I'll start with what's good about this show. The 3D animated sequences, which make up about half of each episode, are really cute. They really managed to make the models look like the toys without making them look cheap. The animation is very of its time, being very over-animated at points. I find this to be a point in its favor- it reminds me of Jimmy Neutron, which was a great cartoon from that era. There's also a feeling of love to this production. It's low-budget and kind of mediocre in the way that only a show like this could be. It's kind of sweet.
The first episode absolutely nailed what this OVA needed to be. In this story, a tomboyish girl wishes to be cuter and more fashionable, like her Pinky:st toys. One night, one of her figures comes alive and takes her to Pinky World, where girls are free to dress in whatever outfit makes them feel beautiful, and the girls all have fun shopping and hanging out all day long. This episode was a showcase of why Pinky:st. figures are so fun and interesting. It was all about the toys' most unique quality- the huge focus on fashion and customization. The mascot character, Saki, says that fashion is a reflection of one's heart, and this thesis is connected to the entire concept of Pinky:st. The figures have interchangeable hair, faces, clothing, and accessories, so anyone can make a figure that looks exactly as fashionable as they want, and that figure becomes a reflection of their own tastes and personality. The tomboyish girl is helped by Saki in a way that heavily relates to the toy line, in that she learns that anyone can embrace femininity (if they want to) without giving up who they are as an individual. It's short, it's snappy, it's cheesy and a little contrite, but it really does work as a thesis for the Pinky:st brand.
Now, the obvious critique of the first episode is that it is... stereotypical, to say the least. If you watched the recent Barbie movie and just wished the entire movie was uncritically about how cool and awesome Barbie Land was, well... here's 15 minutes of that.
The big issue with this OVA, to me, is the second episode. I'll be honest with my feelings: I didn't like it. I felt that it did a poor job of following the great first episode. In this episode, an otaku gets upset with his friend after a misunderstanding involving a Pinky:st figure. That night, Saki comes and takes him to Pinky World for... seemingly no reason. The conflict here seems, to me, confusingly unrelated to the thesis of Pinky:st. Yes, it is true that the main consumers of Pinky:St figures are probably otaku, rather than young girls. After all, Pinky:st figures are heavily tied into the garage kit scene and even have an entire line just based on different anime, manga, and game properties (look up the P:Chara line). However, the otaku side of Pinky:st is treated in this OVA almost as an unfortunate side effect, rather than a purposeful choice. Saki and the Pinky World inhabitants don't seem to really enjoy or understand otaku stuff, and its only incorporation into the world are things that only the main character notices. While the first episode found a great link between the toys, their thesis, and the people who enjoy them, the second episode seems strangely disconnected. The message of the episode seemed to be "don't fight with your friends over dumb stuff," but this is completely unrelated to the toys. You could have replaced Pinky:st toys with any otaku merch in this scenario and the outcome would have been exactly the same. It creates an uncomfortable feeling of "Pinky World is a fake place made to be gawked at, and its inhabitants exist only as set dressing for otaku fantasy." It's not toyetic and it feels surprisingly lazy. Not to mention, god DAMN is it hard to watch otaku be embarrassing in public.
Anyways, that's it. I spent more time writing this than I did actually watching the show. lmao!
