The Super Milk Chan Show, Vol. 1: 100% Whole (1998)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by Motoki Shina
Directed by Hideyuki Tanaka and Kiyohiro Ohmori

Features:

• Running audio commentary with the English voice cast
  
• Character Q&A
  
• New opening
  
• Original closing and opening animations
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Insipid, slow plots
• Unfunny jokes
• Bad animation aesthetics
• Annoying characters

Released by: ADV
Region: 1
Rating: 17+ (take that seriously)
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Have yourself hypnotized to forget you ever saw it. Buy Azumanga Daioh instead.

Super Milk-Chan Show is ostensibly an animation show intercut with live-action scenes. The show was originally released in several short, five-minute segments, and watching them as episodes shows this choppiness. In the English version, these live-action bits are behind-the-scenes segments taking place in an anime studio as the show is being produced. In the Japanese version, they are "video haiku," which are visually Japanese street scenes with made-up voiceovers that are trying to be funny; they remind me of nothing more than Saturday Night Live's "Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy"--supposedly funny, but really kind of lame...and yet the funniest part of the show.

The "heroine" of the main show, Milk Chan, is the very model of "anti-hero." She's very greedy indeed (especially in the first episode), foul-mouthed, foul-tempered, and arrogant. She also doesn't seem to do much that's "heroic," but instead spends her time threatening people and pretending she's a diva, when she's really just a little girl with baggy cuffs, who drools periodically for no reason, and pretends to take being a hero seriously. She somehow succeeds (sort-of) in finding the evil-doers, but not from her own cleverness, hard work, or even cuteness. The most annoying character of the show (second only to the wretched Milk herself) is the President--an egomaniacal idiot with anger management issues.

The live action English bits just plain fail to be funny and are too slow to get going. It's great to see the faces of the voices we enjoy hearing, but it's too bad that the scripts they were given just don't play naturally. The faux scenes are just too obviously faux. The only exception is when one of the voice actors pretends to take it upon herself to inform all the rivals for her part that she got the part and they lost, before that decision was actually supposedly made by ADV.

The audio is all good, but the sound effects are all a bit overdone, apparently intentionally. For example, when a character walks, they make rather loud squelching sounds; this plays into the slapstick aspects of the show, and is more of a modern style. However, it gets a bit old quickly, when the sound effects of all sorts seem as "important" to the show as the dialogue. The visuals are similarly sound, but underwhelming; the animation style is very childish (not child-like, alas) and stylized with simple backgrounds and quasi-science fiction architectural elements.

The features are decent, if not spectacular: on disk one, with the American episode versions, we get cast commentaries, which are more enjoyable, informative, and fun than the show proper, and a character Q&A that's nothing much special, but is an easy enough way to provide some special content. More producers could make use of something like that to keep costs down and yet still throw viewers a bone. It is nice to hear more from the voice actors. Disc two, which has the original Japanese episodes, replaces the behind-the-scenes breaks with "video haiku" breaks, which are as described above. We also see the new opening animation, which is nice if you like the show's look, and the original opening and closing animations.

Parents should be warned that, like any anime, this may not quite be appropriate for children. While there is no nudity, there is a great deal of profanity and sexual references. Basically, the show is trying way too hard to be "edgy" and instead is just silly and slow. It's not trying to be a documentary of course, but if you're at all interested in the real behind-the-scenes creation of anime (and what otaku isn't?), then you might find some enjoyment in the live action segments of the American version; however, it's trying too hard to be funny to actually be funny, much less informative. The gratuitous cursing, references to peeing, and sexual jokes make the show a pale and just plain not funny imitation of something like South Park. You're better off with Strange Dawn than with this.