Popotan – Enigma (Volume Two/Animé TV)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: C
Though meant for ages 16 and up, the drawn nudity once
again in the Animé TV series Popotan is more so than we have seen in the
dozens of Animé titles we have covered to date. With that said, it is not as outrageous or offensive as something
exploitive like Cosplay Complex (reviewed elsewhere on this site), but
some may think 16 is possibly not old enough in some situations considering the
mix of nudity and animation is still somewhat taboo in American society.
The show is not anywhere as obsessed with nude body
images, but is shockingly casual about it.
Enigma features the next four episodes of the series, which
includes storylines of a young boy who has broken into a house of girls because
he thinks it is haunted. The girls
laugh, but he may be right. Before you
know it, more mysterious persons surface, as do magic occurrences and getting a
doll repaired turns out to be a task like nothing anyone expects. Unfortunately, the narrative does not match
the promise of those situations, as the humor is too often as overdone as the
nudity, but it is different enough to at least gain a cult following of some
sort. What is worse, one of the young
boys is suddenly a teenager, so when did all this narrative get lost?
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X1 image is better than
what we usually see in such Animé TV production, both because of the good color
fidelity and the near-abandonment of images made purposely softer than
usual. That is an annoying cliché of
the genre and it’s about time another show broke it. The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo has just enough surround information
to consider using Pro Logic surround in home theater playback, making this one
of the best performing combination from Geneon DVD to date. The lame extras are once again the opening
without text credits and a full color art gallery, plus a small paper foldout
in the DVD case. Popotan is
nothing great except in its technical playback, but there is obviously an
audience for something sexual like this, just in its casual attitude. We will not review this show again until it
gets better, if that.
- Nicholas Sheffo
