The Chocolate Panic Picture Show

Hello there, traveler! I'm sure you've come to this page after watching Evangelion, FLCL, Gunbuster and/or Gurren Lagann, and you wondered to yourself, "What else does Gainax have to offer?" There's...THIS. I am not sure what you would call this besides bottom of the barrel trash. The Chocolate Panic Picture Show was made after the Daicon shorts and Studio Gainax became its own beast. I think that the studio was still just three guys in a garage at the time. Obviously, they were still putzing around, still trying to come into their own. Anyway, I can't really explain this, since there's no plot and it's just a bunchof trippy images. You know those 30-second bumpers that Nickelodeon aired during commercial breaks back in the day? This is like that, but longer, older, less entertaining and Japanese. So, what do we have here for characters? We have three stereotypical African children playing, and that's it. There are other people who pop up, but yeah, not important. As for music, it was occasionally tolerable (I kind of liked the drum roll during the "climax"), but the song that played during the end credits was an assault on the ears. The art is pretty crappy, which is unsurprising considering this is Gainax's early days. I can't say I got any enjoyment out of this. It was surrealistic, but not the fun kind. It's dumb, but not the kind of dumb you could enjoy with your friends, or even by yourself. In conclusion, Gainax is quite the powerhouse in anime, but this is their lowest point. I would avoid this if I were you...unless you're a flat earther. I bet flat earthers would get a kick out of this anime's ending.

As the joke goes, there was some much money floating around in the mid-eighties that just about any (and every) story concept that was proposed could get green-lit as an OVA. And this, my fine friends, is the proof that is true. I can only imagine that the director decided to chomp down on a whole pile of mushrooms, and then tell his assistant, "Okay, now write down everything that I say for the next three hours. And we will turn that into an anime." So what is the result?Well, there's no story. There's no plot. There's no words. It's just a sort of stream of consciousness dreamscape of disconnected images, featuring three guys in nothing but grass skirts (overtly racist character designs at that) running around doing...stuff. There is no point to all of this. At least, as far as I can tell. It's the sort of thing that you would expect to appear out of nowhere at 2AM on a bleary-eyed broadcast of Nightflight on the USA Network in 1986. It's decently animated, at least. Seems to me it was almost an exercise in the animator saying "let me show off all the different ways I can animate things!". And, the soundtrack is also decent enough. It's just...there's no point. At all.

Rate of 4 (decent) audio a mix of japanese/english Feelings upon watching this is mainly confusion. Surprisingly after watching it up to the end i found myself re-watching it. I must be more bonkers than they or he is. Ever watch the three stooges? Now, imagine a more African theme and comical song overplay. Then imagine a more childlike in attitude. Likes: art- depending on what plot segment they were going for they changed the background, audio, and appearance to make it fit. Any coop operation requires a lot of work. Having blended the way they did is interesting to say the least.Dislikes: -plot: from their intro to midway down to conclusion the viewer at first glance is thrown for loops countless times. Is my tv broken (change of art)? Did my volume die (sounds cuts off)? Not like a mystery where you have a story unfolding but are unsure of where it leads you to. p.s. i forgot to mention the show starts off with an old time tv test channel for the first 10 or seconds. Which was annoying. I could have easily shut down the video on that alone. This could have been more beneficial if it had optional subtitles. I find it hard to believe most first time watchers would grasp the delusional plot this has.

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