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!
