#akikan

Akikan!

Aired: 2009

Today’s anime cats of the day are:

1. Akikan!

Plot: Akikan (”Empty Can”) is the unlikely story of high school boy Kakeru Daichi, whose can of melon soda magically transforms into a human girl. More "akikan" girls begin appearing, each of them needing to be infused with carbon dioxide from their respective drink types to survive. The akikans were created as part of the 'Akikan Elect' to determine whether steel cans or aluminium cans are superior. The akikans must battle each other until only the strongest type is left standing.

This series doesn’t really make much sense. I mean...humanized, fizzy drink girls fighting to prove if steel or aluminum drink cans are superior? And it’s all part of a military experiment run by a gay guy and a strict secretary whose name is always mispronounced? While there are anime series about magical girls and a normal guy who gets involved with them, which is not unusual at all in the world of anime. But at least give it a storyline that actually makes sense!

It’s like they just came up with something random that could be used to advertise carbonated drinks. What better way to do that than to make fizzy fruit drinks into sexy, battle girls!

2. Asobi Asobase

Plot: The series centers on Hanako, Olivia and Kasumi, second year students at an all-girl middle school and the only three members of the Pastimers Club, a not officially recognized club. The club has very ambiguous goals, usually consisting of whatever so-called "pastimes" the girls happen to think up.

While this series does have its good moments, and has some clever jokes...the odd visuals, outrageous episode plots, and out-of-this-world facial expressions are what make it very, very strange. It’s basically one of those shows that is weird but good at the same time, depending on what you like.

If a Pastimers Club were to exist in real life...it would probably be something like this.

3. Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Plot: The show revolves around the exploits of the Anarchy sisters, Panty and Stocking, angels who were kicked out of Heaven due to their bad behavior. They are sent to Daten City, a place on the border between Heaven and Hell, which is besieged by evil spirits referred to as "Ghosts". The sisters take refuge under the care of the reverend Garterbelt; under his watchful eyes, the sisters are tasked with using their ability to transform their lingerie into weapons, and using them to destroy malicious Ghosts. By doing so, the sisters earn "Heaven Coins" with which they intend to one day use to buy their way back into Heaven. However, Panty and Stocking are constantly sidetracked by their respective interests in men and sugary sweets.

The series is, by far, a very weird one. I mean...two fallen angels who turn their lingerie into weapons to fight evil ghosts, an afro priest with an interest in boys, a nerdy guy with a crush on the slutty sister, and a dog who looks like a knock-off of ‘Gir’ from Invader Zim? Just when you think it couldn’t get any stranger. 

While I admit, the show does have its serious moments...but it still goes pretty overboard with adult jokes and visualizations. No wonder these girls were banished from Heaven.

4. Powerpuff Girls Z

Plot: It takes place in Tokyo City (New Townsville in English dub) where Professor Utonium and his son, Ken Kitazawa and his toy dog, Peach were busy working on Chemical X, a powerful chemical substance but when they decided to have a tea break, Peach accidentally dropped a daifuku to a vat of Chemical X and the vat magically transforms to Chemical Z, a whole new form of the original powerful substance. However, when the Professor, Ken and Peach were discovering Chemical Z, a sudden climate change happened where several countries around the world were having an instant weather calamity so Ken used a beam ray attached to the vat of Chemical Z and blasts Chemical Z on one of the main icebergs in the Tokyo City bay and the impact of Chemical Z from the iceberg causes several black and white rays of light to appear in the skies above it.Then, three ordinary 13-year-old girls, Momoko Akatsutsumi, Miyako Gōtokuji, and Kaoru Matsubara, were engulfed in separate rays of white light and transforms them into Hyper Blossom, Rolling Bubbles, and Powered Buttercup, the heroines of justice, the Powerpuff Girls Z and Peach was also engulfed in a separate ray of white light transforming to a toy dog who can speak and calls the girls to transform into the Powerpuff Girls Z and then, numerous rays of black light engulfed several people, animals, objects and transforms them into evil monsters who wants to take over Tokyo City, so the Powerpuff Girls Z must protect the city thanks to the Professor, Ken, Mayor Mayer and his assistant, Ms. Bellum and uses their respective weapons like Blossom's yo-yo, Bubbles' bubble rod and Buttercup's hammer from evil monsters like Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, Princess Himeko, Sedusa, the Gangreen Gang, the Amoeba Boys and numerous monsters to defeat them.

Everyone knows that this Japanese remake can never replace the original Powerpuff Girls. While the series isn’t terrible, and does have its moments, it’s still strange to see Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup not being sisters or having Professor Utonium as their father. I think the only part of the story that I actually liked was how the villains became the villains. 

But hey...we can see that the studio tried to make it a bit like the original cartoon. But it’s like they say: You can’t beat the classics. 

5. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

Plot: In the year 300X, the entire world is under the tyrannical rule of the Maruhage Empire and their ruler Tsuru Tsurulina IV (Chrome Dome Empire and Baldy Bald the 4th in the English dub). His Hair Hunt troop captures innocent bystanders' hair, leaving the people victims of the Hair Hunt troop's head shaving and their villages in ruins. Standing against this evil regime is the heroic, but bizarre, rebel Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo who fights the Hair Hunt Troop with his powerful Hanage Shinken (Fist of the Nose Hair). His team consists of the normal teen girl Beauty, the smelly teen warrior Heppokomaru (Gasser) and the Hajike leader Don Patch (Poppa Rocks). Bo-bobo is on an exciting, gag-filled quest in which he uses his hair as a weapon in many locales to fight the forces of the Maruhage Empire as he gains other allies along the way.

I don’t even know where to start. While we all like having a full head of hair...one could have never imagined that there would be an anime about it. This series is obviously a comedy and isn’t meant to be dramatic or anything serious like that.

We all know that this show is meant to be weird on purpose. If you love shows that are random and don’t make sense...then this show is perfect for you.