Customer Reviews

Paniponi Dash, Vol. 1: Lethal Lesson

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Paniponi Dash is a weird comedy series. It follows in the footsteps of shows like Excel Saga and Super Milk-Chan, alternating between hilarious and bizarre. Sometimes within a single scene. It also borrows heavily from Azumanga Daioh, as its main characters are a wacky teacher and 6 high school girls. The premise- Rebecca Miyamoto is a brilliant MIT grad (with an American father and Japanese mother) who has returned to Japan to be a teacher. Except that she's 10 years old. Obviously, this setup raises a lot of questions that you shouldn't bother asking. No, really, don't worry about why she's a teacher when she graduated from an engineering school or whom she lives with or where her parents are, because the show isn't concerned with details like that. It's just here for the comedy and the weirdness.

The first episode spends most of its time wondering where Ms. Miyamoto is. The students in the classroom are bored and speculating all about her, while Rebecca is late and busy getting lost. She and her pet talking bunny, the perpetually sad Mesousa, are stuck in a national forest, where they come upon a vending machine. The vending machine is full of warm drinks, which confuses them until the machine opens up while Rebecca's back is turned. Inside is a human-sized, very simply drawn cat who offers Mesousa some more drinks that have been warmed by his body heat. Mesousa freaks out. The cat also claims to be God and continually pops up in vending machines and elsewhere to torment Mesousa as the show goes on. Finally, Rebecca arrives at school, only to find out that the students have decided to call her "Becky." And then they reduce her to tears and she has to go hide behind the window drapes. This happens a lot in the series, and the rest of the characters constantly have to figure out how to coax her out..

The bulk of the first volume takes place in the school. The second episode is mostly about Becky's refusal to learn her students names, which leads to her nicknaming the kids of the main cast (the rest of the students in the class all look exactly the same, they don't move, and their colors are washed out compared to everything else in the show). But she names one of them "Boring Girl" because of her lack of distinguishing features, and has to spend the rest of the episode trying to get her from sulking in a corner. And on it goes. There's also a camping episode and a slumber party/hot springs episode in this volume, both of which are hugely fun.

This show is really a blast. There are a lot of non-sequiturs, as the chalkboard in the classroom is constantly changing and filled with weird statements, and lots of random stuff appears in the background and other places on the screen where the action isn't happening. ADV is helpfully included a fully loaded Vid-Notes feature on this, which helped a lot with their last two reference-laden, wacky animes- Excel Saga and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. So a lot of the stuff that just seemed bizarre the first time around would be explained when seen a second time with the pop-up Vid-Notes turned on. I particularly liked the scene-changing Behoimi wipe, a quick picture of a magical girl in full costume that has nothing to do with the show itself. Except that Magical Girl Behoimi is a student in the classroom next door.

The dubbing is really well done. I'm sure purists will be put off by the colloquial American the girls speak, but I think it works for the tone of this show. Hilary Haag brings her high-pitched voice to the role of Becky, and does a pretty good job. Except that she sounds almost exactly like Tara Strong's Toot Braunstein character on Comedy Central's Drawn Together. That bugged me until I figured out the resemblance somewhere around the 4th episode. Anyway, this looks like it will be a very fun show, and I recommend it to fans of wigged-out anime. It might be a little extreme if you aren't as familiar with anime in general, but that's why ADV's Vid-Notes feature is so helpful.

you must eat it! I honestly haven't enjoyed an anime this much in a long while. This is basically a slice of life anime that follows an eleven year old genius who becomes a school teacher in Japan, there's no real story to it but similar to Azumanga Daioh and as pointed out by the director the series is all about the characters they have created in this world. The music is fantastic, the animation is excellent, the characters are spectacular, and Rebecca is just adorable!

The only people I can see not enjoying this are anime fans who are solely interested in mecha/action anime. Otherwise if you have a pulse you need to check this out.

I just want to let you know that this anime shouldn't be compared to Excel Saga, it was sooo annoying because you couldn't understand WTH Excel was saying and don't forget that annoying dog! Yes, it was funny but not THAT funny.

Pani Poni Dash is huge phenomenon in Japan, it combines the comedy of Cromartie High School, Puni Puni Poemy & Galaxy Angel. The central storyline revolves around the new 11 year-old teacher of Peach Moon Academy and her students ... I mean the weirdos that go to school.

There are parodies of famous movies like Casa Blanca, Reservoir Dogs, Beetlejuice, The Ring, Friday the 13th, Batman returns to name just a few, most of them are represented with characters in the background, pictures or casual conversation between the main characters. Also reference of characters from other animes, like when Rebecca pulls Himeko's ahoge out and then a thick pink cloud comes out from Himeko's head, this act represents Majin-Boo from Dragon Ball Z.

The animation is fluent with vivid colors ( sometimes is too bright though ), excellent character design, the English version has a top-notch cast of voice overs, Sasha Paysinger ( Nanjo ) is great, I think the girl that gives the voice for Rei could work a little more on her character ( she sounds too bored ), the Japanese track is as always perfect.

So, if you're into animes with nonsense comedy then you can not skip this one, you won't be disappointed.

Fans of manga and animae will relish PANIPONI DASH, a 5-episode comedy based on the antics of a 10th grade class - and their 11-year-old teacher, an MIT grad who faces her biggest challenge managing a classroom. From alien watchers to a stuffed bunny friend, Becky Miyamoto has her hands full in this zany plot which will attract all ages.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Rebecca Miyamoto looks like a cute little 11-year old. But just look closely. She's an 11-year-old MIT grad teaching high school. That's what Pani Poni Dash is about. I gotta say it's a good show. Dude, just look at the teacher. She is only 11 years old which makes it so funny. The students are funny too. There's the heather who yells @ Becky all the time, the spaz who talks too fast and likes to use the word mahou, the brainiac, the disturbingly weird class rep, the old dude who is a teacher, and the depressed bunny who just wants soda. But his cute widdle arms just can't reach the coin slot, so he has to resort to this...cat that says he's god and he lives in a soda machine. This is crazy comedy at its finest!
Forgot to say. Amazon doesn't have a rating for PPD. The DVD is rated TV-PG. I say at least ten and up for a liberal-minded individual while thirteen and up for a conservative minded one for: violence in a comedic sense, bad language like a, h, and d words along with bleeped out uses of the F-bomb and a bird flippage, and some suggestive themes. 13+ is fine. Well, watch PPD and enjoy!

"Alien captain, I highly recommend this," says the alien subordinate.

"Don't worry, I'm God. Want a soda? It's warmed by my body heat..." says the giant cat in the vending machine to the sad pet rabbit Mesousa.

This is all after the very first scene is a reference to "Planet of the Apes".....

Truly remarkable.

Insane. Absolutely, positively, insane. It's very good, too.

Maho?

It's kind of like Azomanga Daioh on crack...

The only sad thing is that I have to wait over a month for the next disc to come out....

As a hint, don't eat the sweet rice dumplings in the very first episode. (poor Mesousa).

This is one of the cutest anime series I have seen and yes I do find it funny. Although I do enjoy some of the more action packed series it's a nice departure from the all too common themes of long drawn out battle scenes or stories surrounding one guy in the midst of a group of oversexed and underdressed teenage girls. the humor of this show is heavily based in allusion to japanese culture and other popular anime shows...which explains a lot of the "nonsensical" nature to which a lot of viewers refer...because from what I've seen every oddball moment is explained with a reference to another anime series or japanese television show..which to me makes the show one of the most intersting that I have seen...The subtitles vary greatly depending on which version you watch but there are some versions that go more into detail. Yes some of the humor is repetitive but you can't have it all and I think this anime more than makes up for that in other ways.

DISCLAIMER: Anyone watching "Paniponi Dash, Vol. 1: Lethal Lesson" should first dispense with any logic, reason, or rational thought. This anime can only be watched if the viewer can immediately accept any kind of bizarre occurrence without their brain exploding in a big cartoony pink cloud. This is like the Japanese schoolgirl version of Monty Python.

Rebecca Miyamoto is a ten-year-old genius who just graduated from MIT, and has a job as a high school teacher in Japan. Unfortunately, Rebecca's first days in Class 1-C do not go smoothly, since the class is dazzled by her amazing cuteness and youth. And her depressed stuffed bunny Mesousa has his own problems involving a creepy cat in a vending machine who claims to be God.

Also, saucer-headed aliens have selected Rebecca to represent the entire human species. No, I'm not kidding.

The stories: a student becomes depressed and hides in the rabbit hutch when Rebecca calls her "boring," since she won't bother to learn her students' names. Then Rebecca rips out hyperactive Himeko's cowlick, and must synthesize a replacement after the aliens steal it. Class 1-C goes to stay at a hot spring to study for an upcoming test, but little studying is actually done. And finally, a class camping trip becomes even weirder when the class encounters hangovers, UFOs and a giant salamander (kero).

There is a lot of weird anime in the world -- think "Nerima Daikon Brothers," "FLCL," "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi," just to mention a few. But honestly, "Paniponi Dash" is easily the weirdest. It's a relentless barrage of insane gags and bizarre plots involving aliens, cowlicks, fairies, clones, a depressed stuffed bunny, soda pop cans, salamanders and a robot.

Honestly, this whole series is like watching a typical school-based anime series, except tripping on acid -- you may randomly see a mole with a pickax in the background, or a scene devoted to an elderly teacher claiming to be stomachache medicine.

And eventually, cognitive dissonance sets in and you just go with it. There's lots of slapstick, yelling, mad science ("I'm the magical cowlick fairy!" "It's always SOMETHING..."), satire (depressed bunny Mesousa is apparently a spoof of "cute mascots"), alarming students and sudden explosions. It's a colorful, goofy experience, and honestly it's impossible to tell what direction any story will go.

Rebecca is a fun protagonist -- she's smarter than the rest of the cast put together, but she's still only ten years old (and prone to crying and hiding behind the curtains). The other characters are more typical, but with the quirk cranked up to 11 -- the shiny-foreheaded bookworm, the hyperactive annoyance, the "boring" girl, the crazy old man, the terrifyingly calm class rep, and the cute mascot who needs antidepressants. And that's only a few. The cast is vast and weird.

"Paniponi Dash, Vol. 1: Lethal Lesson" is a delightfully whacked-out, cracked-out experience that plays out like a hallucination... only more fun, and less damaging to your sanity. And this is only the beginning.

If you like Japanese humor, you will love "Pani Poni Dash." It is a genuine crackpot comedy, equaled only by "Sergeant Frog," "Panda-Z", and "Excel Saga." Some viewers don't like the helter-skelter plot -- hmm? You say it doesn't *have* a plot? True... instead, PPD weaves each episode around a different theme, like cleaning the swimming pool, camping out with the kappas and their guided missiles, helping Becky the 11-year old teacher set up her laboratory, intercut with sleepy aliens in a flying saucer, a depressed rabbit, a cat-god who lives in a vending machine, and every now and then a completely different story being told in the lower part of the screen. If you want giant robots like Gundam, or horror animation like "Hellsing," or romances like "Maison Ikkoku," well, that's good, because they're all parodied at some point during PPD.

But something else is going on in PPD too. Underneath the crazy quilt of images are memories of all the things that actually happened in high school, like the time this nutcase kid wanted to make a real, working cannon in machine shop. I remember *that* a lot better than I remember what I *learned* in high school. Woven together with an elegance and flair for avant-garde animation that puts "Mind Game" to shame, PPD is what really and actually happened, for example, when Becky the teacher almost drowned in the swimming pool because some kid let the air out of the inflated raft she was sitting on. History is what we remember.

So PPD is nostalgic as well as funny. No one likes the depressed rabbit, and we end up rooting for the apprentice demon girl who plants a bomb in its head. We *never* liked that depressed rabbit. We still don't. PPD doesn't have the darkness or despair of "Q-ko-chan" - a manga that also spins together incoherent memories. It's more summery and brighter. Memories swirl kaleidoscopically in PPD, forming patterns of things that couldn't have happened, like the kappas polishing one of their guided missiles in the forest. I mean, they weren't really kappas, were they? Kappas are creatures from Japanese folklore who live in lakes and rivers. They don't really exist... do they? Are you sure?

In PPD, things that never happened but which we remember anyway become real. The result is an immensely clever, very funny story of six girls and their lives, especially the parts that didn't happen. I mean, it didn't *really* happen, did it?

Very highly recommended.

How can a show that rolls UFO Ultramaiden, Excel Saga, and Azumanga Daioh into one be so unfunny? Don't get me wrong, I like off the wall parodies, but comedy needs a backdrop of reality to work against. This show hangs on the premise of 10 year old girl teaching high school class. Also she has a suicidal pet bunny, there are bad star trek parodies, most of the class act like they are in need a double dose of Ritalin, there is a cat that hides in soda machines & claims to be god...... people do things with no explation, things happen for no know cause, the script is mainly a string of one-liners. Even with the explaining subtitles this is a disjointed mess that goes nowhere