Di Gi Charat started out as a mascot for a store chain called Gamers.  The characters became so popular that they were given a TV show of their own.  This first set of shows led to a second season, and a third, and a fourth.  The original show hasn't made it over to the states on DVD yet, but ADV has just released a spin-off series that takes place a couple of years before the events in the original show; Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat.  The disc contains 12 mini-episodes that are 5-6 minutes long grouped into three half hour shows.

Princess Dejiko lives on the planet Di Gi Charat.  As the show starts, she's reading a book about a good samaritan.   She decided that's what she wants to do:  go out into the world and make people happy.  So instead of doing her schoolwork she convinces her tutor to let her go on an extended 'field trip' to help people.  With her chaperone Gema, a large yellow floating ball with arms, accompanying her, Dejiko sets off.  She soon makes several friends, all who want to help her in her quest.

No job is too small or too large for Dejiko to tackle.  Whether it is helping a narcoleptic baker, or standing in for an actress who has walked off the set, she's ready to lend a helping hand, often with amusing results.  But Dejiko has her work cut out for her when Deji Devil lands on her planet with his assistant Piyoko.  Deji's mission is to make people unhappy, and he is constantly trying to ruin Dejiko's plans.

This is a great show for younger kids.  It reminded me of Hamtaro a good bit.  The bad guys are more comic relief than actually evil, and the problem that Dejiko and her friends find themselves in are not that difficult or dangerous.

There is a lot of humor in this show, and it is simple but effective.  One episode has Piyoko trying to hit Dejiko on the head so she'll forget her lines when she tries out for an acting job.  Piyoko makes several attempts, hoisting large weights up in the air with pulleys, only to have them land on her head each and every time.  Then there is the unique way that they tell time on Di Gi Charat:  every hour a bird flies by the clock tower, and the time keeper advances the clock one hour.  The minute hand doesn't move at all.  I liked this oddly surreal touch.

I haven't seen the original Di Gi Charat series but I didn't have any problem following this series.  The characters are all introduced in the first four episodes and there really isn't much of a plot to get confused in.  Each show is only five to six minutes long, so there really isn't much time for developing a story.

While I did find the show funny in parts, it wasn't hilarious.  The show is aimed at a very young audience, and preschoolers and those beginning elementary school should really enjoy it.  Older viewers might find it a little too cute and cuddly for them.  I know there were parts were it was too sappy for me, especially the part where Rinna sings that in order to be a good cook, you have to add love.

In addition to being too syrupy in parts, I disliked the character designs.  All the cast have huge heads with enormous round eyes perched on top of small bodies, which I've never liked.  I'm not sure why being totally out of proportion is supposed to be cute, but I think it looks dumb.

This DVD retails for $29.95, but only has the equivalent of 3 half hour shows on it. With the price of mainstream movies on DVD falling, you could easily get two other DVDs for the price of this one.  I don't mind anime carrying a premium price (well, I can understand it at least) but I think $30 for 85 minutes of shows is pretty steep.  They should have included at least another 30 minutes of programming, if not another hour.

Audio:

I watched half of this in the original Japanese (2.0,) and half with the English track (5.1.)  Both soundtracks are similar in quality.  They were both clean and didn't have any hiss or distortion.  Neither soundtrack really used the soundstage very much.  I preferred the Japanese track to the English a bit.  It was hard to understand what Gema was saying because of his strange voice in the English track, but the main reason I disliked the dub was because they added an extra syllables on the ends of every sentence.  Each person has a unique sound that they add, and it got old really fast.  "Wow, that was fun-nyo.  What do you want to do next-nyo?"  While they do it in the Japanese track too, it's not as noticeable.

Video:

The video was presented with a 1.33:1 aspect ration, and looked pretty good.  The colors were very bright and vivid and the image was sharp.  There was a little aliasing, but it wasn't significant.

The Extras:

Included with the DVD is a sticker sheet with 11 stickers of Gema and Dejiko. On the DVD itself there are a good number of extras too.  Voice actress Luci Christian who plays Dejiko has a commentary over part of the second set of shows.  While I like many of her comments (I loved her comparison of this program to Hamlet) she really didn't have much to say.  It's not her fault, she did about as well as you can expect, but the voice talent just doesn't have a lot to say about any particular episode.  They are constrained by the original animation and can't really interpret the character the way that they'd like to.  I've sat through a number of commentaries on anime shows, and I can't think of any that were worth the time.

There was also a production sketch reel that lasted 4½-minutes, a clean opening and closing, and a Japanese commercial promoting the series.    There were also previews to Knights of the Zodiac, Kaleido Star, Bast of Syndrome, Wedding Peach, Azumanga Daioh, and Nuku Nuku TV.
 

Final Thoughts:

This series was aimed at young children, and I'm sure that they'd find it very entertaining.  I found the series funny in parts but a little too simplistic for my tastes.  I would have liked the shows to have lasted a little longer, and I hated the extra syllables that were added to the end of each sentence.  Overall it was a mediocre show, a little sappy in parts but not too bad.  The price for this set was pretty high for three shows.  I think most people would be happy renting it.