Aug 28, 2013
So, Ai Mai Mi, a show about three schoolgirls, um, nope that's pretty much it. This show is a comedy and MUCH more importantly a slice of life centered around these schoolgirls and what they do on a daily basis (well, onscreen anyway). So how does it stack up?
Here is an overview:
Read below to find out the reason for this overview
Story - there is none, and that's why this show succeeds in matching the genres specified
Sound - fit for purpose, comical and not overdone
Art - shakey character design, brilliant still life and scenery
Character - couldn't be pulled off better, funny and again, fit
...
for the show
Enjoyment - don't expect a story like most people have done, watch "for the lulz"
OVERALL - 8
My experience of this show was a positive one in all fairness. Mostly because I love to laugh, I like a good comedy ( I do like many other things in anime too by the way) and this show does most things right to pull off a successful comedy from comical, childish artwork to phenomenal character production.
Worth watching, but you must go into the show not expecting a story, because your experience will probably be quite negative if you do
STORY - N/A
Now the reason I am not giving this aspect a score is because there is no story, none at all. If you read the genre specifics you would know that "slice of life" is there. Three examples of slice of life anime that also don't have much of a story are quite big ones in my opinion: Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh and Nichijou. Yes, I know, they do follow a story about progressing through school, but in reality, all three don't have a "set-in-stone", fully fledged story to follow, each episode is centered around antics that the characters get up to, and that's exactly what you will find with Ai Mai Mi (albeit without the idea of progressing through school life). This is why I strongly suggest you don't pay attention to any sort of story as it will ruin your experience with watching this show.
SOUND - 8
The sound is very profound in this show, especially when it comes to the sound effects, which are prominent because this is a comedy. Sound is one of the lesser considered whilst making a show in general, let alone a comedy, but when the sound blends together well with all the other aspects (e.g. character and art) then it really adds to experience of the show, which is why I rate it so highly here, the sounds are there to highlight the more comical area of the show, and they are pulled off very well in Ai Mai Mi.
ART - 8
Now the only reason I've docked points for this part is due to the character design. The characters are well designed, don't get me wrong here, it probably just me being incredibly nit-picky here, but I think with a bit more attention to small detail, the character design could be great, however my argument against myself here would be that, again, it is a comedy show. The part where this show really does score well, is the scenery and the still life. This is where Seven and Dream Creation outdid themselves. The art style is meant for a comedy show so we can see why there is this childish, cartoony feel to the still life (a good example is in episode 3 during time travel) and for me, that's what scores well.
CHARACTER - 9
This is where Ai Mai Mi scores brilliantly. Again, I will refer you back to the fact this is a comedy show, so you will expect lot's of childish art and childish voice acting to go with our three main characters here. Since this is a comedy, slice of life, you can probably get through the entire series without really developing the characters much past episode 1. However the producers thought against this and kept giving you insight to the characters as well as used them as good comedy material. With each episode you gain (not much at all, but) some insight to each of our three main females, and that is all you really need for a series who's total running time adds up to just less that 2 normal episodes.
ENJOYMENT - 9
The best way to watch this is to deffinetely heed my advice and not look out for any specific plot. If you do this, your viewing experience will be ruined as you wont find anything of plot value. Another great way to watch this, is to literally watch it "for the lulz" since this show is just supposed to be this messy ball of comedy. Since this is what I did, I enjoyed it quite a lot. This will probably be the sole factor on what you base your score upon, hence why you can understand that this shows average is less than 6, because it wasn't watched properly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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