Popotan 12 + Wrap-Up

  
  

Well, this is it :) Short summary this time since it's the last episode.

The dour mood which we left the last episode with continues in this one and even gets a bit more blue. The sisters have gone to the place they wanted, but... they're still not very happy at all. We do get a happy resolution in the end, though. Watch to find out what happens :)

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Time for a wrap-up! Honestly, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Popotan given its H-game roots, but much like Da Capo it managed to surprise me. It's a first, at least for me.. a show with lots of fanservice that actually manages to have a story that works well ;) It started off episodic, but later on picked up a larger, pretty serious story arc, which is always a good thing to me. The characters themselves -- Ai, Mai, and Mii -- were pretty interesting, though maybe a bit stereotypical in ways. I would say that Mai comes out as the best done character since she's given a lot of time to develop character and explain how she sees things.

As for the other things.. animation quality was mostly good, except for a few places in a couple of episodes. Popotan is filled with bright colors that come out well, and the very popular nowadays 16x9 format worked well, too. Music was all pretty well done and all fit the places where it was used. The opening and ending songs were both pretty catchy, too.

Overall, for an H-game-turned-anime Popotan came out pretty well. Despite the overuse of fanservice (most I've seen in any show I've watched), it exceeded my expectations in story so I enjoyed it a lot. With that, Popotan is very much deserving of a solid B from me. Good job :)

Final Rating: B

More Information:
Original Work: Petit Ferret
Animation: Shaft
Episodes: 12
Official Website: http://www.popotan.com/

Fansub Information:
Subbed by: The Triad
Fansub Grade: A. No big issues with translation or video quality here. The extra credits sequence added on to the last episode was well done, too. A couple of the jobs listed were quite funny. Great job! :)
Available at: http://a.scarywater.net/triad/. 2 1GB batch torrents of 6 episodes each.

Useless Info:
Began watching: March 1st 2004
Finished watching: March 10th 2004
Number of episodes with extended bath scenes: 11
Number of episodes with fanservice: 12
Favorite Episodes: On the light side of things, episode 3 where we're introduced to mahou shoujo Mii-tan! on the more serious side, episode 9.
Number of times Mii does "puni-puni" checks on things: Too many times, IMO ;)
Questions:
Why does Ai sleep in that?
What are Mii's standards for passing the "puni-puni" check?
Why didn't they hire someone else to do the next episode previews since Unagi-chan keeps on forgetting to do it?
Why does there have to be a bath scene in almost every episode?
Did the fanboys (who bought the game for 8800 yen or so) really requestthis much service?
How popular was the Popotan game? Must've been pretty popular to be made into an anime, I think...

That is all :) Be sure to check out Sea Slugs! review of Popotan, too! Seems like we arrived at much the same conclusion about it, ne? ;)