Renkin San-kyuu Magical? Pokaan
錬金3級 まじかる?ぽか〜ん
Renkin San-kyuu Magical? Pokaan follows the daily lives of four young girls. There is just one catch: they are anything but normal. This group of friends—the energetic werewolf Liru, the joyful witch-in-training Uma, the motherly android Aiko, and the seductive vampire Pachira—are actually princesses from the netherworld who have traveled to the human world in search of a new home. Unfortunately, their naivety and severe lack of knowledge make living peacefully among earthlings much more difficult than they imagined. As they attempt to adapt to their brand new lifestyle, they cause all sorts of trouble, and end up attracting the unwanted attention of a woman by the name of Dr. K-Ko. The scientist believes that these new residents of Earth are up to no good and attempts to capture the girls to prove the existence of the supernatural and gain credibility with the scientific community. Every day brings a new adventure as the girls deal with the insanity of her antics and all that the human realm has to offer. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Synopsis
Renkin San-kyuu Magical? Pokaan follows the daily lives of four young girls. There is just one catch: they are anything but normal. This group of friends—the energetic werewolf Liru, the joyful witch-in-training Uma, the motherly android Aiko, and the seductive vampire Pachira—are actually princesses from the netherworld who have traveled to the human world in search of a new home. Unfortunately, their naivety and severe lack of knowledge make living peacefully among earthlings much more difficult than they imagined. As they attempt to adapt to their brand new lifestyle, they cause all sorts of trouble, and end up attracting the unwanted attention of a woman by the name of Dr. K-Ko. The scientist believes that these new residents of Earth are up to no good and attempts to capture the girls to prove the existence of the supernatural and gain credibility with the scientific community. Every day brings a new adventure as the girls deal with the insanity of her antics and all that the human realm has to offer. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Characters
Main
Main
Main
Main
Supporting
Supporting
Supporting
Supporting
Supporting
Supporting
Supporting
Recommendations
Reviews(11)
Archaeon
May 20, 2008
I'm not really a fan of ecchi comedies, and at first glance that what Renkin San-kyuu Magical? Pokaan (or MagiPoka as it's more commonly known), looks like. However, the old aphorism about never judging a book by it's cover applies to many anime and manga titles, and this is one of them. Anyone who labels this show as an ecchi comedy has probably missed most of the humour in it. Yes, there are ecchi moments, but unlike many other shows (e.g. Eiken, Amaenaide Yo!, Girls Bravo et al), MagiPoka has very strong anarchic and surrealistic comedy elements. In other words, this series has more in commonwith Seto no Hanayome, Yoshinaga-san`chi no Gargoyle, Inukami, Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu and other strange and equally "wrong" shows than it does with the typical ecchi comedies. The story is, surprisingly, very straightforward. Four princesses from the underworld (a witch, a vampire, a werewolf, and a female frankenstein type android), are living on earth and learning about humanity. Cue the comedy. The show is generally episodic in nature, but each episode is usually split into two individual stories so the viewer gets 24 episodesinstead of 12. This format suits MagiPoka because of the nature of the comedy involved, and although there will be detractors who want ongoing plot development, this show doesn't really suffer from any failings in that department as the main point of the series is to make the audience laugh. The art and animation are pretty decent overall. There are some irregular moments in the animation, and the characters sometimes look like they were finished in a rush. In all honesty though these minor flaws are not really an issue to one's enjoyment of the show as MagiPoka has many hilarious moments that easily rival sketches and skits found in some of the big guns of comedy anime (that and you may be laughing too much to care). The sound is pretty decent overall, and the show has a nice range of background tracks and effects which are usually put to good use (although some are noticeably off-kilter). One of the things that sets this show apart though (at least for me), are the OP and ED. The ED shows one of the girls in (or on), a vehicle of some sort, but the entire thing (girl and vehicle), is actually a wind up toy, and all of it is animated in 3d. The ED songs are also tailored to each girl shown in the credit sequence (usually a different princess per episode), and the music is purposely made to sound like it's being sung in a karaoke booth. The OP on the other hand, has been specifically designed to be misleading. The opening track is a half decent J-rock song that has dark and serious overtones. This is reflected in the animation of the opening sequence as it shows the girls with injuries or being seductive, implies nakedness, and even goes so far as to include a bit of shoujo-ai. After watching the first few episodes, then re-watching the OP, I couldn't help but laugh at the joke (feel free to ask if you don't understand it). One area where MagiPoka excels is with the characters. All four girls have simple personalities, and are amazingly funny because of this. As they're from the netherworld, the misconception is that they're evil when nothing could be further from the truth. Each of the girls has quirks that are hilarious as well - the android sinks in water as she's too heavy, the vampire wears a large cardboard box on her head when she goes out in the sun, the witch simply doesn't understand anything and her magic only works well when she's ill, and the werewolf has a tendency to turn into a small dog when she's excited. There's more than just those quirks as well, but you'll have to watch the show to see them. Now I'll freely admit that I'm a fan of strange, weird, and just plain silly comedies, and I honestly enjoyed MagiPoka immensely, especially the first half of episode 6 - coming back from the dead has never been funnier. The show won't appeal to everyone, but fans of Inukami, Yoshinaga-san`chi no Gargoyle, Seto no Hanayome, Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu and other shows of that ilk should may find something to entertain them here. The main thing that may put people off watching is the lack of plot and character development, but this is one of those shows that doesn't really need any of that stuff, and is probably better without it. Renkin San-kyuu Magical? Pokaan is odd, anarchic, and very wrong at times. It's also extremely funny, and I'd recommend it to anyone with half an ounce of humour in their body. This show was never meant to be taken seriously, so don't be fooled into thinking this is something it's not. Seriously, don't judge a book by it's cover.
