school comedy. But for Paniponi Dash! case, I will be talking about both the comedic elements and the characters side by side to explain my points on what I found funny and not funny in this show.

Let’s start with the characters first. I have an issue when a show has far too many characters and not a single one stands out or makes an everlasting impression on me. In your standard school comedy you might get 3 to 5 characters sometimes more than 10 but Paniponi Dash! has like 20+ plus regular characters and some other extras along the way. And not a single one gets a fair amount of characterization, fails to retain their sparks in a few episodes, or worst a few minutes of screen time. Taking into account the show bother to highlight some of them but don’t have the dedication to make the audience feel invested in them.

For a school comedy, characters don’t really need to be complex or written with layers of personality but they need to have some additional identity aside from their core punchlines. If you are going to use them for more than 1 to 3 episodes at least add a little bit of character. The only character I see that changes a little bit is Rebecca's interaction with her students and that's about it. Characters in this show are defined by their surface-level traits, not personality but particular physical traits that define their one-liner joke. For example, there is a character defined as looking bland and boring, another one describes having a shiny forehead while there is a girl describe for her hairstyle, not joking. Kind of an offensive joke trait if you ask me. And sadly, they never improve upon the status the show gave them. And we spotted the first problem of the show, the characters feel irrelevant. The show never invents new gag to make the characters funny, they continue repeating the joke over and over again in every single episode. It gets boring really fast. Sure, the first 1 or 3 joke getting repeating is ok, but abusively repeating it from episode 1 is pretty overkill.

Another thing I want to highlight is referential humor. I really don’t think this show nailed what makes those references funny in the first place. Instead of making a creative satire of the source material, they just added it there without any meaningful context thus a cheap knock-off parodies. I can forgive if the reference is in small amounts since a lot of school comedy does the same tactic but in Paniponi Dash! it is a constant barrage minute by minute that even the most hardcore of hardcore otakus might find overwhelming. Referential Humor occupies the majority of its episode runs.

For Visual complaints, not so much except for CGI NPC's is just an uncanny valley for me. Sure it's intentional for comedic purposes and it was already done before by other shows. But for me, 2D NPC's has some charm on it on not alienating its setting and characters. And that’s sums up my negative gripe with the show comedy.

Now after bursting the weight in my chest, let's move on to the interesting and funny part of the show that made me believe it’s not a total dumpster fire.

When it comes to jokes and humor that are not related to any outside media source, the show is funny for me. Simple conversations about daily living and personal interests are very engaging to watch. Added with some very enjoyable soundtracks between the comedy and the relaxing moments, the show has a good ambiance in setting the mood. Too bad this good trait of the show is overshadowed by the creator’s ambitious nature in making the show as explosives and chaotic as possible.

When it comes to creativity and animation, I give this show a pass. I can appreciate the sure amount of passion and effort place in the visual presentation of this anime. Combining 2D animation with real-life still images with eye-pleasing color choices. Even on complicated sequences like SciFi machinery and fast-paced action, the animation is very fluent and consistent which some other referential comedies failed to replicate. Studio Shaft also improves upon the art style of the source material making an extra plus in my book.

Final Thoughts

It is obvious by this point Paniponi Dash! sole purpose is delivering a different approach to the ever-developing boom of the cute girls doing cute things sub-genre. It's quite an experimental series since this is the time when Shaft is still trying new things to spice up the visual experience. I admit because of this experimentation the anime visually made an identity for itself at the time. Thought because of this trial and error pace took a toll on the character writing and possible potential the show can produce.

To me, the show can be a potentially good slice of life series since it has the elements. A relatable setting, relaxing atmospheric soundtrack, and probable likable characters if they were flesh enough. But that’s just me wanting the show to be more than just a wacky flavor of the seasoned comedy.

I can’t really blame the show if it decided to focus on the comedy elements since the plot itself is a joke. But it also works against its since the gag is so random and trivial, it gets less impact as the show continues. If the series lasted long enough before the comedic magic grew stale, I would find this show memorable and recommendable but it's 26-episode series that repeats its joke. It gets less and less engaging over time for having a lack of direction to its characters. I’ve lost interest around episode 7 when nothing is actually changing. I found it bad because of that.

When it comes to referential comedy, it’s always a hit or miss to me. But when it does hit, it’s pretty enjoyable. I like when they pay tribute and homage to very classic anime like Gunbuster and other mecha shows but that is not enough to keep my attention.

The very thing that I acknowledge and happy that Ponopani Dash! anime existing is that it gave way for better adaptations of series Shaft created with similar style and cinematic approach. They improve upon the same concept with Hidamari Sketch which one of the best Slice of Life School Comedy the studio ever made and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei that perfected the comedic formula. Especially the usage of the same visual style in the Monogatari franchise. Thus establishing Shaft Animation style as a whole.

Final Scoring:

Characters Mediocre (4/10) Comment: Characters define by 1 line jokes and appearance. Need fleshing out to become memorable.

Story Mediocre (4/10) Comment: There isn't any plot, what you read in the synopsis is basically what you get in the entire show. Comedy is a hit or miss.

Music Good (7/10) Comment: Have a very good set of soundtracks ranging from calm to wacky. In my opinion, OP 2 is the best song "Roulette☆Roulette by by Momotsuki Gakuen Ichinen C Gumi". Very fun to listen to from time to time.

Art Good (7/10) Comment: Experimental and Consistent. It's a pass.

Enjoyment (6/10) Above Average Comment: There are times the show is very fun. There are times it's very boring. Since this is a referential humor-heavy show that is also very dated now from the time I write this review this 2021. Not all folks will enjoy it. I am already familiar with the culture and seen quite a lot of old media references. because I have no problem with most references and get some giggles for it.

Overall (4.9 or 5/10) Ok or Meh School Comedy Series Comment: I am saying it now. The only thing that interests me to watch Paniponi Dash! that serves as a stepping stone in improving Shaft's later works. The premise and appeal alone of this show are not enough for me to actually continue finishing it. To me, I only recommend this anime if they are looking for a wacky comedy made in the early '00s. Other than that they are even better off watching newer comedy shows if they want referential humor they can relate to. To me, this anime is a relic of the past that nobody is obligated to or a must-watch. But if you want to travel back in time to see what is Shaft is all about in 2005, go ahead and try it.

And Always Thanks for Reading

"Rebecca Miyamoto. Born of an American father and a Japanese mother. Graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the youngest graduate in the school's history. She then returned to Japan to become a highschool teacher. However, she was only ten years old at the time."

The success of a little manga-turned-anime you might have heard of called Azumanga Daioh spawned a long chain of imitators, eventually developing into the slice-of-life sub-genre that many of us know colloquially as the "cute girls doing cute things" genre. Pani Poni Dash is one of those shows, and that, coupled with the quote above, ought to be all I really ... need to say about the plot for you to know exactly what this show is like... notice I said ought to be. The show's creators decided that putting a new hat on an old face wasn't enough for them, and the end result defies concise classification, so I won't even try. What's really important is that this show is intended as a comedy, which is one of the most subjective genres in existence. As a consequence, it can be extremely difficult to give such shows an honest and fair critique. The approach I'll take for this review will be to look at what the show tries to achieve, how it attempts to make its audience laugh, and whether those moments "work".

I hinted that this show was rather unique, and that's partially due to the visuals. Production studio SHAFT and director Akiyuki Shinbo are known for blending standard animation with stop-motion photograpy, numerous art shifts, simpler color choices when they're effective... what I'm trying to say is that the look of the show is memorable, and this especially applies to the opening and ending themes. At its most basic the animation doesn't really impress and the moe character designs are pretty generic, but it always gets the job done, and when the show decides to try out a different animation style they consistently up the ante. The show also makes interesting use of the foreground, which adds an extra degree of expressiveness. If I have one bone to pick, it's that the extras are very, very ugly. Considering the extras in each classroom have different designs and they're all ugly, I can only assume it's intentional for... whatever reason. Overall, though, this show looks mostly fine. I've heard some people say that SHAFT's odd visuals are their way of saving money, and there may be a grain of truth to that, but it still leaves a definite impression.

The soundtrack is about what you'd expect from a slice-of-life anime: relaxed or quirky when it needs to be, a bit repetitive but never really jarring. This is in part because there are several episodes during which we're taken out of the typical classroom setting and into several more outlandish scenarios, and in each case the music adapts suitably. It's not particularly memorable music, but it's mostly fine and I guess that's all I have to say about it. "About what you'd expect" and "mostly fine" are also what I'd use to describe the Japanese cast, which is pretty much comprised of typical soft moe-girl voices. Never bad, but they don't impress either. The dub, on the other hand, was handled by the now-infamous ADR director Steven Foster. For those not familiar with his work, Foster has a tendency to take excessive liberties with the material he's given. This includes inserting profanity or mean-spirited comments in odd places, along with an uncomfortable combination of overacting and underacting. All his usual stuff is here, and in particular the voice acting in this show comes off as both high-pitched and wooden. There are several good voice actresses here, so I'm inclined to blame that on Foster. Still, it doesn't really detract from the show, and in a roundabout way it actually sort of matches.

So, even though Pani Poni Dash! is technically a highschool comedy, the show's situational humor has remarkably little to do with actual highschool. Its scenarios range from searching for a lost cowlick to fighting off alien mushroom spores to an archaeological dig to a battle against a giant comet in space, the list goes on. That's just the stuff that happens episode by episode; even the supposed "everyday life" at the school is filled to the brim with hidden rooms, weird animals, and some things I can't even identify, and there's almost always something happening in the background. There's a camera crew that seems to be recording the show (they obviously have no idea what they're doing) and a group of aliens who seem to be monitoring Rebecca and her students from orbit. This show makes enough references to stump even the most hardcore of otaku at least once or twice. The writers put so much effort into filling the school with weird and interesting ideas, in fact, that they completely forget to give any of them punchlines. Those are kind of important, guys.

The biggest problem with the situational humor here is that the writers make the common mistake of assuming that "weird" or "random" automatically equate to "funny", without anything clever or relevant to hold the joke together. This isn't high-class humor, but if it's handled with a good timing it can still work. The problem? Pani Poni Dash! has no restraint. It essentially fails as a comedy for the same reason that Hellsing TV fails as a horror: it can't set up its audience's expectations properly. It's one thing to hit us with something random and out-of-the-blue at the last moment we'd expect it, quite another to shove that kind of thing in our face all the time without ever letting us build up a sense of normalcy. Once the weirdness stops being unexpected, it's not fun anymore. A good portion of the stuff that happens we're expected to laugh at it because it's there and it's weird, and that's pretty much it. When the punchline to a good portion of the jokes is "I don't get it", you know you have a problem. The show will make references simply to make the audience say "wow, that sure is a reference you just made". I mentioned that the show makes frequent art shifts, which are handled competently from a technical standpoint, but the writers never do anything witty with them. If you're going to switch to an RPG-esque visual style, why not make it an episode about videogames? It's not that hard to justify these things.

Even if they don't handle their situational comedy well, some shows get by on good character-based humor, but that's not the case here either. Like many other shows of its ilk, Pani Poni Dash! basically revolves around the antics of a group of schoolgirls, with the added "gimmick" of a kid-teacher who tries with varying levels of success to act like an adult but still shows her childish side. Then there are the students, ranging from Himeko, a hyperactive girl with a hair problem and a verbal tic (maho), to Ichijou, the class representative who constantly straddles the line between evil mastermind and... Osaka, if we're making Azumanga Daioh comparisons. But that's just a tiny portion of the cast, especially if you bring in the students and teachers from other classrooms. With such diversity, this show should have the potential for a wealth of character-based comedy. But then the series completely blows the most important element of character-based comedy: making the characters likable and believable. There's not much character to like, seeing as a good portion of them are essentially comprised of one or two jokes, like the clumsy girl and the cosplay girl. Seeing Becky's rabbit Mesousa fail to pick up an object because he doesn't have fingers gets old really fast. There's also big, muscular, masculine-looking girl named Zula, and a cat who claims he's God, haunts vending machines, and happens to be another Azumanga Daioh reference. Once again, the joke is that they exist and that's it. This kind of half-assed, repetitive writing does not good humor make.

The show never gets its characters to play off of each other in any clever ways, either, often resulting in a reliance on out-of-character moments just to force out a joke. For example, there was one episode where everyone suddenly decided to take advantage of a girl for being "too nice", even the ones who aren't usually smart or mean enough to do such a thing. Worse still, some of the characters can be terribly jarring. Your mileage may vary, but it's hard to find Rebecca's "cuteness" endearing when she's so bitterly cynical all the time, and an eventual look into her backstory reveals that she was incredibly introverted and distant when she went to college, which make her occasional lapses into an innocent child less plausible, not moreso. As a result, most of the time she just comes off as a precocious brat. That's to say nothing about Himeko and her goddamn Maho, which can become positively unbearable. The reason I said the English dub didn't really detract from the experience is because there's really nothing to detract from--the characters already act so unnatural (and in many cases mean-spirited) that it can be hard to tell where the show ends and Foster begins.

Pani Poni Dash! is ultimately a series of missed opportunities. The few (and I mean very few) moments where this show genuinely managed to make me chuckle were when the show took a simple but neat idea and then followed it through to a weird-but-logical conclusion. It's not hard stuff, which makes the show's failure to pull it off all the more frustrating. This series does everything it can to get the audience's attention while failing to do anything to deserve it. It's immature, is what I'm getting at, and loud and obnoxious to boot. Just to clarify, I do not hate this show. At first I hated it, but as I neared the end all my rage had more or less burned out. That's not to say this show is an acquired taste, if anything it's an acquired immunity. By the time I finished, I didn't even care enough to hate this show, it had just become boring, which is the one thing I never thought this attention-seeking brat of a show would become.

This isn't anywhere close to the worst I've seen in an anime; I know there are some people out there who will enjoy this, and it should be easy to tell from the first episode or two whether you're one of those people. Despite that, I can't bring myself to recommend this show in any capacity, not even on a "give it a chance if it's put in front of you" level. What it comes down to is this: all of the shtick in Pani Poni Dash! I've seen done better in other anime, some of which can't even be considered good. That more than anything should speak for where I stand with this series.