Pani Poni
| Pani Poni | |
|---|---|
| File:Paniponieyecatch.jpg | |
| Created by | Hekiru Hikawa |
| Starring | Ai Nonaka, Chiwa Saito, Fumiko Orikasa, Satsuki Yukino |
| Country of origin | Japan |
| No. of episodes | Unknown |
| Production | |
| Running time | 23 minutes per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | TV Tokyo (Japan) |
| Release | July 3, 2005 – Not yet ended |
Pani Poni Dash! is an anime recently released Japan. Although currently unlicensed in the USA, it is becoming popular in American cities around the globe.
Summary of Pani Poni Dash! as written by Anime News Network: The 11 year old Miyamoto Rebecca becomes the new teacher of a classroom which is full of weirdos. Despite her cute looks she`s a little beast and can be pretty sarcastic and offensive. The school is not safe anymore now that she`s in charge of a class and her students, Himeko, Ichijou, Rei and a white rabbit who took a liking to Rebecca help her to rough up the school and the neighbor-class with its teacher "ojiichan".
Much of Pani Poni Dash!'s humour relies on a lot of parody and references. Everything from The Exorcist, to Gundam to Super Mario Bros, much of which you need to freeze-frame to catch them. There's also a lot of references and jokes about Japanese culture and language, the series can be quite unfriendly to foreign viewers. Japanese internet culture, such as on the infamous Japanese message board 2channel is another pillar of Puni Poni Dash!'s humour, with many references to Japanese emoticons. At stages in the series a character's facial feature will be replaced by these emoticons.
Characters
Rebecca Miyamoto An 11-year-old genius who recently graduated from M.I.T and the current teacher of class 1-C. Don't be fooled by her child-like appearance, Becky (as nicknamed by her students) is smart, cold, crude and easily angered. But like most kids, she's easily frightened by scary things and loves lollipops.
Himeko Katagiri A wastefully energetic girl who often shouts "maho" (a meaning-less word) while speaking. She frequently annoys the other students in her class with her antics and inability to carry a straight train of thought. Her "ahoge" (the lock of hair on her head) contains a mysterious power that gives Himeko her limitless-energy.
Rei Tachibana A girl with a heart as cold as ice, Rei is the mature one of the girls. Threatening bodily harm is Rei's way of enforcing order in the classroom, Himeko being her usual target. She's the one to put Becky in her place when she gets out of hand and also the one to lure Becky out from behind the curtain with candy after she's put the fear of God into her.
Ichijo-san The mysterious class representative, who's frequently shown drinking green tea. Pretty much all she does is stand up, sit down and announce that she's "The class representative, Ichijo".
Miyako Uehara Known as a "study-bug" (a name she hates), Miyako is nearly always studying. For some reason she also has a really shiny forehead which gets more extreme with each episode. It starts off with a simple sheen in the first episode, in the 2nd episode it's become a blinding flash and by the 3rd episode other characters can style their hair in the reflection of her forehead (to which she responds with "How about dying for once?!").
Mesousa A parody of the "cute mascot" type characters you often see in anime, with one huge difference. Mesousa has a severe case of depression. You would be too if your lack of fingers made everyday tasks impossible. Practically useless in every way, Mesousa serves as the slapstick of the series, being blown up in one episode and having his legs broken in another, all without complaint.
Kurumi Momose A plain-looking girl who's easily upset by this fact. If there's a hint that someone's called her plain, she goes off to sulk.