Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy

Mwahaha! Now for a review of this weird "WTH is going on here?!?!" series!

Pretty Sammy... In a few words: This is one hell of a weird anime to branch off of the original Tenchi Muyo anime o_O

Story: Is not that good yet it's not that bad. We meet along with 4th grader Sasami who is just your regular elementary school student who randomly gets powers because a certain goddess was either bored or she needed help for one thing or another (OMG... I can't believe I forgot already x.x). Oh well. This is mostly a story about the trials that Pretty Sammy has to go ... through to keep the world safe from the villians. Nothing much to that.

Art: Is pretty good. If you're used to the usual art of the Tenchi Muyo universe, then this is pretty much good. Everyone and everything look just as they should.

Sound: They have most of the music from the OVA series which is a plus for me (being the avid Tenchi fan that I am).

Character: OMG.... You have no clue as to how many times I was like "EW!! 4th GRADER... STOP THAT!" XD! It wasn't like... dirty in a sense... It was just a few of the things that the villains and everyone around that thing where saying to Sammy where like, "COME ON!" XD! But a whole bunch of those things were pretty hilariously stupid.

Enjoyment: As said above: this series is hilariously stupid. I enjoyed it a lot (although, it scared the crap out of my cousin and it has forever tainted the way she sees Sasami ^^; ). The old gang is still here... Although it's kinda weird seeing how Mihoshi and Kiyone may have switched places (mind-wise) and how Ayeka and Sasami's mom have a tendency to be crying one minute and laughing their heads off in a psychotic episode thanks to that crying O_o;

Overall, this series wasn't either bad nor good. It was just something that I had been DYING to watch after I had completed watching the OVA and Universe (+movies). It was nice to hear everyone's voices again and to watch something of the series I love so much (that was new to me) after so many years.

Sasami takes up the mantle of a magical girl and fights alongside Ryou-Ouki to help Tsunami become queen of a magical kingdom.
Sounds random, but if done right it works really well.

Sadly the first film is not done right.
Films 2 and 3 are actually pretty good, though the third one suffers from the same problems as the first.

The biggest issue I have is that too much time is spent on Ryoko and Ayeka chasing Tenchi, which doesn't add anything to the plot. On the contrary, it draws attention from it and makes it seem unfocused and all over the place. That probably also alienates viewers not ... familiar with the main series (Tenchi Muyou!).

Since the first film has a similar plot to the 1996 TV show "Magical Project S" (which does it right), I recommend watching the series instead.
The other two films on the other hand are a must watch. Film 2 even starts off with a recap, making watching the first one unnecessary.

Pretty Sammy is a fun show if you enjoy things that are so bad that they're good. I couldn't find the original, so i watched the dub version, which I can only compare to Nyan Neko Sugar Girls in terms of voice acting quality.

In the first episode, there are two men who's voices are so comically horrendous it circles back to being enjoyable. Misao's voice actress seems to have recorded her lines in a separate room from the mic, it's so quiet. Sasami's lines are much louder, which makes the scenes where they talk together almost unbearable.

The art is pretty good, if a little stiff ... at times, though this is an older show so it makes sense. There aren't any moments where its particularly egregious to look at, though there aren't any moments where it looks stunning.

The characters can be a little grating after a while, especially ryoko and ayeka

I enjoyed the show, though I definitely don't think I would recommend it to anyone.