Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gootaman: Gootaman Tanjou-hen

I went into my viewing of this show with a morbid fascination about how epically bad this anime was going to be. The title, Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman called to me and I knew I must see this. A girl in a sumo belt using her butt to attack evil? I love you Japan.

For the sake of brevity I am could to refer to this series as just Gautaman. The story is as basic as they come. Mari is a devout Christian and a new student to a private school that caters to many different faiths. Unfortunately for her it is also home to an evil cult known as Black Buddha. After her new friend and roommate is captured by the cult to be brainwashed into becoming a worshiper, Mari is given the power of Gautaman to save her. Much to her shame and the delight of everyone else her costume involved a lot of skimpy clothing topped off with a sumo belt that exposes her backside. Stay with me here. Yes its one of if not the most completely ridiculous situations I have ever seen but the thing that this show does so right is that it knows it’s ridiculous, and that’s the whole point.

The parody is quite good, it takes aim at everything from Japanese pop culture to Star Wars. The Star Wars references were very amusing since I was such a fan of it growing up. Having a guy in a sumo suit with a Darth Vader mask on was almost too much to bear. There is a lot of echii comedy mixed in as well but really it is pretty tame from what I was expecting. Besides a few boobs and some sexual humor it’s fairly clean. The main problem people are likely to have is that a good majority of the parody is going to be lost on the current generation. Even something like Star Wars is 30 years old now, and almost everyone is going to not know any of the 70s J-Pop singers or manga writers. Another issue is that it doesn’t end. After doing a little research on this title there seems to be a sequel that will finish things up. The comedy is good enough to carry it that honestly I didn’t really care about that.

There isn’t any real depth to any of the characters which is really to be expected for something this short. That doesn’t mean that they weren’t enjoyable though. Mari and Saori were both charming and likable as the main protagonists. The supporting cast and villains are equally as shallow and mainly rely on their various visual stereotypes to build their characters.

For an anime this old, the artwork really does hold up. The various fight scenes and character designs are very well drawn and animated. Like most series from this era the colors are a bit dull and lifeless however. There is not a lot to comment on the sound, the acting was good but there is little music to critique either.

I was really tempted to go a little higher on my overall rating. Gautaman has a number of flaws, its humor is extremely dated and the lack of an ending. However if you can appreciate the humor and not take it too seriously I think you might enjoy it too.

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With a name like Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman, it HAS to be good!


Artwork and Animation: 8

For a low budget early 90s title, this one has really polished and fluid animation. Flashy colors, smooth frames, and plenty of action kept it interesting to watch, and wasn't bogged down by garbage stillframes.


Sound and Voice Acting: 7

Everyone in this sounds like they're hopped up on too much caffeine and barely containing themselves. It's very energetic, funny, and entertaining.


Characters and Story: 7

Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman (Gautaman from here on out) is about a young devout Christian girl, Mary (haha name puns), who meets Buddha, gets superpowers, defeats Scary Newspaper Brainwashing Demon, Sumo Darth Vader, and the dopey perv Principal to bring justice to Perfect Religion Academy.

After her friend Saori is captured by the Black Buddha gang, Mary is gifted the powers of Gautaman, which consist of wearing a sumo belt and magical visor that stops anyone from recognizing you, except your butt, that is. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha himself, appears in person to explain what's going on (and smash through the 4th wall!). Buddha also makes up the powers as he goes along, which lead to hilarious results.

Mary leads a double life, as does any good magical girl. By day, she's a repressed, overly pure and innocent student- by... crisis, she becomes GAUTAMAN! Stripperifically clad and with ridiculous powers to match, she's out to whoop some ass _with_ her ass. The evil Black Buddha gang, antagonists to... world religion? try to stop her in the name of all that's unholy. Borderline irreverence, ridiculousness, and over the top WTF ensue. Their only lead? A butt print left by Gautaman in her first scrap with the forces of stupid. But whose butt matches the cast?

The aforementioned Scary Newspaper wielding Brainwashing Demon is the first villain, wielding newspapers like shuriken, and if you're exposed to the print, it shortens your life by 100 days!!! For the love of all that's holy, not the fine print!
Second up is SUMO DARK VADER- I'm not even kidding. I've never seen such an original and obviously non parodical villain in my life. This has to be seen to believed.


Enjoyment: 9

I laughed my butt off, pun intended. Gautaman is full of ancient history (read: 70s Japanese pop culture references), Star Wars references and puns, butts, name puns, butts, and general mild religious mockery. The WTF force is strong with this one.


Overall: 7

When I saw the title, this one went straight on the watchlist. I'm a fan of so-bad-it's-good movies from watching too many Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. I was not disappointed. Butt Attack Punisher Girl is a buttload of laughs, "what?'s", and "this is the dumbest, best thing I've ever seen's".


Recommend?

Oh. Yeah. 45m of nonstop so-bad-it's-good stupidity, you'll wish you got buttslammed by Gautaman.

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Overview:

If you really love "so bad it's good" anime, you may be interested in a little title called Butt Attack Punisher Girl! Judging from the name alone, you know you're probably in for a VERY stupid anime. In this instance your first ASSumption would be correct.

One thing I feel we as anime fans too often ignore is the anime director. With the exception of a few directors like Hayao Miyazaki and Hiroyuki Imaishi, people simply don't give a fuck who directed the series. This is a HUGE mistake, since having a good director or a bad director can make a world of difference. This anime was directed by Iku Suzuki, one of the worst anime directors in history! This man has the fucking touch of death. Everything he goes near is absolutely HORRIBLE! If you don't believe me that directors make a difference, it is time to play Good Director/Bad Director.

First we will look at a good director: Mamoru Kanbe. This guy can be put on the worst team in existence, and if it is possible to save the project, he will do it. He is basically the Tim Howard of anime directors. You may know him as the co-director for Baccano, Card Captor Sakura, and main director of Elfen Lied. "What!? But But...literaturenerd-san, Elfen Lied sucks balls!" Consider the following: this was a series that NO ONE expected to succeed in the slightest. It was based on an objectively terrible manga with no readership or fanbase, had virtually zero budget, was animated by an absolute JOKE of an animation studio known only for hentai, and the man assigned to write the dialogue was mostly just used to writing hentai. Kanbe single-handedly re-wrote the episodes, made his own ending, fixed 90% of the complete bullshit from the manga, salvaged all that actually worked from the manga, and by himself made an underdog series with ZERO business succeeding into one of the most popular and beloved anime of its decade. No one can turn a piece of dog shit into an absolutely flawless diamond, but Kanbe absolutely can take some of the absolute worst projects and make them watchable. He was assigned to helm a series about an all girl military band in Switzerland that must play bugles to inspire troop moral in WW1! He made something THAT fucking stupid actually somewhat watchable and above a 7.5 rating here on MAL. Now lets look at what a bad director can do!

An example of a bad director would be Iku Suzuki. In addition to directing Butt Attack Punisher girl, this guy directed: EYES of Mars, DearS, Traning/sleeping with Hinako, Happy Lesson, and FUCKING Dark Cat! The average rating of the series this man directed is around 5 on MAL. Do you have any idea just how hard that is to accomplish?! Iku Suzuki belongs to that special breed of HORRIBLE directors who are both ambitious and totally shameless. They don't just stop after making one fucking train wreck of a movie like the 1 time directors of The Room, Birdemic, Manos the Hands of Fate. These rare, special bad directors continue to make project after project of the absolute worst shit imaginable. Iku Suzuki is in the company of directors like: Coleman Francis, Chester Novell Turner, Ed Wood, Godfrey Ho, and Ulli Lommel. You may have noticed I excluded examples like: Shamylan, Boll, and Friedberg, because those guys suck, but they actually make money and SORT OF know what the fuck they're doing. If you have ever seen a movie by any of the first 5 bad directors I mentioned, you will know that you are dealing with an entirely different category of shit!

Story and characters 1/10

The story is that a devout Christian girl named Mary decides to attend a school supposedly designed to create peace and harmony between the major world religions. However, the school is actually run by an evil cult called the "black Buddhas" who wish to take away people's freedom of religion and convert everyone to their cult by force. When the only ethnic Japanese Hindu in history gets captured by the cultists, Mary prays to God and Buddha answers instead. Buddha gives her a magical Sumo loincloth and tells her to use her butt to fight against evil! The fight scenes are gloriously absurd and I love the fact that she literally KILLS her opponents with her butt. Once defeated, the cult members turn back into their normal selves and leave ordinary corpses, which Mary feels sort of bad about because they were innocent people that were brainwashed. Let me repeat that, our hero murders innocent people that were brainwashed by a cult...with her ass cheeks! If you're head isn't exploding from the sheer stupidity of this series, there is something wrong with you! The story doesn't even have a proper ending because only a single pilot episode was ever made! After the pilot episode, the studio cut all funding because it was just too stupid! I would like you to consider all the TERRIBLE anime that during the OVA golden days of the early 1990s were able to get funding for more than 1 episode. Ninja Resurrection, the head bashingly retarded anime about a samurai fighting Crystal Dragon Jesus, was able to get 3 episodes. Mad Bull 34 was able to get 4 full hour episodes. This fucking piece of shit couldn't even convince the same studios to let it have more than 1 episode! WOW! Bravo Mr. Suzuki! Bravo!

Art: 2/10

Although not the worst art I have ever seen in an anime, that would probably go to Suzuki's other masterpiece Dark Cat, this was still pretty fucking bad. Early 1990s echii OVAs were all about showing some ass and titties because full 26 episode sheer fanservice anime didn't exist yet! In the early 1990s there was no Queen's Blade, Ikki Tousen, Rail Wars, etc. If you wanted to see anime ass and titties you needed to watch short, shitty OVAs like Plastic Little. Unfortunately, they couldn't hire the esteemed Mr. Urushihara from Plastic Little for this project, because he is literally Rembrandt compared to these chumps!

Entertainment: 8/10

This anime DOES have one redeeming factor that actually makes it far superior to anything else Suzuki has ever directed. It is actually ENJOYABLY bad. Many of the scenes are so fucking stupid you simply can't help but laugh at them. Butt Attack Girl fights a Sumo Wrestler Darth Vader complete with the helmet, voice, and respirator sounds! She then kills him by flying into the air and slamming into him with her ass so hard that it caves in his fucking thoracic cavity! I don't even have words to adequately describe how awesomely stupid that is!

Overall: 4/10

This anime is absolute garbage, but at least it made me laugh a couple times. By actually being enjoyably terrible instead of gratingly terrible, this was BY FAR the best effort by director Iku Suzuki! When you have directed about 15 anime and the best thing you have ever done is called "Butt Attack Punisher Girl", you should probably consider entering a new career!

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As I'm sure is true for most, I decided to watch this anime because of the name. Merely saying "Butt Attack Punisher Girl" out loud makes me laugh. But is that all the OVA has going for it? After all, many works have a neat name or even amusing premise, but are as fun to sit through as a colonoscopy.

Luckily, that is not the case here. "Butt Attack Punisher Girl" is a silly comedy through and through, never presenting itself as anything else. And in that capacity, it succeeds.

Mari Amache is a shy, sheltered Christian who is intimidated by the mere presence of men. Saori Minami is the tough, assertive, Hindi girl who befriends and takes care of her. There is heavy sexual tension between the two throughout. They both attend a boarding school called PR (Perfect Religion!) which is afflicted by an evil cult called Black Buddha.

And, just six minutes into the OVA, Minami is kidnapped by Black Buddha, causing a Buddha to speak to Mari and transform her into our titular, slutty-looking superhero.

It would be easy to milk the humor of Mari wearing a revealing outfit that every single character makes lewd remarks about, and she is constantly embarrassed by. If that was the case, the joke would wear thin quickly, and make for a crappy OVA.

Instead, they consistently ramp up the humor with increasingly bizarre, insane enemies and situations. For instance, we are introduced early on to "Brainwashing Demon Scary Newspaper Man" and his evil weapon, the "Scary Newspaper". There are also the "Delinquent Sextuplets Battalion Mutsugorous", six copies of the same extremely old-looking, perverted "student". However, they pale before "Dark Vader", a giant sumo wrestler wearing a thong, Darth Vader helmet, and nothing else.

The techniques are also great, my favorite being when Gautaman catches a sword between her butt cheeks and breaks it off.

I could go on, but the point should be clear. They revel in their absurdity, and it makes the anime genuinely funny and entertaining.

And yes, there is some nudity and sexual content, as part of the appeal for viewers in that ancient year of 1994, before quick and readily available Internet porn, was the softcore porn aspect of the work. However, it never gratuitously focuses on that to the detriment of the humor.

The series is chock-full of references that the subtitles helpfully point out. The two main protagonists are named after Japanese singers, and there are countless references to manga artists, anime, and elements of pop culture. All of these went over my head, but might be amusing for a hardcore Japanophile.

If you're looking for a funny, delightfully insane anime, check this OVA out.

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