Mikan Enikki is an anime show based on a manga of the same name by Miwa Abiko and animated by, you guessed it, Nippon Animation. Now, i've already talked a bit about the studio before in my reviews of Vickie the Viking, Wakakusa no Charlotte, Dogtanian and the three Muskehound and Corrector Yui. So you should probably be familiar with the anime studio by now.
Not much is known about this show's popularity since it lasted for 30 episodes with 2 specials created and sadly faded to obscurity.
Now while i said that it was based off the manga, i said it very loosely because there are many occasions where the studio did made some changes and made some new stories and characters to differenciate from the manga.
But is it any good? Let's find out:
The show started with a boy named "Tom" who was about to go home with his friends until he noticed an orange cat. At first, he never saw a cat whose fur was orange which was odd to him. But he tend to ignore it and move on. While he was going home, the orange cat decided to follow him and eventually reached home, which surprised Tom for seeing the cat following him. So he decided to ask his parents if they would adopt the cat. The parents agreed to keep the cat with them and call him "Mikan".
It seems like things were going fine until Tom noticed something suspicious about Mikan. He noticed that the cat could laugh and has been drunk after coming back to his room to sleep. He had no idea what was going on with Mikan. So later that night, he decided to sneak onto him to find out who he really is. In which he found out that the cat was drinking Sake and not only that, but he was also talking and standing with only two hint pants. Tom got shocked with what he just witnessed and decided to take him to his room to find out what was up with him and why he was capable to do thoses things.
From there, Mikan explained that he came from another village where he was taken care of by his late grandfather known as Tatsuzo. Who he originally also called Mikan "Tom" as well. However ever since his passing, he had to leave the village because Tatsuzo's neighborhood couldn't accept him as a real cat, but rather, as a speaking yokai-like creature.
Tom felt bad for him so they decided to resolve to speak with Tom's parents to explain that Mikan is no ordinary cat and convinced them to let him live with them even if he can speak and stand with two hint paws. In which the parents agreed to, but in exchange, do not let Mikan get caught speaking to a human being.
So from there, the show would tell the adventures and misadventures of Mikan, his family, his friends and what he would do through out his life.
Now with all that said, let me say that the story so far has been great! Each and every stories were quite fun, interesting, hilarious, serious and sometimes a bit sad as well as there are a few moments where we'd see Mikan in some serious situations. Such as having a fight with other cats and sometimes trying to save others from getting injured.
The story is very well written, as well. As you get invested into the anime, more and more you'll end up loving alot about this show and it's episodes it's been told.
My favourite episodes are the ones involved with Mikan's reunion with his brother named "Jerry". And yes, their grandfather really did called them both Tom and Jerry (Totally not violating copyright infringements!)
Anyway, i loved the episodes with Jerry because we get to see Mikan trying to understand Jerry's feelings and trying to help him out whenever he can.
But like i said before, the anime is loosely based off the manga. So there were things that were changed from the manga (Like Mikan's backstory for example) and some of the chapters were never adapted into the anime. Like for example, the chapter where Mikan and his friends went into each worlds where there were magics and dragons. That was never adapted into animation.
And also, unlike the manga's stories where tend to be long and introspective, the anime's stories are much shorter, eventful and suspenseful.
Not to mention, some of the characters' personalities have changed here as well. For example, Mikan acts like a selfish troublemaker and does whatever he wants, while the manga despite being nosy, is well-behaved. Or how Kelly got pregnant in the anime compared to the manga version.
So you can easily say that the anime's story execution is more or less original than you may think so.
But is it a bad thing? Nope. I personally think they did a great job at telling it's own stories than just trying to adapt the manga faithfully.
Though i do wish that we'd have more episodes to have an proper ending because the anime's ending was more of a cup-out ending than it was an open-ending to the show. I'm not gonna spoil the whole show for all of you, so you can watch the anime for yourself to make up your own thoughts on the ending.
Now that i got the story out of the way, let's get into the characters:
First, there's Mikan, who like i said earlier, is one crazy troublemaker who does whatever he pleases. He'd talk, stand on his own with his legs and often times play his own harmonica that he received as a present. I had a great time seeing this cat being himself. Seeing him do what he knows best, having fun playing around with Tom and of course being a troublemaker himself, he makes me giggle seeing him do something that's not normal.
There's also characters that i do really enjoy. Such as the Kusanagi family. Tom is an ingenuous and caring kid who does anything he can to resolve the problems with Mikan even if they bicker at each others. His parents, Tojiro and Kikuko, are a very loving couple who rarely argue againts each others, but instead, do what they know best to make Tom's life and Mikan's life much better.
There's also the cats themselves like Kurobochi, who portrays himself as a lady's man who always falls in love with a cat named "Hana", there's Botan, who is the fattest of the group who's always honest with Mikan's troubles and wants to stay away from his crazy stunts, there's Kelly, who would later become Mikan's love interest and more.
Same thing with the human characters. There's Kyoko, who would serve as a love interest, Sera, who appears later on in the show and becomes friends with Tom when they start talking to each others and a few more.
All of theses characters do serve a purpose to each episodes' stories and do make the show more interesting and fun to watch.
The animation looks nice to see as well. While the character designs aren't anything new here, it gets the job done. Since this is Nippon Animation we are talking about, they do a pretty good job with what they know best. Giving more life to the characters' designs and animations and the backgrounds as well.
The same thing can be said about the sound as well. The music is very well composed. You get some moments where the background musics can fit well into scenes that happen and the OP and EDs are very cute, fun and catchy to listen and sing to.
And as far as the voice acting goes, the seiyuus do a great job at giving their all with their voices for the characters they voice in. Including Tarako (The second voice of Monokuma from Danganronpa series) as the voice of Mikan.
So in conclusion, what do i have to say about Mikan Enikki? Well... It's yet another great hidden gem from Nippon Animation! NA does it yet again with this anime.
The story is great, the art and animations are very cute, the characters are fun, the music is great, the voice acting is spectacular and of course i had a great time with this one! This is easily my favourite pet anime show ever.
And the good news, people, is that the anime has been fansubbed by Ibuki Fukoi fansubs, So you can pretty much find this anime through torrents or pirated sites like gogoanime for example.
But seriously though, if you're an animal lover and an anime fan, don't miss this show out. In fact, give it a watch if you can. It's a show that will definitely get you invested into it more and more as you watch the show. I know this because after i finished this show, i was satisfied with it. So i thank Nippon Animation once again for yet another masterpiece.
I give Mikan Enikki an 9 out of 10. It definitely is a really great anime to watch cute cats doing cute things, even the more serious ones, too.
Anyway, that's been my review of Mikan Enikki. This is José Diogo and i'll see you guys on the other side.
