Cinnamon Ass

Ah, October. Another new season, another batch of new shows set to ignite the passions of fanboyism in a thousand sweaty otaku, another fresh helping of slashbait to set the exclamation mark keys on the computers of countless fen a-mashing. Personally, I think this season looks a bit pants compared to others in the past, but I’m sure there will be a few choice gems out there (personally, I’m most looking forward to Moyashimon, Ghost Hound and (don’t hurt me) Dragonaut, regardless of their actual quality…).

However, let’s begin on October 1st, unsurprisingly. A quick glance at Anime Nano reveals that the usual shows are getting preliminary impressions - a dating game adaptation here, a show filled with “cute” girls there, no doubt the presumably moe “delights” of Sketchbook will be popping up on a blog somewhere near you shortly.

Not this one, my friends. Not this one. For I bring you…

Look upon its face and despair, for all you thought was good is now turned to bitter, bitter ashes.

Actually, that’s not really fair on Kawaii JenNy!, annoying punctuation and all. It’s the kind of weird crap that ends up in all late night schedules the world over - it just happens to be Japanese, and therefore both stranger and creepier.

Essentially, it’s a fairly standard magical girl story told with Barbie-esque dolls, as Jenny, Akira and Nadesico are kidnapped by some giant teddy bears whilst attempting to attend an audition to become a model and thrown on a London double-decker bus emblazoned with a Lucozade advert. There, a cybernetic toy dog transforms them into the Sweets Angels, magical girls who…like sweets. There’s a manic rival (whose henchmen are the teddy bears) but I can’t remember her name, but it’s all pretty standard stuff.

Aside from the fact, of course, that it’s told with Barbie dolls, which makes it perhaps the most terrifying spectacle I’ve seen in a while. It’s the care that’s been taken with everything (well, almost everything) - some of the movement must have taken the filmmakers absolutely bloody ages to do, and yet still it looks hilariously awful. Especially when they forget to make the dolls bob up and down and they just slide across the camera, like the maid with the sweets trolley. Plus, dude, giant idiotic teddy bears with Nazi uniforms and monocles. What’s not to love?

Of course, you have to do what I did and watch this on Nico Nico Douga. Not for the geek points (it’s a practicality - no raw capper in their right mind is going to actually touch this show…are they?) but because the soundtrack goes out of synch a few minutes in so you hear all the dialogue about a minute before the scene in question actually happens, which makes the whole thing so. much. better.

Truly, if you haven’t seen Kawaii JenNy! you haven’t livEd!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 10:15 pm and is filed under One Shot Wonders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.