Moetan

Moetan currently stands as the lowest rated anime on MAL that I have given this high of a rating to and honestly, it's deserved. This may well be the stupidest magical girl anime in existence (unless you consider Dokuro-chan a mahou shoujo) but that's precisely why I find it so funny. Let's take a look at why this is one of my favorite pieces of trash.

Story 4/10
A loli-loving man from a parallel universe gets banished from his world and turned into a duck so that he can help a high school senior that looks half as old as she actually is teach people English by ... turning into a magical girl. This is the level of stupidity that is so stupid it transcends being stupid and loops back into pure brilliance. Pure. Fucking. Brilliance.

Characters 7/10
The characters were able to make me laugh pretty consistently, it takes a good set of characters to pull off stupid comedy and have it actually be funny. Both the side characters (some of whom are more or less just gag characters) and main characters do well in delivering the show's humor.

Art 5/10
Moetan features low-budget moeblob art and animation. Honestly, I think low budget art can make a comedy funnier when done right, especially a stupid one like this as it adds a further pinch of stupidity to the stupidness with its low-budget-y-ness.

Sound 5/10
Pretty unremarkable but fitting for the show. You also get to hear some Engrish! (actually not half bad compared to the Engrish in some anime, maybe even sometimes good enough to be called English!)

Enjoyment 8/10
This is the only category that matters for a comedy really (well this and maybe characters) and Moetan nailed it here. I laughed my ass off at this show as it continued to be stupid and random in unexpected and hilarious ways. Yes, there are a lot of stupid and random comedies out there and a lot of them aren't funny. To a lot of people, Moetan won't be funny, but for me it just hit that sweet spot as that special kind of trash I really love.

Overall 8/10 (Excellent)
Do you like really stupid comedy (think Aho Girl, Dokuro-chan, Kill Me Baby)? Do you like cutesy magical girl shows? If you answered "yes" to both those questions, watch Moetan. If you answered "yes" to just one, maybe give it a try. If you answered "no" to both questions, this anime isn't worth your time.

As much as I've said "stupid" and "trash" in this review though, I can't stress enough that I really did love this show. There's stupid stupid and brilliant stupid and which is which varies from person to person based on their tastes, but for me Moetan is that brilliant kind of stupid. It definitely ain't for everyone though!

If you like comedy, cute characters, and fan service, this is the perfect series. And I mean perfect, filled to the brim with great laughs, carefully designed character archetypes, and a plethora of nosebleed moments. Character design by POP, best character designer to grace the medium.

This series definitely has it's priorities straight. It doesn't beat around the bush trying to saturate itself with some sort of semblance of storyline depth, and doesn't waste any time trying to feed you some crap about emotional complexities of characters. It gets right to the point: cute girls, laughs, panties, charming moments, and plenty of one piece swimsuits. Even ... while lacking a focus on depth of character, Ink still ends up being one of my favorite anime characters, the stereotypes are done in a good way. Ink is your typical altruistic but clumsy magical girl, and that's what makes her cute. Sumi is your typical dumb bratty self-centered loli, and it's perfect. Easily has among the best transformation sequences in the mahou shoujo genre. Also has an 11/10 ED track, and really good specials that don't leave you feeling disappointed.

Moetan was certainly an.. experience?

A fairly standard mahou shoujo show but at the same time it's a moe blob ecchi comedy mostly. It's also one of those shows that you can't easily mention to people you have seen without someone hinting the authorities as it features high school girls with smaller proportions that normal.

And again normally that would be fine but the show is really fan servicy with them. Every single episode has some amount of sussy shots or actions that are lewd. There was even a meta episode where the producers said screw it, just make an episode that is only fan service from ... start to finish as they figured that's what the audience really watches the show for anyway.

The main characters Ink and Sumi are pretty fun. Ink is your usual genki type main character who just wants to get along with everyone and teach her crush English. Sumi is a rich ojou-sama but dumb as a brick. We don't get to see Alice nearly as much as those two for some reason but she is an idol who has a serious personal life side to her.

Oh and the show is a reverse isekai too, forgot to mention that. The whole reason we have mahou shoujos is that magicians from a magic kingdom fantasy world were sent to the human world to atone for their sins in the form of acting as mascots for them to perform good deeds. Although them being very blatant lolicons isn't making their rehabilitation any easier.

The plot itself is near non-existent as the main focus is on the slapstick, moe comedy and fan service. So depending on how much enjoyment you get out of those dictates if the show is for you or not. Personally I thought the comedy was pretty good but after a while it started to feel a bit too samey but I did get some actual chuckles here and there. Especially when they broke the fourth wall often or referenced other media like Gundam. The English lessons of arbitrary phrases in the post credits scenes were amusing too.

Visually the show is neat. It has this really great 2000s vibe to it that is hard to put into words and for a show from 2007, it has aged fairly well. Despite not having a ton of motion in scenes, CGI was never used and everything was hand drawn with minimal stock footage.

However the show does end on a pretty flat note (pun intended) and the magic kingdom plot was extremely rushed. Luckily most of the show is the kind of episodic stuff that fits it better than actual plot regardless.

Oh and the specials are worth watching too. The recap is whatever but the second one which takes place after the final episode is a fun, over the top send-off.

I had a pretty okay time with Moetan. I wanted to enjoy it more but was left just whelmed. If episode 1 doesn't interest you then I'd advise probably looking elsewhere but otherwise it's a short, fun little comedy.