Puni Puni☆Poemii

This Anime is so stupid. There is no easier way to say that. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT? Let me explain what I mean. It’s really hard to talk about this show because it’s just all over the place. At one point, it just feels like they are stalling for time so they can make it run two episodes long.

The show starts out with a bit of an epic concept about someone wanting to take over the world and make it a place of beauty and sweetness. This wouldn’t be so bad except that right after the opening song, we get… stupidity. A ... Hyper, overactive girl screaming at the camera for the whole show is not my idea of a good show. This is just made for people to feel uncomfortable, isn’t it? Because the aliens having large balls knocking around from where their genitals would be, little kids showing off their ass, all the sexual images and jokes, and the very hyper girl messes with me. What else can I say about this show? I really have no idea… From the baby that predicted danger by pooping, to the S&M Dominatrix, there is so many jokes that just seem to fly over my head. I blame Japanese jokes that are culturally sensitive and toilet humor being there for no reason.

The artwork is all over the place. The opening is part anime, part live action with a young Japanese girl looking like she is running around on a beach. What makes it even more unsettling is that they put so many nudity shots in the beginning over this running girl that I just get thrown off faster then you can say Parody. Then when we get into the show finally, we get noodle legs and arms all over the place. Nothing keeps its proportion and things just seem to have a really high cartoon physics that gets on my nerves at times. Sure it works pretty well in Loony Tunes, but then they are not trying to milk it for all its worth. In shows like Loony Tunes, there is a time and place to use those physics and they don’t distract from the overall story. In this case, it really does. Whenever she moves, I feel like any OCD that I have is going to go overboard because I get distracted by her movements and can’t understand the story… if there really is any story to begin with. Still I do have to give them props for the amazing amount of color in this show. And… That might be all that I can give it. Character designs when they are still are pretty bland, little children sexualized way too much (of course, that happens in many more Anime, not just here), and the backgrounds are generic.

The music isn’t all bad. The opening song is kind of fun and playful, much like most songs from Excel Saga (another show I really am not a fan of but has decent music). The English voice acting is really terrible, and that mostly is with Poemi. Her voice is either two high, to energetic, or to out of control that I can barely understand her. Nothing she says seems to be of any importance because they never give you a chance to hear it. The third person speaking that she does also gets on my nerves very fast. I understand, she is trying to get into a rule of a girl named Poemi, I understand that the original voice actor, Yumiko Kobayashi, was trying to portray that she is playing a character playing another character. But does that really mean she has to keep saying her own name? Just saying Poemi did this or Poemi did that would be enough. Flipping through the different names made me miss her real name for a long time, making me think that the magical girl was just named Poemi instead. I give props to Cynthia Martinez who probably never got a chance to breathe trying to read the lines for Poemi though. Its one thing when it’s animated for your original language, it’s completely different when trying to dub a show where the artwork has already been done.

This is not the show for me. Looking at it compared to others like this, this is pretty much the bottom of the barrel. From the artwork, the jokes that really do not work outside Japan, and the voice acting adds up to a big mess to me.

The first impressions I had about the anime is wondering if it’s going to be as funny as “Excel Saga”. Granted, a lot of people didn’t like the humor in “Excel Saga” but it is a hit or a miss, depending what type of humor the viewer has already. Since I did previously enjoyed “Excel Saga”, I wondered if it’s going on the same vein, but rushed.

In the first episode, we’re introduced to POemy Watanabe along with her adoptive parents, Nabeshin (whom she calls “Mr. Director”) and Kumi-Kumi. Right away, we see the magical girl, Poemi, fighting the classic and iconic magical girls (up to ... this point in time) and it seems actually pretty serious.

The comedy here is pretty funny, since it focuses on referential humor and dealing with Koyabashi’s wastefully energetic personality. Granted, newer viewers probably won’t get the references, especially the older magical girls, but it’s still funny. There is an alien who swings … an extension of itself and ends up killing Nabeshin, his wife, and the pet robot dog they had only for Kobayashi and Futaba, the parody and more hardcore version of Tomoyo Daidouji from “Card Captor Sakura” and Kobayashi’s best friend, finding their bodies crucified.

From there, Futaba manages to convince her sisters (who do everything together and who are various ages and different points of life) to let Kobayashi stay with them. Apparently, though, it’s revealed that the Aasu Family not only does everything together, but they also protect the Earth as well.

Unfortunately, they can only defend and it’s right around here the first episode ends.

The second episode is when everything simultaneously falls apart and shows it’s true colors. It’s a lot more explicit and while the first episode did have some nudity and fanservice, they decided to just go all out in the second episode.

It got to a point where the reason why the alien wanted to take over the world was because: he’s an erogame enthusiast. He also apparently hates voice actresses and flat chested girls (which is what Koyabashi is, and especially the fact she’s not a very good voice actress either).

When you break it down and look at each individual Aasu sister, one could realize that these women weren’t magical girl tropes or archetypes – instead they’re the tropes and archetypes for erogames. There’s only one scene where they imply they’re doing something sexual to them but would I even bother to call it fanservice? They never really bother trying to hide anything unless the person was underaged, or a human man, and there just nothing really funny about it anyway – unless that’s your type of humor.

The script could have been easily ripe for a genuine magical girl parody but by the middle to end of the second episode, it seemed more of an ero game parody at best. It would been fine had it been an ero-game parody OVA in the first place.

Despite the attempt at writing the parody, the musical score is actually pretty good and it fit the themes rather well. The opening and ending is sung by Koyabashi’s voice actress and it really does do a decent job of parodying magical girl openings. It also sets the mood right for the tone it’s about to ruin with a joke or more referential humor.

The animation, for its time especially, is almost on par with “Excel Saga” since it was made around that same time frame. Not only that, it was made it the way that it was to allow the voice actress to do a lot of speed talking and made it seem that she was also moving along with her characters’ actions. Granted, one of Aasu sisters looks almost exactly like Hyatt but with much bigger breasts but eh.

I really wouldn’t recommend this to anyone since a lot of the sex jokes really made me feel uncomfortable (especially since it made the underaged characters do really suggestive stuff) but if you don’t mind the sex jokes and if you don’t really mind absolute nonsense, then this magical parody is for you!

(Part of Project Magic!!)

Puni Puni Poemii is cancer incarnate. The only reason anyone would watch and legitimately enjoy this is if they a loli fixated degenerate or a hedonistic masochist.

I only watched this because it's banned in my country and I can see why. I almost wanted to unban this just so I could rally to ban it again. Or double ban it or some shit.
I felt like I need to be bathed in holy water and blessed by a clergyman after watching this.
If you're reading this, don't watch this anime. I think seeing Puni Puni Poemii literally reduced my life span.

Puni Puni Poemii is an OVA from the early 2000s. It's ostensibly a spin-off of Excel Saga although the two don't have that much in common, but I'll get to that in detail later. It was brought to us by JC Staff. Like Chocotan, Voogie's Angel, Potemayo, Kill Me Baby or a whole bunch of other anime of varying quality I've reviewed. It was written by Kuroda Yousuke, which could also go either way considering he's done scripts for absolute trash like Highschool of the Dead but he's also done script work for solid anime like Battle Athletes. So, let's see how this stacks up. 

Story:

We open with ... an action sequence involving our "heroine" fighting her way through a bunch of magical girls including Usagi from Sailor Moon and Sally. But don't worry, they appear very briefly and there's a bright red filter so it's not copyright infringing. 

After this, we cut to Earth and the whole action sequence is never mentioned again which makes it entirely pointless. We meet Watanabe Poemi who calls herself Kobayashi because "her actress can't get into character." That's the level of humour we have to look forward to. Kobayashi loses her parents to a stand user but gets taken in by the Aasu sisters, thanks to her friend/ red string of fate partner Futaba. 

Let's start with the big problem with the series. Most of the jokes aren't funny. The opening sequence is a great example. Poemi goes through a bunch of familiar magical girls in a brutal fashion that just comes across as mean-spirited. Compare that to Excel Saga where there's also a clear reference to Sailor Moon but it's actually a joke and a very funny one. And having a battle between the characters could be funny. Just have Poemi win by pushing the Usagi look alike into a desk with a maths test or something to that effect. 

Then there are the jokes that are based around Kobayashi talking really quickly and loudly. Which you can also compare to Excel Saga since that was also a part of Excel's character. The difference is that Excel had funny dialogue to go with it and in this the entire joke seems to be that she's ridiculously energetic to the point of being annoying. There are also a lot of fan-service jokes, which just come across as crass and exploitative. Then there are the fourth wall breaking jokes which generally just don't work all that well. Fourth wall jokes work best in moderation and used at unexpected, strategic moments. Not so much when they're a constant, in your face factor. 

That being said, there are some funny moments. Having Futaba and Poemi's relationship be like a super homo-erotic relationship you would get in a magical girl series while one of them pursues some random guy anyway works since they make it even more blatant and have the girl without any interest in a male love interest, Futaba, actually react to the way her obvious girlfriend is carrying on. There are also some funny action sequences. The scene where Nabeshin fights the one-balled alien is really funny. Unfortunately, those actual moments of comedy are heavily outweighed by the unfunny moments. 

Characters:

There aren't much to the characters in this. Kobayashi is just kind of loud and annoying. Futaba's main schtick is that she's madly in love with Kobayashi. Her sisters are all one-note fetish fuel. Which becomes especially obvious towards the end with an egregiously unfunny scene, but it's totally okay because they lampshade it as being fan-service. 

Art:

My big issue with the art is the excessive fan-service. It's not the only problem. The backgrounds are frequently lazy. The opening sequence with its red filter to marginally disguise the familiar characters we're looking at actually hurts the eyes. It's like that climactic battle with the red filter from Figure 17, but much worse. And there's just not much to recommend the artwork except for the visual gags in the aforementioned Nabeshin fight. 

Sound:

The acting isn't very good. I think that both Kobayashi Yumiko & Imai Yuka are capable actresses. They've been strong in series like Angel Beats or Doki Doki Precure but one of the by-products of going with the obnoxious, hyperactive style of humour is that your actors don't come across very well. And I'm speaking as someone with ADHD. The music also isn't very good. It's the worst showing I've ever heard from Masuda Toshio. And we know he can compose because he also did music for Mushishi. 

Ho-yay:

Like I said, the stuff between Futaba & Kobayashi is really obvious. To the point where there's a red string of fate joke and they disappear together into a futon while Kobayashi is naked. So, they've had sex. 

Areas of Improvement:

Take better advantage of the magical girl parody aspect. Like I said, when it actually parodies the whole "blatant les-yay, but here's a male love interest so we can pretend it's not" element that's common in magical girl series, it's actually funny. They could do more with that. Have a character who they think has been brainwashed into turning evil, give the big speech about friendship & "opening their eyes" only to have the character just be mad over some minor sleight. Have a magical creature companion but no one can actually understand it when it tries to talk to give advice. There's a lot of room for actual genre parody here. 
Have a modicum of class. Excessive fan-service in and of itself is not funny. So, just show some restraint and do something that's actually funny instead of bringing in all the fan-servicey shite. 
Limit Fourth Wall Breaks. Like I said, these work best in moderation. In two episodes I would say the most you should have if you want them to retain their impact is three or four. 

Final Thoughts:

Puni Puni Poemii wants to have the style of humour that Excel Saga uses to great effect. The problem is, it doesn't have a good sense of why Excel Saga works. As a consequence, it takes some superficial aspects like the quick, energetic dialogue and acts like that's enough. And while it has the occasional comedic bit that works, most of it is just obnoxious. In the end, I give it a 3/10.

‘Puni Puni Poemy’ is cocaine made anime.

When this anime came out in 2001, the anime magazine that I bought every month had this OVA as their cover story. The writer praised the show’s dark humor, goofball characters and potshots at the magical girl genre. Given how dark comedies were some of my favorite TV shows (and still are), I promised myself that I would watch it whenever I got the chance. Two decades later, and that moment has finally arrived…

…And boy do I regret it.

I admit it. I have not watched ‘Excel Saga’ yet, but never once did I feel lost. Apparently, two characters ... from the original show got married and had a child – Poemi – but the OVA stands on its own.

If there were a main reason to laud the show, it would be that it gives zero fucks about being transgressive. It goes all the way with its shock humor and rips into magical girl shows with deranged glee. After all, the opening scene is Poemi beating up Sailor Moon and Utena. It parodies Star Wars, Evangelion, Dragon Ball, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, etc. Tropes are dissected left and right. Nothing is sacred.

Some jokes did land for me and had that dark streak that I was expecting. For instance, one of the defenders of Earth had the super-power of blowing cherry blossom petals at her enemies... She gets easily destroyed by the villain’s laser beam. Another scene has Poemi seeing that the enemy had crucified her loved ones. She tearfully runs towards them…and crashes straight into one of the crucifixes, toppling the whole thing over. Good stuff.

I also thought that the show breaking the fourth wall was funny too. There’s an obligatory bath scene with multiple busty women, which Poemi takes this as a cue to smugly turn to the camera and say that the viewer must be enjoying this. She even refers to herself by the name of her voice actress: Kobayashi. The anime’s coy winks at the watcher and its ability to poke fun at itself were quite fun.

However, more often than not, ‘Puni Puni Poemy’ is painfully annoying. A thousand visual gags flash on the screen per minute and does not let up. They failed to elicit even the most strained grin from me. The show likes to throw everything at the viewer and see what sticks. No, I did not care for those three smiling humanoid blobs. That couple doing it doggy-style in the background got old fast. And if I see that alien show off its deflated, hairy balls at the screen again, I’m going to hurl.

Other times, the anime is offensive just for the sake of being as offensive as possible. There were too many jokes that left a foul taste in my mouth. Earlier in my review, I commended the show for being bold. I stand by my words. In my opinion, if properly executed, there is no topic that is off-limits for comedy. Emphasis on ‘properly executed’. Apparently, comedic punchlines were a mystery to the writers. A news anchor reports the news of an attack on the city, when her boss suddenly grabs and pulls her off-screen to rape her. She screams ‘no’, ‘not now’, ‘not here,’ multiple times. Apparently, this was comedy gold for director Shinichi Watanabe, because this gag was used twice in one episode. It is very tricky to make a rape joke actually work, and this was a horrible attempt. If tasteless jokes about BDSM, sexual assault, child molestation, tentacle porn and the like makes you uncomfortable, run for the hills.

Poemi is the standout character here. She is energetic, positive, social, and dumb as a doorbell. Her jaw-dropping stupidity and repeated failures at becoming a voice actress made her the perfect butt of the joke. Too bad she made me want to pour battery acid down my ears. The Flash and Road Runner must have had a love child, because I have never seen a character with that much enthusiasm before. She makes shounen heroes look lifeless by comparison. Poemi’s best friend, Futaba, is the only other character’s name I can remember. She is hopelessly obsessed with Poemi and her love-struck antics are creepily amusing. The rest of the cast, like Futaba’s sisters, are barely worth mentioning. Each one has a superficial defining trait and that’s it. There’s a dominatrix, a child psychic, a well-endowed woman, a girl who wants a bigger chest, and that’s all I can recall. And the less said about the scrotum-twirling villains, the better.

Everyone is animated as if physics were an outdated science, but it fits the frenetic pace of the anime. Limbs are apparently made out of spaghetti in this universe. Characters are colorful and eye-popping, and Poemi’s magical girl design is straight fire. Backgrounds are as plain as can be, but…no one watches this for the stellar art.

Kudos to Poemi’s voice actress, Yumiko Kobayashi. Not only does she have lungs of steel for voicing a character that never shuts up, sings the opening and ending songs, but she herself dances in this OVA! Girl deserves a raise.

Recommended only to people who like comedy that is random, perverted, AND dark. All three. Otherwise, don’t bother.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go take some Advil for this headache.