Magical Witch Punie-Chan

Skadi★ 8

Dai Mahou Touge or Magical Witch Punie-chan reminded me right off the bat of another series, Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. That wasn’t a good sign considering how much I hated that show. However Punie is something Dokuro-chan wasn’t, a truly funny and entertaining dark comedy/parody. The premise of Punie-chan is pretty basic. Punie is a princess from another world sent to earth for a year by her mother for "training". It is unclear what this training is beyond defending herself against an onslaught of characters out to kill her, including her own siblings. The series is episodic in nature and have very little to do with eachother from a story standpoint. While the plot is really nonexistent what this show does so well is the humor. It is crude, violent, and decidedly dark but very funny. Fans of black comedy and people who like seeing the role reversal of cute moe characters behaving out of their norms will love this series. Characters in this show are the strongest point. Punie shines as the sweet and adorable moe princess with a dark evil side a mile wide. She’s not particularly likable but I couldn’t help but find her amusing. She doesn’t treat anyone very well, such as using her friends to spring traps meant for her, stealing tests, and ruining love lives. Still she manages to be a very funny character. The supporting cast is very strong as well. Punie has a number of hilarious rivals who she must defeat. The end result for them is a lot of pain and broken bones. Everyone is sure to have a favorite or two from this group. The art and animation are very good. The color palette is vibrant and character models I think are very fitting for their personalities. I found the mix of styles, from the super cutesy looking yet dark magical world to Anego and her gang of tough girls. This anime shows you can have violent and bloody humor without the excessive and disturbing amount of gore. The cast is wonderfully acted and all the bones are broken with disturbingly real sounding effects. The OP/EN songs are excellent and fit the tone of the show perfectly. Overall I really enjoyed this show and found it to be one of the best dark comedies I have seen. Those who loved the aforementioned Dokuro-chan will like this, but I think those of us who were turned off by its gore and cruelty but still like this kind of humor will find Punie-chan much easier to stomach.

Xaltwind★ 9

Dark, twisted, tainted and through'n-through madness. If you are not a fan of dark humour and twisted jokes you will not enjoy this series. But, if you do enjoy stories and gags which are just completely wrong, in every little way, then you will love this show, because it delivers encore upon encore of wretched, bizarre and just plain evil jokes and enjoyment. There is no overall plot really, the story revolves around the heroine, Punie Tanako, who is sent to the human world from her home-world of "Magic Land", to study and grow stronger so that she can eventually inherit the title of Queen. Andthat's about it, the rest of the show is just glimpses of how the little girl deals with everyday life in the human world. So if you're hoping for an epic plot, you won't find it here. What you will find however is great, great and once more, great characters. Punie is just the epitome of awesome in every possible way. Not only is she adorable and cute, but she's also so gruesomely dark and sinister, sadistic and cruel and just blatantly evil that you'll fall in love with her at first notice. This is aided when her murderous mascot (who very much would like to cut her throat) appears and adds even another layer of comedic madness to the show. You'll get to see Punie abuse her friends, mercilessly insult them without a second thought or concern for their feelings and of course, get to see her trademark wrestling/submission moves as she breaks joints and limbs recurringly. The opening-theme and animation is also simply wonderful. The cheery tune and peppy beat makes for a nice contrast as we get to see the little hellraiser dance around while the background is set on fire, while smiling ever so innocently, almost laughing I would imagine. The sound is clear and the voice-acting is fits in perfectly. You'll even find a certain audio-based gag in the episode where Anego (one of Punie's "friends") go on a date with a boy, if you listen close enough that is. The voices fit the characters very well, and as usual the seiyus have put emotion and effort into their characters, making them very enjoyable to listen to. In conclusion, faint of heart should not watch this, and people who value their childhood dreams about fairy tales and magical kingdoms should also probably stay away. But everyone else, who likes to laugh, should definetely, without a doubt, watch this as soon as they can.