The fact that anime is growing more and more popular is both a blessing and a curse.  On the positive side it's much easier to find anime now, and the quality of the releases have improved.  Fans no longer have to trek to a comic book store and choose between a sub or dubbed versions.  There is a lot more variety too.  On the down side is the fact that there is more crap being released.  Not all Japanese animation is good and we are now seeing more lesser titles coming out.  Case in point: Panda-Z.  Volume one of this Go Nagi project is hands-down the worst anime DVD I've seen all year.  Not only is it not funny, it's insanely short.  If you cut out the credits, there is only 15 minutes of content on this disc.

This is a short show.  Each episode is five minutes long.  The opening credits eat up a minute and a half, and the closing animation takes up another half a minute.  That leaves only three minutes for each show.  On top of that, there are only five episodes on the disc.  Yep you read that right, only five shows, at three minutes of content each gives an insanely short 15 minutes of content.

If that wasn't bad enough, what content there is isn't entertaining.  Panda-Z doesn't have a plot, and there is no thread linking the episodes.  It is supposed to be a parody of anime I think, but it falls far from being either funny.  The show involves a Panda who sometimes fights in a giant panda robot, and sometimes not.  In one episode he plays Old Maid, and in another he tries to eat batteries.    With only three minutes to tell the story, there isn't much time for a plot.  So Panda-Z will throw a couple of punches at a robot, take a few hits, and then the credits roll.  Really, really lame.

The show was made with the lowest possible quality too.  The animation is some of the worst that I've seen in a long time.  If I said the animation was cheap, you'd probably think it was much better than it actually was.  This show looks like it was done on someone's Mac with PD software.  Not only are there simple figures and sparse backgrounds with no shading, but there is hardly any movement.  One episode hold a static image for a full 30-seconds with the only change being the colors as the sun goes down.  Yeah, that's really exciting.

In order to save even more money there aren't any voice actors.  Yep, it's silent.  The only sound is an irritatingly repetitive rock soundtrack with a few sound effects.  The whole production is chintzy beyond belief.  I am astounded that someone actually released this.

Audio/ Video:

The widescreen image is fine with no real problems.  There certainly aren't any compression artifacts since they only have to fit 25 minutes worth of video on the disc.  The stereo soundtrack is fine to, for what it's worth.  There are no spoken parts, just Japanese intertitles with optional English translations.

Extras:

There is a minute and a half 3D animation clip that plays like a regular episode without the credits.  There is also a textless opening.

Final Thoughts:

This show might have had some appeal to the 5 and under crowd.  It's short and the jokes are at their level (one title card reads "Don't eat batteries." BWAA-HA-HA!), but the 13 and up rating that Bandai gave to this show eliminates that potential advance.   (I have no idea why they gave it this rating, there isn't anything objectionable that I could see...I can only surmise that the rating was given to the entire series and that later episodes will be slightly more mature.)  Anyone who has outgrown Hamtaro though won't think this is funny.  Add to that the fact that there is only 15 minutes worth of content on the disc, and you've got a disc you should avoid.  Skip it!