Rating:
9.33
Approval:
70.5% (8 votes)
(Writers note: If you read this review, RATE this review. Authors thrive on feedback, whether it be a simple happy face, or an in-depth critique.)
Kotorou is your typical grade school student, with a typical grade school life. That is, until Misha comes flying into his life, literally! Misha is an apprentice angel in training, who has moved in next door to Kotorou. Upon hearing of the loss of Kotorou’s mother, who died in a traffic accident when Kotorou was little, Misha decides to act as a replacement Mom. Ignoring any and all pleas from Kotorou, Misha quickly integrates herself into every aspect of Kotorou’s life, from cooking his food, to accompanying him to school. Crazy antics abound in this slice of life childhood comedy/fantasy.
I loved this series. Loved loved loved loved it. Loved everything about it, from the adorable character animation, to the outrageous slapstick. I just can’t get enough of Pita-Ten. Be wary, reader! If you’re a fan of kittens playing with yarn, dogs chasing their tale, or babies playing with their rattles, Pita-Ten will likely turn you into a puddle for its duration.
Since Pita-Ten is basically a pure comedy, the three important comedy series questions will now be posed and answered:
Did I laugh? Yes.
How often did I laugh? Quite often, more so in the second half than in the first.
To what degree did I laugh? Some loud laughs and quite a few chuckles in the early episodes, with the side splitting humor taking place mainly in the second half, starting around episode 16.
Now, for some of the technical aspects. The animation in Pita-Ten is very good. By very good, I mean cute. By cute, I mean very cute. By very cute, I mean adorable, spectacular, beautiful, “melt your heart and turn you into a glob of goo for the duration of the series” cute. Never has the term “Kawaii!” gone through my head as many times while watching an anime as it did during Pita-Ten. Characters in Pita-Ten have little round faces and big pie plate eyes, breaking the “cute” thermometer and spilling the “cute” mercury all over the floor. Cute cute cute cute cute! If you’re a fan of cute, few series will make you feel better than this one. Not to say that there were no problems with the animation. Still frames are used a little more than is necessary. Characters in Pita-Ten move smoothly, but not fluidly. I also felt that the backgrounds could have used some more detail, occasionally having a washed out look to it.
The music of Pita-Ten is just like the series itself: Cute and innocent. The opening song was worth sitting through more than once. On the surface, it plays like a fast paced rock song, but with a feathery light female soprano as the lead singer. The contrast between the fast beat and the childlike vocals is both curious and absorbing. The music and sound effects during the series were barely noticeable, which is a good thing in my book, doing their job without drawing attention.
Pita-Ten is a tricky beast. On the one hand, we have characters that include many clichés that remind me of other anime I have seen, such as Ranma ½ and Love Hina. However, Pita-Ten takes these clichés and adds realistic touches and characteristics that allow the characters to transcend their respective clichés, slowly transforming them into interesting and engrossing originals. For instance, we have Uematsu, who early on reminded me of Shampoo from Ranma ½. However, as the series progressed, where Shampoo remains the same for all 167 episodes of Ranma ½, Pita-Ten’s Uematsu continues to grow and change.
Pita-Ten does an excellent job of confounding our expectations. We’re given a next-door neighbor who is an angel, leading us to expect many scenes of magic and flying. However, Misha uses magic in only a handful of episodes, and is seen flying in less than half of Pita-Ten’s 26 episodes. Then we have Sasha, the apprentice demon who, along with her guardian demon (a black cat with devious eyes), comes to live with Misha. How will these two opposing forces clash? Will Sasha spend the series repeatedly trying and failing to make Misha the angel trip up and fail her angel exams? How their relationship is handled is one of the great joys of Pita-Ten, and an excellent example of how this series will repeatedly challenge your expectations.
Another example of this is the ending. With comedies of this sort, occasionally the creators will tack on a purely dramatic finale, since it’s easier to close a series on a dramatic note rather than a comedic one. Love Hina, Futakoi, Yumeria, and many others employ this technique, and the results are rarely pretty. No series has ever pulled off a purely dramatic ending as well as Pita-Ten does. After all that laughter, I found myself with tears rolling down my face. I cried both tears of sadness and tears of joy, and loved every minute of it. Pita-Ten’s ending asks some very serious questions, to which it gives some very serious answers. The ending is so strong, that it made me rethink some of the recent events in my own life, and how I dealt with them.
There are many types of comedy out there. Pita-Ten is what one might call a “feel good” comedy. The laughter is not as intense as other types, but when you’re not laughing, you’re at least feeling very happy. Only Juuni Kokuki (The Twelve Kingdoms) has managed to make me feel so good for so long. Adorable animation, a catchy opening tune, characters you learn to care about as you laugh with them, and a story that quietly builds to one of the most satisfying endings I have seen, anime or no. On my list of favorite “Feel Good” comedies, Pita-Ten is ranked number 1 by a fairly wide margin. If you’re a fan of comedies, angels, or just plain cuteness, Pita-Ten will not disappoint.
