Mao-Chan 3 – Song Of Defense

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Episodes: C+

 

 

In our continuing look at Japanese Animé series, we get an all-ages show called Mao Chan, which we join in progress with the third DVD issued of the series.  This covers “missions’ (read episodes) 15 – 20.  The twist is that this is very explicitly aimed at young girls, and except for a few minor points, seems just fine of them.  Three girls of pre-teen age are part of a military operation to find aliens in their school and community, assisted in part by a “cute animal” engineered by the government.  If that was not wacky enough, other animals are all over the place, but aliens (who do not have to seem a reason to attack anything in a way that makes sense) could be destroying buildings and other landmarks in Japan if not stopped.  This is further complicated by the constant use of clover leafs, usually an Irish motif.

 

There is not much to explain further, except that the show simply wants to be cutesy and is aimed at young girls in a way that is repetitious.  I do not know how long young girls would want to repeatedly watch this, but parents and/or guardians will have to let them see it to find out.  It is harmless for the most part.

 

The full frame image is in color with none of the purposely intended faded images often seen in Animé series.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo surround soundtracks in Pro Logic and with either English or Japanese languages are fairly good, but nothing spectacular.  The extras include a voice bloopers section, trailers for three other Geneon titles, and the continuation of an interview with series director Yoshiaki Iwasaki.

 

The show also offers more explicit comedy that is never degrading of the characters or its audience, which is a change from much of the explicitly violent happenings in Animé programming.  It may have a limited audience, but we’ve seen worse for kids and adults, so Mao Chan might be worth looking into for a young female age group.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo