Great review of a great show. ^_^
Gals! tv Review
Story & Characters
AKA 'Super Gals!' in America, this shoujo follows the everyday lifestyle of Protagnonist, Ran Kotobuki, the
loud, outspoken 'ruler' of Shibuya who is the black sheep in her family of police officers and detectives.
She is joined by her 2 friends Miyu Yamazaki, the innocnet love crazy gal with the dark past, and Aya Hoshino, the
friendly, shy and often confused member who lacks self-esteem. These 3 live the good life in Shibuya, their home
district and hang out territory. Other important characters include: Sayo Kotobuki (Ran's sister), Mami Honda
(pronounced mommy), Yuya (AKA 2nd place), Rei, and Kuroi (Ran's elected b/f, and braindead rival of Yuya's),
but enough about their names. Thoughout this series we see the trials and tribulations of these characters as they
press on, keeping Shibuya safe from crime, helping out their fellow students, winning competitions, fight grownup
oppresion, para dance, win some hearts and many other assorted ass-kicking scenarios. It also conveys a lot of
Japan's social problems like subsei-dating andteachers who abuse their rights. This show isn't driven by one
story spanning plot obviously, but by single episode plots, sometimes 2 episodes, you get the idea. there are also
sub-plots which will range from a couple episodes to the wghole series, but these are mostly personal goals of the
characters; once again, you get the idea. This isn't the first time it's been done like this, but it is the
best time. Each plot is entertaining wheather ro not it's down to earth, and despite the fact it's a shoujo,
it can be enjoyed by both sexes without confusion. It's funny, original, fast paced, has it's dramatic
moments, and corny, just the way I like it. In my opinion, most shoujo's are boring, overly dramatic and
overwhelmed with homo-sexuality, but not the funny kind like cross-dressers and creepy long haired dudes (like griffith
from Berserk, but he's not gay, so don't get the wrong idea), but "pretty-boys" that make me sick
(X, Gravitation, Fruits basket...getting ahead of myself). To sum it up, it's hardcore
Rating:
Art
The art for Super Gals in a scientific view implys "ordinary well-invested budget, with character exagerations". Super Gals animation is colorful, and detailed, but in a sort of cartonny way. It's pretty kuwaii. Might as well point out that no body parts or curves are exagerated, and there is no fan-service, unless you consider the occasional bathing suit to be fan service (probably because it's a shoujo, but that really doesn't mean anything ecchi related, does it). There are some fight scenes, they go by quickly, and can be entertaining, but they can kind of awkward. Don't expect well animated coreographed fight scenes or anything like that. you can expect a lot of hyper-activity, funny facial expressions, exagerated scenes like when Ran gets into a cat fight, or when she's lying to her teacher as to why she was late for class. Overall, suitable
Rating:
Sound
Japanese: The acting for the Japanese is genrally always good. No obnoxious voices to point out, and everyone is lively, and according to character.
Teh dub: The dub voice acting a pretty good, but it's not great. Contrary to most people who genreally watch anime, I usually just watch the dub, and occasionally watch in sub. In this case, I watched the subs, because I couldn't stand the dub. The voice actors voices are kind of annoying, with the whole "valley girl" theme in place. Also, unimportant characters like boys harrassing girls and random grownups aren't very well acted a lot of the times. Seriously. I found myself laughing a lot of the time when they said something that would usually not be funny at all.
The Music: The music is not composed and elaborate. It's made up of keyboards, MIDI devices, and i bet you 5$ they used Mad Tracker. One thing that should be mentioned is the whole Para-Para dance thing. The whole Para culture thing pops up a few times, a lot of the characters take part in this, especially Ran and Kuroi. I don't like Para dance, but I do like the song on the other side of that link:
ftp://gabber:gabber@www.gabber.ru/music/Hard%20Core/Masters%20of%20Ceremony/Hardcore%20To%20Da%20Bone.mp3
Rating:
Presentation
To keep it quick: yeah, it's original, humorous, enjoyable to watch, and it thrives at all of these with hardcore colors. In fact, hardcore is the ebst word for this anime.
Other info:
Currently, ADV has released 26 episdoes of the series in a 6 DVD box set. The show is 52 episodes so I hear, but I
can't even find information on the other 26, and ADV hasn't said anything about it, of course I havent asked
them. If it's only 26 eps. and the whole 52 eps thing is a mistake made by many, please address it in the reply
thing, and fi it is, the show seems unfinsihed as a whole, but being unconfirmed by myself I won't mark down on
that.
The manga was licensed by DC comics (go figure) and that should be coming out around Jan-Feb. Also, while you're confirming the number of episodes this show is, correct me if the whole DC comics thing is just some rumor.
Anyway, the box is real colorful, with pictures of Ran, Miyu and Aya on it. It's kind of girly, but it conveys the shows personality well. The cases are white, and come with a small poster of the DVDs most important character. On the other side of the poster are some cultural tips and translations of stuff (did I mention this show has a lot to do with Gal culture and modern Japanese cvulture...actually no). Each DVD 4-5 eps on it, and costs about $22 each at Best Buy, and cheaper online. The box is another 5-10 dollars usually. The DVD features these "Super Gals Explain It All" presentations. These educate about actions taken in this show and their cultural sinificance (I was surprised by many things), but also, they consist of Mami and Ran duking it out and random dancing. It was really stupid so that's why I didn't watch any of the other ones on the other DVDs.
So now boys and girls, go out into the world and buy this show, or at least watch by means of borrowing it.
Rating:
Final Verdict
9.5000 (excellent)
Reviewed by albinorap, Dec 04, 2004
Comments
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rayearthsenshi May 01, 2005
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nainoi Oct 19, 2009
It's interesting.
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UberDog Mar 23, 2015
Very good yet simple review.
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