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My Opinion on Powerpuff Girls Z
originally posted July 4, 2006
by Rising Sun RangerHey guys, it's me, Rising Sun Ranger. You guys probably know me from various message boards such as Henshin Justice.. and so on..
Anyway, I'm gonna post my opinion on the new Japanese Anime version of classic Cartoon Network series the Powerpuff Girls, "Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z".
I downloaded the RAW off BitTorrent, and since it's raw I can only be able to understand a very little bit of it. I'm still somewhere in the middle of learning Japanese (infact, I'm on the level where I'm still not yet fluent but I can be able to ask dumb questions like "Anata wa Tamago desuka?" :P). Whether this will be fansubbed or not, I don't know, only time will tell.
The episode seemed to have contained 2 episodes in 1, the first one I thought was the pilot episode until I realised the difference between their clothes (the PPGs wore jacket like clothes in the pilot). So.. the first episode is called "Birth of the Girls", while the second one is called "Arrival of the Girls".
The first episode shows Mojo Jojo attacking the city (unsurprisingly), Proffessor Utonium and his son Ken Utonium (yes, he has a son!! ^^) summons the 3 girls, Momoko, Kaoru and Miyako, who then have to bunk off school to transform into "Hyper Blossom", "Rolling Bubbles" and "Powered Buttercup", and go off into town to battle Mojo Jojo.
The second episode has Proffessor Utonium and his son in their laboratory eating something which I think might be Japanese beancake (I dunno..). One of the beancake some how fell into a huge tub of Chemical X, and is mysteriously changed, so Utonium put it into his computer, which identified it as "Chemical Z". Then for some strange reason Ken put it into a huge cannon and fired it at some snowy mountain, which caused bits of Ice everywhere to, fly around. Then each of the 3 girls rescue some people who were gonna be hit by the ices, while simultaniously transforming into their PPG alter egos. After that, another piece of ice hit peachy (Utonium's pet dog), which gained him the ability to talk.. Then Mojo Jojo, who at the time was a normal zoo monkey, into his original self, and.. well, wreaks havoc again. Then a black piece of ice (why it's black, I don't know but it just appeared black in the show), hit Mojo Jojo, who at the time was a normal zoo monkey inside a zoo, and transformed him back to his original self.
I don't know how Mojo Jojo ended up transformed into a normal Zoo Monkey, in the First episode the PPGs simply whooped his ass and sent him flying up in the air, and then rescuing some dude.. What happened to Mojo while he was up in the sky we don't know because it was not shown onscreen and just after that the episode ended and moved onto the second.. But then again, this could be that episode 2's storyline was set before episode 1, and alot of Japanese TV Shows do that sometimes (I can even remember Kamen Rider Black's second episode taking place before episode 2). Either way it was in RAW, so... there ya have it.
Confusing storylines aside, I thought it was a joy to watch. It basically seemed like a cross between the original Powerpuff Girls and Power Rangers/Super Sentai (the way the PPGs have secret identities as everyday Japanese girls), and being a fan of both of these shows it's no surprise I liked this. The show also had some Di Gi Charat style whimsical humour, which I kinda liked too. They had some funky background music too.
As for the critisisms for the show, there's been quite a lot of it from most fans on message boards. Some fans of the original show didn't really want to see an Anime version of PPG. As far as what I can think of, I guess it's just that the original Powerpuff Girls cartoon was popular in Japan, and the reason why they created this Anime was because they thought they'd get more ratings. And if people were critisising it for being a Japanized version rather than sticking to the original storyline, I guess that would be pretty much the same reason why they would hate Toei's version of Spiderman. I reckon there's much much worse (EG: Saban's version of Kamen Rider, URRRGGGHHHHH!!!).
Personally myself, I think for a re-written version of an original series, this Anime version of Powerpuff Girls isn't very bad. While the original version was pretty cool, the addition of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup having secret identities as normal kids (ala Power Rangers) was a good idea. All we probably need now are some giant mecha, and some.. (just kidding :P).
So which to decide is better out of the Japanese Anime version of Powerpuff Girls, and the original one by Craig McCracken.. I'd consider it as a draw. While the Anime may be fun to watch, the original PPG still seems to have a more aggressive, kick-ass feel to it.
In the meantime, I'll try and continue to watch this series and see how the show goes..
Well, that seems to be all I can type in for now. NinjaJack, if you're reading this, hope this article was ok!! ^^
To finish this article off, here's a video clip of the Powerpuff Girls Z transformation sequence. Enjoy minna san!! ^^
Oh, and here's my website..
Rising Sun Ranger's Homepage
http://www.freewebs.com/risingsunranger/index.htm