Petopeto-san [Review Archive]

Another archival post featuring one of my reviews from a time before I lost everything I wrote due to server screw-ups! So far back with this one that I may have still been in college or just freshly moved back home, I think when I was still on another blogging platform too. This time it’s a review of an incredibly rarely mentioned very cute little show that I enjoyed quite a bit yet have never seen anyone actually mention pretty much ever.

[Originally Posted in 2008]

I kind of found this anime by accident, looking through MAL tags to find shows that I had forgotten to put onto my list (which was quite a few actually) that I had already watched/dropped or was interested in. I ended up looking at the page for this anime and it looked really cute. It came out back in 2005 so yeah its not new or something, but because it never got any sort of attention whatsoever I never knew about it at the time.

The show itself is a very lighthearted and fun to watch show, and quite obviously aimed at a younger audience which means its really cute and easy to enjoy thanks to not taking itself too seriously. The story is about ‘yokai’ or monsters, sometimes referred to in the show as ’specified races’, living together with humans in a city called LITTLE SISTER TOWN. They get along perfectly fine for the most part, but there are plenty of people who dislike and even hate monsters. The situation is alike to the one seen in the first season of Da Capo II with Bananamine and the class-rep’s hate for her but not nearly as HATE HATE HATE DIE DIE DIE as in there – not nearly as serious though (that show deals pretty dramatically with hardcore racism and such during that first arc).

Petopeto-san is a very lighthearted and extremely cute short series about a “petopeto” type youkai and the male lead (a human), as well as plenty of other yokai and humans – but the focus is mostly “Petoko” the nickname given to the petopeto girl in the class by the main dude, and her really pure heart. The characters are all practically loli (with a few obvious exceptions like parents and teachers) and are only in middle-school, which is probably the age-range this show was made for.

Anyway, on with the review.

First the music, its actually really nice. The OP is my favorite of the music and one of the better opening songs I’ve heard in awhile (not the best, with things like toshokan’s op and stuff to compete with in op songs ive been listening to recently), also NAI NAIIIIIIIIIIIIII! At first it sounds weird and then you get used to it and end up liking it. The music in the show is all really nice too and fitting of the mood of the show, including some instrumental versions of the OP.

The art is very nice too, in its own way, like say that of how Tokikake has AMAZING art but is actually very simple and not detailed – yet somehow really fucking awesome. In this case its not like THAT, but its the same type of ‘its not really detailed yet its really good anyway’, especially for the type of show this is. The girls are all VERY cute, and the backgrounds and whatnot and everything all really fit well with the overall feeling of the show.

The story is a nice laid back show to watch as long as you’re in the mood to take it easy like a yukkuri. It’s a slice of life with lots of moe and whatnot, and its nice, fun, and enjoyable to watch. The things in the show itself sometimes don’t make much sense or follow through with things – as in, Petoko’s whole getting stuck to people, and other living things, very easily if she touches them. It happens only really to push the “story” forward (help provide episode-plots) and otherwise she’s touched, held, and squeezed, a lot of people and very rarely ever gotten stuck. The show was in a sensible order, and was set up to be a continous storyline but with side stories taking precedence for 1-2 episodes a piece. The side ’stories’ all circled usually ONE of the characters and Petoko, ranging from Sahara’s little sister trying to take over their yakuza family or the snobby rich girl who wants her dads attention, among a lot of others. It’s a short series though so not much.

As for characters, they were all really great, from short-haired version Sahara and completely adorable cement wall girl, to chubby softball girl and Jeremy’s imouto.

My favorite character is Nuri, she is a youkai of the Nurikabe type, which is a concrete wall and a mythical monster thing in Japan I believe from seeing them mentioned in a few other anime when they talk about haunted houses and stuff. Anyway, she’s…well yeah, a concrete wall girl, but she looks like a normal VERY moe girl. She can’t talk and instead the Japanese for what she wants to say show up on her head. Because of what she is, she can also go into walls and the floor and back out of them at will – she also has the ability to shrink into mini-nuri in order to keep from weighing too much. She is very very cute and is used in the summertime to keep cool by her classmates and has a moe little sister that looks like a more “real” version of a nurikabe.

My second favorite is, well, Nuri’s little sister, Konuri. Everything is the same as with Nuri except she’s tiny and a moe little concrete wall slab instead of a human shape.

After those two, which are kind of a mix of one really, my favorite is the main character, Petoko. She’s really cute and that typical character that wants to make everyone happy and friends, and gets into everyone’s business to do it. Her squeaky walk is adorable as all hell, and her mother is somehow a huge slut but also dawwww at the same time, not to mention while always being partially transparent. Basically she’s a a sweet innocent little moe.

Other than that I really like everyone, from the samurai zombie to Jeremy and his little sister. The only character I do NOT like at all is the main-dude’s little sister, she’s a little cunt plus she’s ugly. Speaking of Jeremy, his seiyuu did Kittan in Gurren Lagann which is kind of silly given his character here isn’t exactly the coolest or most manly type.

Honestly, im surprised i never saw much about this show, its actually REALLY good for a nice, easy, fun to watch series and I’m really glad I managed to stumble on it by accident because it was a really enjoyable watch even if a bit childish at times…though I think that just made it even cuter.