MAGICAL NYAN NYAN TARUTO
It's stuff like this that made Siegfried and Roy leave magic behind
Review by: Craig "Mauled By 'Tame' White Tiger" Norris
Length: 12 episodes
Genre: Fantasy, magical girl
Watched: 1-12, subbed
This series depressed me. No, it's not a symbolism-laden existential romp to the apocalypse like End of Evangelion. And no, it's not a "God why can't I get a bunch of hot chicks like that pathetic dork" romance anime like Love Hina, Ah! My Goddess, et al. This series depressed me for a totally new reason. Namely, the inability of plot and a multitude of catgirls to coexist in harmony. I first felt the sting of the incompatibility of these two elements as I suffered through UFO Princess Valkyrie, but hoped it was an isolated incident. Unfortunately the sad trend continued through this much less than stellar production.
Plot synopsis: The young catgirl Taruto has just moved to the seaside town of Okashina with her master, Iori, and his sister, Kinako. After befriending some of the local cat-people, she hears of a legend about a race of magic-using cat-people from another dimension that sent their princess away to save her from the fall of their empire. Taruto, who can use magic to a very limited extent, becomes convinced that she is the lost princess of legend. Almost none of her friends believe her, but as more and more of the past of the magical cat-people surfaces, it becomes quite possible that Taruto is exactly who she says she is.
Artwork: It attempts to be bright and vibrant, but from a technical standpoint it is unimpressive. Backgrounds range from iffy to absolutely horrid, with some looking like the pride and joy of a preschool finger painter. The cel animation is tolerable, but nothing that couldn't have been done better. The style is very childish, which probably corresponds perfectly to the target audience. In the grand scheme of visual achievement in an anime, this series most decidedly falls on the lower end of the spectrum.
Music: Painful. Both the opening and closing themes annoyed the hell out of me with their fluffy, no-substance droning. The opening song was particularly sickening, complete with a whiny singer who makes me wonder if it isn't Barry Gibb of Bee Gees fame taking up Japanese as a second language. As for the rest of the soundtrack, it consists of a bunch of phoned in melodies from a music department that knew better than to try too hard on this sorry series. My advice to you would be to watch the subtitled version of this series with the mute button firmly pressed, as the music-and a good many of the voices-will grate on your nerves and drive you to within a hair's breadth of stabbing yourself in the ear with a sharp pencil.
Characters: This group of lackluster characters is hardly the brightest bunch of flowers in the garden. Taruto, who is unfortunately the main character, seems to serve no other purpose than to be ignorant, hopelessly optimistic, and sweet enough to induce prolonged dry heaves. Her juvenile and over-simplified personality combine with a glass-shattering squeak of a voice to make her one of the most annoying anime characters I have ever had the displeasure of suffering through. Iori, Taruto's owner, needs to cut back on the valium. Totally oblivious to anyone but himself, he lives only to make desserts, take naps, and surrender to fits of motionless melancholy. In other words, he is the exact opposite of Taruto, which really makes me wonder why they would be so devoted to each other. Charlotte and Chitose are the first catgirls that Taruto meets in her new town, and they become fast friends. I wish I could describe them here, but there's really nothing to describe. All I came up with is that Charlotte hates cages, and Chitose is obsessed with Taruto's tail. Exceedingly flat, as you can see, but at least they're not annoying. Kinako, Iori's sister, suffers from the same lack of character development, and seems to be present just to take some screen time away from Taruto. That alone easily makes her my favorite character in the series. Anzuko is Iori's neighbor whom Iori falls completely head-over-heels for. However, Anzuko's only interest is adding more cat-people to her "collection," and once she sees Taruto, she becomes her latest target. I guess her taste in catgirls is much more forgiving than my own. Kakipi is a flying squirrel that Taruto helped with her magic. As a result, he becomes her devoted friend, and seems to be the only one besides Taruto who completely buys into the idea that she's a princess. Potechi and Nachos are a pair of "bad cats" who cause mischief around town for no real reason, other than it's what bad cats are supposed to do. Potechi is much more dedicated to her job than Nachos, who is often distracted by Taruto's cuteness. Chiffon is a well-read catgirl who is sought for answers, and is mainly present for exposition. Aside from being an obvious bookworm, she doesn't have much of a personality. Rakugan is an elderly catboy who takes Taruto under his wing as an apprentice, even though he doesn't have much that he can teach her. Basically, he's the typical inept teacher who thinks he's more important than he is. What the characters lack in quality, the show attempts to make up for in quantity. Just like with everything else about this series, that plan failed spectacularly.
Plot: The main complaint I have about the plot is that, instead of the legend of the lost catgirl princess starting out as a rumor and gradually grow more and more feasible, the first minute of the first episode comes out and explains it in detail, leaving little doubt as to Taruto's true identity. Worst of all, the series doesn't deal with that main plot again until more than halfway through. I guess the creators wanted to give Taruto every opportunity to be overly cute, so they sacrificed plot progression. They got that part backwards, if you ask me. Anyway, the plot concept is kind of interesting, but its execution is very flawed. Maybe if the characters didn't drag the whole thing down so much, the plot would be halfway entertaining.
CHICKS!: Lots of catgirls on screen would normally transform me into a drooling, babbling shell of my normally articulate self. However, the catgirls in this series suffer from a major physical flaw: they're all only two feet tall! Now, I have nothing at all against short people, but extreme diminutiveness is not something that really turns me on that much. As for the human chicks, Kinako is bland jailbait, and Anzuko is a lunatic. So, unless there's a large contingent of vertically-impaired catgirl fanciers that I don't know about, I doubt that any of the chicks in this series would hold wide appeal. Too bad, because if Chiffon were closer to my height, I'd let her be *my* master. Meow, baby.
Overall: I knew going into this series that it was aimed for a younger audience, so my expectations were not really high. I was hoping that it would at least appeal to my inner child. After a few episodes, though, my inner child was throwing a tantrum, and I decided that I needed to suffer through the rest of it just so I could lambaste it here and warn others of its poor quality. If you need your catgirl fix, watch Hyper Police or Nuku Nuku, and leave this title alone. The only thing "magical" about it is how much it sucks.
IN A NUTSHELL:
+ May (and that's a big "may") appeal to children
+ Lots of catgirls...
- ...that are only two feet tall!
- Awful music
- Annoying characters
- Poor plot progression
Rating: 2/10
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