Oh! Super Milk-chan

This is one of my all time favorite animes. I prefer the Japanese language and the direct translated English dub that aired on Adult Swim. The ADV Americanized version is awful and it makes the show lose it's charm.

I didn't understand all of the jokes at first since most of them referred to Japanese culture and personalities but it's still very enjoyable. The anime is calm yet very zany. By that I mean it's weird but it's not a loud anime. A lot of weird stuff happens for no reason and I think that's what I enjoy most. There is virtually no story. Everything just ... happens as it happens. The characters are memorable, the jokes are funny, the voice acting for both dubs is great and they art is very simple and pleasing and colorful.

I know a lot of people don't like this anime but it's one of those hit or miss shows. You either like it or you don't. After about two episodes you'll know whether this is a show for you. It all depends on what you perceive as funny. If you like random humor and non sequiturs this is definitely an anime you should check out. Personally I love it.

Anime is a deep diverse pool; you got your high-octane Shonen action animes, your slice-of-life smooth vibe animes, then you got this kind of category; animes that come from bizarro world. Nonsensical stories that take place in a uniquely weird yet special world that exists like no other in any other anime, and feature characters with the oddest designs, backstories, powers etc.

You got stuff like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo , FLCL, and the one, in particular, I'm talking about...Super Milk Chan.

Airing on Adult Swim back in 2003 but I never caught it I was only 4 years old. Super Milk Chan follows the story ... of a foul-mouthed 5-year-old girl, her robot server companion, and her pet caterpillar thing, as they go on various missions assigned to them by the president of this strange science fiction world, all while she tries to avoid paying the rent at the hands of her turnip looking, flamboyant landlord. When they're not doing that, they're watching various weird TV shows or any random activity, oh and I didn't even mention the ant family that lives underground under the house of our lead character.

That is a very simplified version of the overall story of this show because even the episode titles appear to be complete nonsense until you watch the titular episode and realize about halfway through what it's actually about.

Do you know how Fairly Oddparents had unique running jokes for one episode? Well, this series has running jokes throughout the whole series, so much so that there are even repeated sequences of dialogue and character introductions that go along with how the story is fleshed out.

While it looks like goofy nonsense at face value the series, the series does have a hidden edge to it, primarily in the dialogue. Whether it's Milk bursting out - calling people "dumbass" in a fit of annoyance - or a reoccurring robot dog that helps on leads on their journeys who has the foulest mouth out of anyone as he gets into frequent pissing contests with Milk's robot helper named Tetsuko.

Now this series does have something unique about it, it has 2 English dubs; the first one is a straightforward translation, and in that dub there are these live-action segments intercut in the commercial breaks, usually, they take the form of some off the cuff rant as we see footage of Japanese people on the streets doing whatever, I flat out skipped these bits cause they were just not connecting with me at all, I just wanted to get back to the animation! Then there is an "Americanized dub", which features more cursing and pop culture references dropped by the characters and replaces the live-action Japanese segments with these skits featuring the cast and crew of ADV films who did the dubbing on this series.

So if you're a fan of Widget Series (as called so by TVtropes), then by all means give this a shot.

Overview:

Back in the early 2000s when anime actually still aired on American TV, the Adult Swim program block on Cartoon Network was by far the most succesful in terms of viewer ratings for anime. Other channels like Syfy tried, but weren't able to really find an audience. Adult Swim for the most part stuck with very generic and safe shonen series like Naruto, Inuyasha, Code Geass, and other shows that they knew had no chance of failing. If you wonder why Adult Swim never went further out on a limb and tried airing less conventional anime like Spice and Wolf or Mushishi. The answer is ... that they tried...once....with a bizarre title called Super Milk Chan. This show bombed so hard that Adult Swim got even more conservative and although they love to air random American cartoons like Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Tim and Eric, they never again tried with an anime that wasn't extremely mainstream (at least as much as anime can be mainstream in the US). This is a review of that bomb of bombs (besides Reign the Conquerer, but I already reviewed that putrid piece of shit).

Plot: 3/10

The show is about a preschool aged girl that is a superhero and answers calls from an inept mayor to save the day. She was created in a laboratory by a mad scientist called Dr. Eyepatch. This was the year 1998 and earlier that year an American cartoon called The Powerpuff Girls had become rather popular in Japan. Milk Chan stole the plot of that show, but rather than being a direct parody/spoof, it relied on random pop culture references like Family Guy and bizarre humor that veers between absurdist humor ala Aqua teen and anti-humor ala Tim and Eric. Somewhat understandably, Cartoon Network figured they couldn't go wrong with a comedy that was a smash hit in Japan, and essentially followed the formula and style of many American cartoons. The problem with this is that pop culture references for country A aren't funny to country B that doesn't understand the references. Another problem is that Adult Swim had random American cartoons on Sunday and anime on Saturday, but very few people were fans of both anime and the American shows like Tim and Eric or Aqua Teen. People were usually either a Saturday viewer or a Sunday viewer. This left Milk Chan with a very small target audience of people that both liked anime and extremely random humor, and didn't mind that 1/2 the jokes were going to be lost on them.
Adult Swim tried salvaging their investment by redubbing the show again to feature American pop culture references, but it didn't do any better.

The art is intentionally very childish and tries to be humorous, but many viewers complained about the ultra bright color palate saying it hurt their eyes. The music...is very Japanese. That's about all I have to say about it.

Overall: 4/10

This is NOT a good show by any means. However, it isn't actually as bad as many on Adult Swim message boards in the early 2000s made it out to be. I at least laughed a few times, which is more than I can say for Panty Stalking and Garterbelt, and that piece of shit actually has fans somehow!!! I think if Milk Chan had been made by Gainax and aired in the US maybe 2 or 3 years later, the Gainax fanboys would have eaten it up. It is funnier and much more cleverly written than Panty and Stalking afterall!