Paniponi Dash! Volume 1: Lethal Lesson - J!-Ent
- J!-Ent
- Dennis A. Amith
- 11/27/06
- click here
"...if you are like me and enjoyed ?Azumanga Daioh?, then you will more than likely enjoyed ?Paniponi Dash!?"
I remember watching the animated series ?Azumanga Daioh? about a group of unique, bubbly and interesting high school students that jettisoned up to on of my top 10 anime series of all time. Well, if you are like me and enjoyed ?Azumanga Daioh?, then you will more than likely enjoyed ?Paniponi Dash!?
A new animated TV series from ADV Films that is by Hikawa Hikeru (from ?Gekkan G Fantasy Series? published by Square Enix). The main story follows Becky Miyamoto, an MIT child prodigy who is an 11-year-old who happens to teach a rowdy 10th Grade Class. In the class, you meet a unique group of classmates such as the bitch Heather, the ADD spazz, the angry nerd, the identical twins, the invisible girl, the freaky class president, the drama geek, the Nancy Drew, the gamer, the princess, Becky?s abused and talking stuffed bunny and idiotic aliens monitoring Becky and many zany characters that you will make you laugh out loud.
For some people, this could be a blessing to have so many unique characters or it could be a mess for some who rather follow a small group of people. I happened to find Becky (the 11-year-old prodigy) to be very annoying as she tends to go into crying fits and tirades when she doesn?t get her way.
Fortunately, the anime series doesn?t focus too much on her but focuses on the class as a whole. For example, the first episode focuses on the introductions and how Becky finds it difficult to teach the class as some students look at her more as a cute, young girl while others may want to scare or torment her due to her young age. In another episode, the school goes camping and classmates enjoy some R&R but start seeing kappa (a Japanese mythological demon that looks like a turtle) and missiles flying at the camp site. Why is this happening?
The animation of ?Paniponi Dash!? is actually very beautiful. I enjoyed the animation a lot. As for the audio, the English dub is in digital 5.1 and the Japanese is 2.0 with English subtitles. The DVD comes with 5 complete episodes, AD VIDNOTES (explains things in detail while watching the anime series through subtitles), two TV spots, special opening: Yellow Vacation, chalkboard champions contest, reversible cover and clean closing theme.
While ?Azumanga Daioh? caught my interest immediately, ?Paniponi Dash!? may be something that requires more episodes to get into the groove. With too many characters (it can get confusing) and crazy pacing, you may feel that you may be missing something or just confused.
Posted on Monday, November 27, 2006 (Archive on Wednesday, December 27, 2006)