Dai Mahou Touge - 2006 OVA Series animated by Studio Barcelona directed by Tsutomu Mizushima. 4 Episodes based on the manga by Hideki Ohwada.
Magical Witch Punie-chan (or Dai Mahou Touge) is without a doubt the funniest anime I’ve seen in recent memory. I don’t laugh often at anime shows, usually the best they can manage is a giggle here and there even if I really like it. I found this show to be really laugh out loud funny. Turns out the director Tsutomu Mizushima is responsible for directing all the other anime that I’ve ever found funny like Hare & Guu and Genshiken.
The story is of Punie who is a princess from a magical kingdom who is on Earth which will eventually be hers to rule. By all accounts her homeland is a cute and happy place with bright colors and circus-like music playing. But under that veneer (and just about everything cute looking on this show) relentlessly sinister forces are at work. Basically the show took the typical magical girl anime show formula and completely subverts it at every turn.
That's a happy looking eye if I've ever seen one.
During Punie’s magical rod sequence (which starts off “Lyrical Tokarev, kill them all!”) we see the hideous eye on her magic wand that erupts with a sickening organic squishing sound. First time she uses it to summon a swarm of adorable posse of vegetables in a song that sounds very similar to the Pokemon rap song at the end of the episodes. Things turn dark quickly as the veggie’s eyes turn evil and they bludgeon Punie’s enemies to a bruised pulp.
Awwwww aren't they ADORABLE???
Awwwww aren't they VICIOUS???
This is the basic formula of the show where things will start off cute and then turn dark and/or violent with hilarious results. Other than her magic wand Punie’s most powerful method of attack are her grappling submission holds (all of which are named “Princess ——”). The show has really fantastic comic timing, but really the humor is in the contrasts it creates in everything by injecting typical Japanese culture or anime tropes into the magical girl formula.
A magical potato committing seppuku for the sake of becoming delicious curry
By far my favorite character is Punie’s mascot Paya-tan (-tan is a Japanese suffix used for endearing or cute sort of characters). A common anime thing is to have the cute mascot character that ends up being sold as plush dolls and other cute show paraphernalia. Another thing common to make the character cuter is that everything they say ends with their name. For example “Delicious-paya!”
he has "PA" written on his chest in katakana
It's a perfect place to find a mascot sidekick!
Paya-tan has a regular cute mascot voice when he looks cute, but when he gets serious his eyes turn into those of a hardened tough guy eyes and his voice becomes deep like you’d imagine a yakuza type or evil villain having. He also has some hilarious flashback scenes spoofing films like Apocalypse Now and Platoon.
There’s no real plot arc to Dai Mahou Touge. Each episode is usually someone trying to defeat her and usurp power from her and her evil Queen mother. Then the episode ends in a rather violent confrontation. The fight scenes in the show are really well animated, and the submission holds look like they were well researched for the show. Some don’t look entirely realistic, but it’s clear they had some sort of advisor helping them choreograph the fight scenes.
Princess Cross-Legged Lock!
If you’ve watched a lot of anime, especially magical girl shows and shonen action anime like Fist of the Northstar or things of that ilk you’ll probably find this show hilarious. Its extremely nihilistic and mean spirited twist to everything is comic gold. Highly recommended!
DVD – The DVD doesn’t have a dub or textless opening or closing credits. Also there were four omake episodes that showed Punie in her homeland which weren’t included. It’s a shame because I love this show so much, and the lack of omake episodes is really an irritating omission to the DVD release.
Links
Opening Credits Sequence
