Puni Puni☆Poemii

Somewhat standalone spinoff of Excel Saga. It has the same director and overall style of humor.

Compare to Excel Saga insanity went all the way to the new heights. At timed it made even me somewhat uncomfortable, may be because protagonist girl is clearly underage.

However it is a very fun show, that fans of the original can enjoy. Fans of Gintama and Nichijou as well.

As far as I remember you do not need to watch Excel Saga to understand what is going on. However it is probably best if you do watch it first.

This show parodies magical girl genre as well as tentacles sex ... in hentai. It also touches on BDSM and sexuality generally. Stuff that became more explicit as anime developed.

In some ways this show was a pioneer of the future trends. Much like Space Capitan Herlock.

Overall I can recommend it to all fans of comedy as well as to people interested in history of anime.

Ah, Puni Puni Poemii, the disjointed, meta-referential mess that's banned in New Zealand and exists as a fictional anime within the world of another anime while directly referencing that anime. In short, this is a bizarre title, and while I recognize its ambitious attempt at scorched earth, nothing-is-sacred genre satire, I feel like it gets lost in the weeds of its own hyperactivity and self-indulgence, robbing it of its cultural relevance as anything other than an oddity. Beginning with the story, well, there's not much to speak of. It is everything and nothing all at once, reduced to a stream of consciousness which flows from ... the director himself, who features as a character in the anime, and encompasses his thoughts and feelings on the medium in which he works. The premise is that it's a total parody of your typical magical girl anime, with a nonexistent plot thinly connecting the scattered, schizoidal events that make up this title. I will say that it does deliver a pretty all-encompassing satirical analysis of the magical girl genre, nailing every trope and reducing it down to its component parts in such a way that makes them impossible to ignore, but its wreathed by so much utter nonsense that it feels like it drowns out that aspect almost completely.

The art is typical for the era, meeting all basic standards of quality, but it is notable for its depiction of the bizarre in unique and creative ways, as well as imitating other styles in the interest of pulling outside tropes into the wider satire as well.

The sound is an odd beast, as while it technically meets all the basic standards of quality for the time, the voice work is intentionally so rapid and incomprehensible that if you're watching it subbed, like I did, frequent use of the pause button is absolutely necessary if you care to understand everything that's being said.

The characters float freely and unmoored by their connection either to reality or each other, tossed around by the tumultuous story like shrimp in a roiling sea. It's not really about any of them, so it doesn't make sense to choose favorites, as they're all quite strange. Between the hyperactive and titular Poemii, the obsessive Futaba, and the lecherous alien K, you'd be hard pressed to find a cast quite like this one in other titles. Overall, Puni Puni Poemii is a real trip of an anime that zooms by at a mile a minute, completely unapologetic for its speed, disjointedness, or overall perversion. In short, it is a good way to visualize what your grandpa who's never watched anime thinks all of those Japanese cartoons. Puni Puni Poemii has some value as a powerful and cutting-edge parody of the magical girl genre, and indeed the tropes of anime as an entire medium, which is doubly impressive for doing so very early, in 2001, before such deconstruction was common. Though, it must be said that it gets lost in its own absurdity, and that alone can make it hard to watch at times. At the end of the day it's up to you just how much trouble you'd be willing to go through to experience a robust commentary on anime itself.

‘Puni Puni Poemy’ is cocaine made anime.

When this anime came out in 2001, the anime magazine that I bought every month had this OVA as their cover story. The writer praised the show’s dark humor, goofball characters and potshots at the magical girl genre. Given how dark comedies were some of my favorite TV shows (and still are), I promised myself that I would watch it whenever I got the chance. Two decades later, and that moment has finally arrived…

…And boy do I regret it.

I admit it. I have not watched ‘Excel Saga’ yet, but never once did I feel lost. Apparently, two characters ... from the original show got married and had a child – Poemi – but the OVA stands on its own.

If there were a main reason to laud the show, it would be that it gives zero fucks about being transgressive. It goes all the way with its shock humor and rips into magical girl shows with deranged glee. After all, the opening scene is Poemi beating up Sailor Moon and Utena. It parodies Star Wars, Evangelion, Dragon Ball, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, etc. Tropes are dissected left and right. Nothing is sacred.

Some jokes did land for me and had that dark streak that I was expecting. For instance, one of the defenders of Earth had the super-power of blowing cherry blossom petals at her enemies... She gets easily destroyed by the villain’s laser beam. Another scene has Poemi seeing that the enemy had crucified her loved ones. She tearfully runs towards them…and crashes straight into one of the crucifixes, toppling the whole thing over. Good stuff.

I also thought that the show breaking the fourth wall was funny too. There’s an obligatory bath scene with multiple busty women, which Poemi takes this as a cue to smugly turn to the camera and say that the viewer must be enjoying this. She even refers to herself by the name of her voice actress: Kobayashi. The anime’s coy winks at the watcher and its ability to poke fun at itself were quite fun.

However, more often than not, ‘Puni Puni Poemy’ is painfully annoying. A thousand visual gags flash on the screen per minute and does not let up. They failed to elicit even the most strained grin from me. The show likes to throw everything at the viewer and see what sticks. No, I did not care for those three smiling humanoid blobs. That couple doing it doggy-style in the background got old fast. And if I see that alien show off its deflated, hairy balls at the screen again, I’m going to hurl.

Other times, the anime is offensive just for the sake of being as offensive as possible. There were too many jokes that left a foul taste in my mouth. Earlier in my review, I commended the show for being bold. I stand by my words. In my opinion, if properly executed, there is no topic that is off-limits for comedy. Emphasis on ‘properly executed’. Apparently, comedic punchlines were a mystery to the writers. A news anchor reports the news of an attack on the city, when her boss suddenly grabs and pulls her off-screen to rape her. She screams ‘no’, ‘not now’, ‘not here,’ multiple times. Apparently, this was comedy gold for director Shinichi Watanabe, because this gag was used twice in one episode. It is very tricky to make a rape joke actually work, and this was a horrible attempt. If tasteless jokes about BDSM, sexual assault, child molestation, tentacle porn and the like makes you uncomfortable, run for the hills.

Poemi is the standout character here. She is energetic, positive, social, and dumb as a doorbell. Her jaw-dropping stupidity and repeated failures at becoming a voice actress made her the perfect butt of the joke. Too bad she made me want to pour battery acid down my ears. The Flash and Road Runner must have had a love child, because I have never seen a character with that much enthusiasm before. She makes shounen heroes look lifeless by comparison. Poemi’s best friend, Futaba, is the only other character’s name I can remember. She is hopelessly obsessed with Poemi and her love-struck antics are creepily amusing. The rest of the cast, like Futaba’s sisters, are barely worth mentioning. Each one has a superficial defining trait and that’s it. There’s a dominatrix, a child psychic, a well-endowed woman, a girl who wants a bigger chest, and that’s all I can recall. And the less said about the scrotum-twirling villains, the better.

Everyone is animated as if physics were an outdated science, but it fits the frenetic pace of the anime. Limbs are apparently made out of spaghetti in this universe. Characters are colorful and eye-popping, and Poemi’s magical girl design is straight fire. Backgrounds are as plain as can be, but…no one watches this for the stellar art.

Kudos to Poemi’s voice actress, Yumiko Kobayashi. Not only does she have lungs of steel for voicing a character that never shuts up, sings the opening and ending songs, but she herself dances in this OVA! Girl deserves a raise.

Recommended only to people who like comedy that is random, perverted, AND dark. All three. Otherwise, don’t bother.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go take some Advil for this headache.