Potemayo

Information of Anime

One morning, Sunao Moriyama finds a strange & cute creature inside his fridge.  He names it Potemayo after looking at a wrapper of a food he was eating at the time.  The creature makes him the center of attention in his class, especially the girls.  Later, another creature appears from his fridge again & is named Guchuko by one of his classmates Kyo Takamimori.  Unlike Potemayo, Guchuko is a bit ill-natured.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Basically a bunch of short stories thrown in.  It doesn't seem to have a major plot.  So far, it's about Sunao & Potemayo.  Potemayo has a crush on Sunao & makes him her own.  Sunao looks is a bit thick headed, slow, & doesn't seem to understand his situation around him as he has a straight face.  One situation is where Potemayo attacked Mikan Natsu who secretly likes Sunao.  When Mikan tries to get near him, Potemayo would respond.  During these reactions, Sunao doesn't seem to react to any of it.  But, he's actually a calm person when his father comes back home & tells Mikan his embarassing childhood.  Viewers also get to see the relationship between Kyo & Guchuko.  Later on, new characters are added to the mix & a flower starts to bloom from the heads of Potemayo & Gucuhuko.  The flower would give birth to new creatures which ends the show.

My Personal Review

Potemayo is strangely funny & quite addictive.  I didn't know what it was about until a friend recommended me to watch it for the humour.  Glad I picked it up.

Animation

The character designs are pretty simple.  It's like kid drawings.  But Potemayo & Guchuko are very cute.  Makes me want to buy a plush of them.  The school uniforms were a bit weird to me.  I found the male uniforms to be a bit feminine.  I misjudged Sunao to be a girl when I saw the top part of the uniform.  I only knew he was a guy when I saw pants.  However, I wasn't able to picture the boys as boys from the uniforms until some time.

The colours are very dull with very little to none brightness.  It creates a manga feel to the show.

The backgrounds are very minor.  Very little details & blurry.  Again, it looks like a kid's drawing.

The animation flow is pretty smooth.  It's got a mixture of realistic & silly stuff for comedy.  It was hard to spot out any missing frames or noticeable cycles in the show.  I don't know if the quality of the animation is good or I'm not paying close attention because I'm laughing myself off.

Sound       

The sound effects are pretty good & clean.  Lots of silly sounds for those funny moments.

The seiyuus are pretty good.  They portray their characters very well.  There are some characters that aren't good as they sound a bit annoying at times.  Potemayo may get to you as she makes a lot of sounds (hon ni) in the show despite how cute is she.

The music is mainly pop & cute music & there are a lot of it!  Despite how they make the show look & feel good, they aren't memorable.  I actually forgot what I was listening to.

Story

There's no sign of any major storyline from what I've seen.  It seems to be only crude & childish humour.  The personalities of the character & their relationships to others is what drives it.  Mikan liking Sunao, a chick that eats chicken, Guchuko that's evil but is actually kind, etc.  Although they rises interest for the show, they may not be considered potential storylines for the show.  Aside from humour, there are some tender moments as well.  One scene is a sick Potemayo dreaming where Sunao leaving her as she chases after him in tears.  Other than the arc where flowers start growing on Potemayo & Guchuko's head, there's nothing in this show.

But the ending is open.  It shows continuation for the series that may be better off in reading the manga instead.  It's possible to open for a second season if the studio & creators sees it fit.  However, I want more.

Overall Conclusion

Potemayo is highly addictive & funny to watch.  It's cuteness & crude childish humour is enough to draw you in.  I highly recommend watching this if you are looking for a good laugh.

Potemayo gets an eight out of ten.  The show is a laughing train ride as it has a diseases of cuteness & tasteless humour.  However, this story does not have a storyline as it seems to be only for pure entertainment.

Last updated on January 14, 2008