Ranked #560

Potemayo

Title: Potemayo

Manga, Anime: Potemayo was originally a four-panel comic strip that began running in the four-panel magazine Moeyon in 2004, but made a move to Comic High! in 2005, and was done by Haruka Ogataya. It is still currently running, and two collected volumes are out in Japan. It has yet to be licensed Stateside.

The manga adaptation was done by JC Staff (well-known for its work on Excel Saga and Revolutionary Girl Utena) and directed by Takeshi Ikehata (well-known for directing Genkishen). It ran on Japanese TV from July 6th to September 21st of 2007, and has yet to be licensed Stateside.

Story: Ah, how to attempt to describe Potemayo?

Well, one morning, a middle school boy Sunao Moriyama is getting breakfast, and opens his refrigerator door to find a chibi girl with pink and yellow hair, cat ears, and a rabbit tail, who can't say anything other than "Honi!", and is cuteness personified. He decides to adopt it, and names her Potemayo. Later in the day, while he's at school, his refrigerator spawns another chibi girl, this one with purple hair, a scythe, and hair clips that shoot laser beams. She has a tendency to slice things apart with her scythe, and then put them back together with duct tape. She ends up getting adopted by one of Moriyama's classmates, Kyou, who gives her treats and dubs her Guchuko, and she shows her thanks by leaving dead carcasses of animals on the girl's desk.

The series more or less follows the daily life of Sunao and Potemayo, and Guchuko and Kyou, along with their classmates.

This series can best be summed up as CUTE and CRACK. The episodes are fifteen minutes each and, for the most part, standalones, with no real continuing plot elements (except towards the end for a few episodes).

It's really hard to describe Potemayo's humor, except that it's hilarious, and made of WIN. It's something you have to see for yourself to understand, really. This was a great pick-me-up during finals week, and had me laughing out loud quite a lot, which caused my roommate to look at me funny. Definitely watch this if you're looking for a good laugh, or for simple, pure randomness.

Art: Potemayo's art is really neat. JC Staff uses the gradient shading that we saw in Red Garden to great effect, and the backgrounds are done in watercolor, and actually look quite nice. And it goes without saying that the character designs are excellent. I dare you to look at Potemayo or Guchuko and not go, "D'AWW!".

Music: The background music for this is fairly standard for a comedy series, and doesn't stand out all that much. It's not miserable, though. Same goes for the ED. The OP is absolutely adorable and singable, though, and is quickly climbing the play count list on my iPod.

Seiyuu: I applaud Potemayo and Guchuko's seiyuu (Kana Hanazawa and Ayumi Tsuji); they managed to get the full range of emotions and convey their characters' feelings when the range of their lines is, at most, two or three words. And the other seiyuu do an excellent job as well.

Length: Potemayo clocks in at twelve episodes (which, with two fifteen-minute episodes per full half-hour episode, comes out to twenty-four episodes). This ends up being perfect, as if they had pushed this any farther, it probably would've started to get stale.

Specials: To date, Potemayo has three special episodes, which are the normal length. They succeed in situations that are even crackier than they were in the series, though they probably could've fit these episodes in at some point in the series if they really wanted to. Ah, well, though.

Overall: A cute and cracky pick-me-up with a neat art style. Watch this. NOW.

Story: 8/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 8/10
Specials: 8/10

Overall: 51/60; 85% (B ) read more

If you're looking for something unique and original Go watch this show. When I say original and unique i dont mean artsy or psycologically significant. Its just a strangely funny and entertaing show. Most anybody can really appreciate the humor in this show.

Story:
It is a Slice of life, so most of the story is just the day to day events of a boy, his classmates, and his weird little chibi monster thing.

Art:
The art works well with the story and has a nice watercolor look to it. The design of Potemayo and Guchiko are mind numbingly cute.

Sound:
No complaints. I thought Potemayo's voice was especially well done and All the character voices match extremely well. Laser beam sounds were also very cool, you'll understand the reference within the first episode.

Characters:
All of the characters were great. Some were great in a very disgusting and creepy way, ie. Mudō Kirihara. Potemayo is extremely cute and insane. All the characters worked well and i found none of them to be unnecessary. A big cast with some really memorable characters.

Enjoyment:
Hell of a lot of enjoyment.

Conclusion:
If you took the time to read this review or even skim it, you have plenty of time to at least try the first episode. This anime will win you over with just the first episode. The best opinion is your own so dont hesitate yo try it out. read more