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!
11 replies on “Potemayo – Anime First Impressions”
Seems a lot more interesting then I expected this to be.
I’ll probably end up watching this show when subs are out.
“really love it when characters have that gradient hair color going on. I guess it reminds me of web 2.0 or something.”
ROTFL. Another blog, another know-it-all blogger. Web 2.0 has *nothing* to do with gradient color. Oh well, that was unintentionally hilarious.
Actually, the main difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0 is gradients. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or incompetent.
I thought the difference was the thin layer of fairy dust sprinkled on top.
I watched this, but it was like your post here was like the trailer for one of those comedy movies where all the good jokes are in the two minutes trailer, and I was left with…bird poop.
It was pretty funny that even the boys wore sailor uniforms.
I really like gradient hair color as well. I tend to like most J.C.Staff titles because I am attracted to their color usage. Anyway, I enjoyed reading your blog about Potemayo. Thanks!
P.S. – Your Putumayo comment was funny!
Best comedy of the season…. puts to shame Lucky Star.
Potemayo is actually funny and has great jokes and punchlines.
haha lucky star XD this is way better i can alrdy see character development! unlike lucky star
lol, an emotion-sensing radar. lol, blob taping things it just cut up. lol, cannibalistic bird thing. I could keep going for a while. Quite the funny first 2 episodes.
@Anonymous: Lucky star uses a more indirect humour, and it happens to amuse me [what, you didn’t laugh at the pointless, overextended conversation about food?]
its absolutely super cute!!!! i spent 2 hours trying to do nene’s voice and i finnaly got it after all that time! i have never heard anything so high pitched and potentially nausiating as nene’s voice. though i love it.