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R2 DVD Reviews
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Wednesday, 01 September 2010 00:00 |
 End of the line for Paniponi Dash, and according to the instructions that Becky's alien observers have just received, it may well be the end of the line for the Earth, too. Fortunately, there are a myriad of genre references on hand to help the girls of 1-C save the day. How convenient...
23 - Misfortunes Never Come One By One
It's winter, and certain people in the school are feeling the cold - mainly Becky and Kurumi, who just can't find any way to keep warm. Until the idea hits some of the girls that the best way to keep warm could be to head for a hot springs resort. Unfortunately, Momotsuki Academy's usual mayhem gets in the way of such plans - and this time it's the Shiratori Puppet Troupe that's mainly to blame. Meanwhile, the orbiting aliens believe the end of the world may be at hand. Or is that just the end of the series..?
24 - You Are Responsible for your Own Death
Feudal Edo, and the Shognate's chief financier, Bekiemon Miyamoto, has inflicted punishing new taxes on the populace. While she's taking great pleasure in squeezing until the pips squeak, though, there are seeds of discontent among the people and her closest staff. But what can they do about the diminutive monster..?
25 - A Time of Crisis
So, where were we before that Edo diversion? Oh yes, the end of the world as we know it was upon us, in the form of a giant comet that was headed straight for us. Fortnately, a giant robot has been created just for Class 1-C to use in such an emergency - unfortunately, most of the girls aren't remotely interested in using it, being a little unsure about why it should be up to them to save the world. Becky's able to inspire them to greater things, though. With the promise of free food. And so the battle to save the Earth begins - although the comet is even stranger than it first appears...
26 - No One Knows What May Happen Tomorrow
The Ichijo Festival may be gone, but the weather's still screwy - less than a week after blizzards, and Momotsuki Academy's suffering a heatwave - and the air conditioning ain't working, either. It's enough to make a child genius lose the will to teach. It is, however, a good excuse for breaking out the yukata - and for the principal to unveil the secret watermark he's been building in the school grounds. Swimsuits? Check...
So. If you remember way back to volume one, you'll recall that I wasn't particularly impressed with Paniponi Dash at the beginning. It's managed to grow on me somewhat since then - I can't deny that I've enjoyed the intervening volumes - but now we're at the end of the line, the series is trying to tidy up what little it has in the way of ongoing plot, and I'm finding myself generally not caring again.
It's not for lack of things in these episodes that should have raised a chuckle. They're loaded with so many references to well-known science fiction and anime that it's hard to keep check - the disc starts with a clear 2001 reference, and by the third episode on the disc the alien observation team & their ship have somehow transformed into a replica of Star Trek's Enterprise, complete with crew in Starfleet uniforms and a bridge that's been ripped right off of The Next Generation. And that's just the start of the references.
The fanservice side of things is still there too, with the final episode being a swimsuit special with even less in the way of plot than the typical PPD episode. I never thought that would ever be possible. What I'm trying to get at, though, is that all the elements that made most of the series reasonable fun to watch are still present on this final disc.
Despite that, though, we're back to the series being a chore to watch. I think that there's possibly too much going on, with the episodes having to jump back and forth between different ideas so much that it's even more difficult than usual to keep track of what's going on. Paniponi Dash uses its frenetic pacing, always hovering at the edge of confusion, as part of "what it does", but here they're pushing it a little too far and the end result is just a mess.
Despite some mid-season highlights, then, Paniponi Dash ends as it began - a confusing mess. The show isn't without its appeal, but it simply tries to do to much with the time that it has and can't keep juggling it all well enough to avoid falling flat. A missed opportunity.
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