The Show:
The strange adventures of the world's most popular foul mouthed five-year-old
superhero continue with ADV's release of the second volume of The Super
Milk-Chan Show. Just as odd and humorous as the first volume,
this two disc set is sure to please fans of the first volume.
This DVD set is a little different than most. There are two DVDs
in this set, one that contains the new English versions that have been
heavily altered to make the show more accessible for American audiences,
and a second disc that has the original Japanese shows, in a standard translation.
There are three episodes of the recent Super Milk-Chan show and
four "vintage" episodes. The same episodes are on each DVD so you
can compare the ADV version with the way it was meant to be seen.
The Americanized versions also have live action interludes with the voice
actors and producers at ADV.
This series is hard to describe because the plots aren't the source
of the humor, it's the dialog. The plots are offbeat and strange,
but they pale in comparison to Milk-Chan's foul-mouthed ramblings.
Her banter with the president and her arguments with Tesco as outrageous.
In this volume, the president gives a press conference and talks about
how his potency makes up for his lack of size. Milk-Chan watches
her favorite reality TV show "Poor People Dining" where the host makes
fun of the things that poor people eat, and she goes off in search of the
perfect rice cake.
I really enjoyed the Americanized version of this show. Every
episode has a lot of laughs. The show has a finely developed sense
of the bizarre and some of the situations are laugh out loud funny.
The live action sequences in this volume involve the cast getting trapped
in the ADV building when the power goes off after a new security system
locks all the doors. It didn't have as many laughs as the first volume's
story, but it was still pretty good. It's fun to see the faces behind
the voices that I've heard so many times on anime shows.
As far as I'm concerned, the Japanese version is not nearly as funny
as the Americanized version of the show. As a matter of fact, it
wasn't funny at all. There are just too many cultural references
that fly by me. I'm fairly well versed in anime and know something
about Japanese culture, but these references were very obscure. I
know there are a lot of people who prefer the Japanese version, but I don't
fall into that camp. The tone of the Japanese show was much more
quiet too. It wasn't as dynamic and loud as the ADV Americanized
version, and that seemed to sap a lot of the humor out of it for me.
I guess that's just another cultural difference.
Kudos go out to ADV for putting the way they are releasing this series.
These two disc sets, priced the same as a single DVD, gives fans a chance
to see both versions of the show, without an added exspense.
This DVD is rated as 17+, and there are a lot of swearing and sexual
suggestive phrases. (Some of which I can't even list here.)
I'd definitely recommend that parents preview the new version before letting
their children watch this. It is definitely aimed at adult viewers, no
matter how cute the character on the cover is.
The DVD:
Audio:
The second disc, the one that has the original shows, are presented
in both English and the original Japanese with English subtitles.
The Americanized version has only an English soundtrack without any subtitles.
All soundtracks were in stereo. The audio sounded clear and clean
on all tracks, without any distortion or other defects. There was
a light hum in the background of the vintage episodes, but this was very
minor. A good sounding disc.
Video:
The full frame video was very good. The new episodes were very
bright and colorful with sharp lines. The vintage shows were a little
faded, with more sedate colors, but they still looked fine. The color
in the live action sequences were a little too bright, especially the reds.
Other than that, there weren't any digital defects worth noting.
This was a very nice looking DVD.
Extras:
The extras included on this DVD include a text based Q&A page with
the American voice talent, the original Japanese openings and closings
(without sound) and a new opening animation sequence.
Final Thoughts:
I still find the American version of this show outrageously funny.
The only thing I can think to compare it to is South Park. Both shows
have a strange sense of humor and get a lot of laughs from cultural references
and young kids swearing. While this show won't be for everyone, if
you enjoy off beat humor you should really check it out. Highly Recommended.
Buy: