The animation is also quite bad. It’s somewhere between full animation and storybook-style limited animation, almost as if they couldn’t commit to one or the other and compromised with a half-baked approach that looks subpar. “Critical” action scenes are played three times; perhaps for emphasis, but it gets old fast. What little animation there is tends to get reused. Characters’ facial expressions are often static, and the colors are washed out and even incorrect some of the time. The music is generic synthesized stuff. Even the voice acting isn’t that great.
This OVA is poorly done at every level. So why did I give it a rating of 5/10? I would rate each episode individually as a 4, but the fact that this OVA got made in the first place is interesting. The world of Super Mario does seem like it would mesh well together with fairy tales, so watching this left me thinking of what might have been if it had had better writing and higher production values. Also, due to its short length, it’s not painful to watch; it’s just silly. Not “laugh-out-loud” silly, or “so-bad-it’s-good” silly, but more like “what the heck am I watching” silly. It’s a spectacle; an anime oddity, if you will.
Overall, this OVA is not good, but it is unusual, easy to watch, and has little objectionable content beyond some cartoonish violence. Recommended for anyone who wants to see something different.
