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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 27 February 2006 00:00 |
 There's such a thing as trying to be too different. It's easily done - every new series needs something to make it stand out from the crowd and make it memorable - and Gyagu Manga Miyori is definitely one of those shows that manages it. Take a five-minute short, make it very strange, and you have... a series which is very hard to watch...
1 - Stickers
Uki-Uki Confectionery's latest product, Dokkiri-chan Choco, hasn't been selling well, and the Product Development Dept's taking the flak. The problem seems to be with the stickers they've chosen to include in the packet - would you rush out and buy a chocolate bar with a choice of three pictures of a depressed kid on the sticker? Uki Uki's not the only company with sticker problems, either - the Macho Bread Co's new line of anime-based stickers would be working so much better if their resident doujinshi artist would keep her hand off the designs...
2 - Yang-Ti Gets Angry
Shoutoku Taishi and Ono no Imoko are envoys on their way to meet the Emperor Yang-Ti. It's bad enough that they can't even get on with each other, but to make matters worse it seems the Emperor isn't the friendliest of sorts either. Taishi has a plan to spare himself from ending up on the wrong side of the Emperor's temper: write him a letter instead of visiting in person, and let Ono no Imoko take the flak. If only he could find some ink...
Very heavily stylised animation, off-the-wall and frenetic "comedy" (which may or may not appeal - it didn't really work for me), and stories that only partly made sense. It's not really a good combination for a series to have - although the short episode lengths work in Gyagu Manga Miyori's favour there, as they're not long enough for you to get past the "WTF!?" feeling to wondering why you're wasting your time.
Most definitely it won't appeal to everyone, but the stories are short enough that it's easy to check it out and see how it fits your own sense of humour. If you like your anime to have at least some semblance of normality about it, though, you'll probably want to pass.
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