Potemayo 5 – attack of the killer butterflies, the Death, and an angry younger brother…

Or rather, scratch the last one. Since Moriyama Sunao has the shield that we know as Potemayo.

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I’m beginning to understand some of the charms of 4koma – light hearted, down to earth, amusing, funny but not necessarily makes one burst out laughing, or saying to himself: “siiiiiiiiiiiiiick…”

In this ep, we have the 3 classmates of Sunao and Mikan playing the role of the Lucky Star 4/Seinfeld 4 – talking/musing about nothing.

To me, who simply never went through Japanese school life, it didn’t sound remotely amusing at all.

With Lucky Star and it’s Otaku driven humor, Konata is funny, and the rest of the gang plays off her. With Azumanga Daioh, everyone contributes and plays as a team of comedians. Here, the 3 girls do silly things like refusing to push the buzzer/ring on the bus, which means they didn’t get off the bus until they were in the middle of almost nowhere. Then after sometime, they talk about what to say when taking a picture to make the people smile (don’t people say “ni” in addition to “Cheese” in Japan?). Fortunately the show isn’t driven by them.

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Being the type of guy that prefers laughing out a loud humor/slapstick humor, I’m not so sure if I find what Guchiko does in the ep as funny. I do find it amusing and cute, especially when her two “expression amplifiers” – these two cylindrical creatures that sometimes express feelings like hers, sometimes express feelings for her, and sometimes express their own feelings – help making her looking even cuter.

We also find out that Guchiko is a tsundere, and she has a thing for Kyoko but is in obvious denial. Unlike Potemayo who wets herself when emotionally stimulated by Sunao, Guchiko faints. She practically denies her feelings for Kyoko.

Now only if we have that forbidden playpen…I mean garden for shojo…OK, that’s stupid and gross. But in any case, I think Guchiko is funny when she laser beams somebody, or kills Mudo, or cuts things in half and then fixes it. But I find her funny power goes way below my radar when she the main feature.

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In this ep, we’re finally introduced to someone with a rather different set of characteristics. Instead of goodie-two-shoes guys, we get a surly guy – Mikan’s younger brother – who has the ability to palm his sister’s head like a basketball. He’s your usual overprotective brother who had the unfortunate fate of having a superstitious sister who believes that writing the name of Sunao in margic markers(!) on his boxers will get she and Sunao together. If this were to happen to me, I’d get pissed as well. In fact, I’d consider kicking Sunao’s ass.

A humor device used here is the sailor uniform for boys – Yasumi in what I consider as a drag – I mean it’s sailor uniform for high schoolers for crying out a loud! In any event, Yasumi shows up and now we have another character in the way of Mikan’s quest of getting together with Sunao. Curses, foiled again.

We can see that this anime is light hearted because Yasumi makes no attempt to physically confront Sunao at all. He only talks surly to him. I don’t necessarily find it convincing that Yasumi actually makes no attempt to kick Sunao’s ass, but I’m not absolutely unconvinced either. Sunao describes that Yasumi as a nice guy. Well, I think all the characters in this show turn nicer when they see Potemayo. This anime is light-hearted because the conflicts are light and doesn’t weight much on anyone’s mind. I suspect in real life, people who talk like Sunao, who I think is having a personality one step away from the best of Ikari Shinji, will probably get picked on and get their asses kicked by people like Yasumi (see high schools in US and in recent years, high schools in Japan). I say that nice has nothing to do with it. It’s the power of Potemayo, and the nature of this 4koma-turned-anime.

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As for the rest of the characters, they were their usual selfs and I didn’t find Kyoko’s mother funny at all.

If you’ve been following our site you may have noticed that I didn’t put a daily recommended % of your anime diet for this show. The reason is simple, despite liking this show and a lot of its elements, I have a difficult determining exactly what it is. I’d give a 65% recommendation for a light watch when bored and looking for a quick laugh. I’m not saying this is a bad anime, but I’m saying that neither good nor bad necessarily applies to this one – it’s an acquired taste.

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Author: Ray

I'm a hardcore Anime Fan and I'm proud of it. I know so many things and I've acquired so much knowledge you wouldn't believe. But my love is anime. I've been drifting in this world for so long that I don't even know what an anchor means. I've seen so many shows that I've lost count. The only thing I'm sure of myself is that I care for the lowly and disenfranchised. I hate the rich and powerful and I love what I do, or what I can do. I like anime and I don't mind watching different types of shows. I have experience in different types of Japanese animation. I would be called an "expert" in a bizzaro world. One day, I'd like to start a revolution. I love the US, pizza, beer, sashimi, Chinese food, and steak. But I love freshly baked bread more than a well-aged steak. In reality, if I were born Japanese I'd be a real, hardcore Otaku. I love to love and I can hate strongly. I'm passionate in nature and I don't mind shedding tears. I can be reached at rayyhum777 at animediet. My Twitter is rayyhum777 at twitter.