It’s been a while since I updated my Mikan Watch series… like three years? Oh well.

I was watching Kamichu with my girlfriend and I spotted a mikan box in episode three at around the 5:40 mark. I tried explaining to her that they’re kind of like easter eggs, and I’d point them out in other anime. I think she just wanted to continue watching the show, though.

This mikan box is a bit boring, because it doesn’t even have a picture of a mikan on it.

This particular mikan sighting happens at 15:03 of episode six, which I just watched. Yeah, I’m just a little bit behind on my anime watching… Also worth noting is the compulsory abandoned kitty inside the mikan box. It kinda reminds me of Shii’s song!

A lot of the new anime this season don’t really seem to interest me, and the ones that do aren’t subbed yet, so I’ll probably wait on them. Potemayo was one of the anime I really wanted to see, and luckily for me, it’s pretty easy to understand raw, so here’s my first impressions on this very weird anime.

Potemayo is some kind of strange, deformed, chibi being. She(?) came out of Moriyama’s fridge one day. Moriyama claims he named her due to the thing he was eating at the time he found her. A Potato Mayonnaise croquette thing… Okay… For a second there I thought she was named after Putumayo, that one store in Seinfeld.

So the whole class is mystified at this weird cute thing. The girls all think she’s really cute, like some kind of stuffed animal. Meanwhile, this one girl named “Mikan” who has orange hair, appropriately enough, is trying to confess to Moriyama. Potemayo will have none of this, telling Mikan in her strange language that Moriyama is hers!

Potemayo has some kind of girl’s feelings radar that goes off when Mikan gets too lovey dovey, and starts barking at her. It’s all very surreal and funny at the same time. Oh, and at the end of the first episode, Potemayo sleeps with Moriyama, but wets the bed. Oops! Remember kids, you should house train your Potemayo before letting it sleep in your bed.

The second episode begins with another “Potemayo” coming out of Moriyama’s fridge. I guess his fridge must be some kind of interdimensional portal… This one’s named Guchuko. She’s got a scythe and hair ties that release destructive light beams… Also, she has a cute habit of cutting things in half with her scythe, then putting them back together with tape. Like the fridge, the front door, a piece of chocolate, etc.

So Guchuko causes some destruction at school, but befriends Kyo (the hot one) after eating some of her chocolate. As a return favor, Guchuko leaves a freshly slaughtered pig on Kyo’s desk! Why is it that whenever I do that, I get a restraining order?

Yes, Potemayo is strange. If I had to compare it to any other anime, it’d probably be Pugyuru. That one was also based on a 4koma and insanely weird. Potemayo relies more on physical humor than the puns and strange situations that Pugyuru did. It has more of a plot, too (which is not saying much) with the whole Mikan trying to confess and Potemayo trying to kill Mikan thing.

The thing that drew me to this anime in the beginning was the art. I really love it when characters have that gradient hair color going on. I guess it reminds me of web 2.0 or something. The animation is pretty standard, but the art looks sweet. The backgrounds are watercolor, which is J.C. Staff’s trademark, I believe.

The OP is done by MOSAIC.WAV. It fits the anime well since it’s so random and cute at the same time. The ED is a much slower, serious sounding song. It’s pretty boring if you ask me.

Potemayo might not be a laugh riot or anything (what exactly is a laugh riot, anyway?), but it’s pretty darn entertaining. It’s got cuteness and humor, which is a good combination for me. Most importantly, though, is that I can understand about 90% of what’s being said, so this’ll be a good raw watching anime for me to brush up on my Japanese with!

Next Episode: Moriyama wears a skirt!

About a month or so ago, my brother took a trip to Japan. When he asked me if I wanted him to bring me anything back, the first thing I thought of was naturally a cardboard box that said “mikan” on it. I mean, it’s not like I can just order one of those online! After trying to explain the allure of such an item (and failing; he’s not a big anime watcher), I just told him to get me whatever. He succeeded in getting some cool stuff, but I’m still without a mikan box.

Mikan boxes seem like they’re just old boxes that used to have tangerines in them, yet they do have a strange place in cult anime culture. They’re not just boxes; they’ve got special intrinsic value! I have yet to see the phenomenon explained, but I know it’s something!

I’ve seen mikan boxes in a bunch of anime, and I always wanted my own just to have lying around. People in the know would be like, “cool box!” and people outside would be like, “are you poor?”

Mikan boxes are to anime as Ron Howard’s brother is to movies. They appear in so many, but if anyone asked you which anime/movie you saw them in, you probably wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the exact one. In this sense, maybe it’s better not to explain it. Anime needs weird obscure references, just like Hollywood needs that strangely familiar looking ugly guy in the background… or maybe not.

If anyone has info that can shed light on this strange anime meme, please let me know. I’ve been wondering about it ever since I saw that first mikan box in that one anime, so long, long ago. I’ve picked up on quite a few anime memes, but this one has always seemed to allude me. Is there really some deep meaning to them, or are they just old cardboard boxes?