Reviews

Jan 25, 2012
Some of you may recall that one of my earliest reviews was of Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat. I gave it a decent rating saying that it was held back by sub-par voice acting and humour that didn't always work. Leave it to Piyoko is an eight episode OVA involving several of the same characters. Is it as good or better?

Leave it to Piyoko has the same absence of story as Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat. The basic premise is that Princess Piyoko, one of the antagonists from Di Gi Charat, accidentally destroys a large portion of her planet and flees to earth with her Black Gema Gema Gang with the plan of kidnapping Princess Dejiko and holding her for ransom. They then proceed to go through several, incredibly random scenarios, most of which don't even involve their plan. The main difference between Leave it to Piyoko and Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat is that Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat has humour that generally works pretty well and Leave it to Piyoko just relies on complete randomness and the fact that the gang is incompetent. It's not randomness structured in an amusing way, it's just random and the gang being incompetent isn't played up in an amusing way. It's just them being incompetent. There are very few humorous moments in this. The fifteen minute episodes just feel like a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

The characters remain fairly flat. One thing that does work are the interactions between Piyoko and other characters. The way she interacts with her upper level gang members and Princess Dejiko provides some cute moments.

The art is lazy and schizophrenic. The tone shifts frequently and with little reason. There isn't a usual method as a result. It creates a unique atmosphere, but that's really not a good thing.

The voice acting still tends towards over the top and somewhat grating. They get good people, like Hayashibara Megumi and Sanada Asami, but none of them do their best work, in all likelihood because of the direction. The music is just boring.

I'm going to give it a yuri factor of 3/10. There are some moments that could be read as homoerotic, but the characters involved are all of eight and ten years old so I wouldn't read it that way.

My final rating is a 3/10. The few charming/humorous moments can't make up for the overall lack of humour. The voice acting is still sub-par and the art is a lot worse in this than it was in Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat. I know that it's intended for children, but I really don't think most children are going to be entertained by it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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