Moetan

Moetan currently stands as the lowest rated anime on MAL that I have given this high of a rating to and honestly, it's deserved. This may well be the stupidest magical girl anime in existence (unless you consider Dokuro-chan a mahou shoujo) but that's precisely why I find it so funny. Let's take a look at why this is one of my favorite pieces of trash.

Story 4/10
A loli-loving man from a parallel universe gets banished from his world and turned into a duck so that he can help a high school senior that looks half as old as she actually is teach people English by ... turning into a magical girl. This is the level of stupidity that is so stupid it transcends being stupid and loops back into pure brilliance. Pure. Fucking. Brilliance.

Characters 7/10
The characters were able to make me laugh pretty consistently, it takes a good set of characters to pull off stupid comedy and have it actually be funny. Both the side characters (some of whom are more or less just gag characters) and main characters do well in delivering the show's humor.

Art 5/10
Moetan features low-budget moeblob art and animation. Honestly, I think low budget art can make a comedy funnier when done right, especially a stupid one like this as it adds a further pinch of stupidity to the stupidness with its low-budget-y-ness.

Sound 5/10
Pretty unremarkable but fitting for the show. You also get to hear some Engrish! (actually not half bad compared to the Engrish in some anime, maybe even sometimes good enough to be called English!)

Enjoyment 8/10
This is the only category that matters for a comedy really (well this and maybe characters) and Moetan nailed it here. I laughed my ass off at this show as it continued to be stupid and random in unexpected and hilarious ways. Yes, there are a lot of stupid and random comedies out there and a lot of them aren't funny. To a lot of people, Moetan won't be funny, but for me it just hit that sweet spot as that special kind of trash I really love.

Overall 8/10 (Excellent)
Do you like really stupid comedy (think Aho Girl, Dokuro-chan, Kill Me Baby)? Do you like cutesy magical girl shows? If you answered "yes" to both those questions, watch Moetan. If you answered "yes" to just one, maybe give it a try. If you answered "no" to both questions, this anime isn't worth your time.

As much as I've said "stupid" and "trash" in this review though, I can't stress enough that I really did love this show. There's stupid stupid and brilliant stupid and which is which varies from person to person based on their tastes, but for me Moetan is that brilliant kind of stupid. It definitely ain't for everyone though!

If you like comedy, cute characters, and fan service, this is the perfect series. And I mean perfect, filled to the brim with great laughs, carefully designed character archetypes, and a plethora of nosebleed moments. Character design by POP, best character designer to grace the medium.

This series definitely has it's priorities straight. It doesn't beat around the bush trying to saturate itself with some sort of semblance of storyline depth, and doesn't waste any time trying to feed you some crap about emotional complexities of characters. It gets right to the point: cute girls, laughs, panties, charming moments, and plenty of one piece swimsuits. Even ... while lacking a focus on depth of character, Ink still ends up being one of my favorite anime characters, the stereotypes are done in a good way. Ink is your typical altruistic but clumsy magical girl, and that's what makes her cute. Sumi is your typical dumb bratty self-centered loli, and it's perfect. Easily has among the best transformation sequences in the mahou shoujo genre. Also has an 11/10 ED track, and really good specials that don't leave you feeling disappointed.

MOETAN is fun, sweet, chaotic and MOE! as the name suggests :D

it is lolicon, pornographic, has ton of problematic innuendos, but that's what you're here for, isn't it? as for teaching, it doesn't teach anything, it's definitely different from Moeru Etango Moetan, the biggest focus here is moe points and laughs. for some reason they intertwine the concept of taking itself seriously with ecchi but i think that adds charm!

ink-chan is a self proclaimed high school student, she's constantly sexualized for being tiny and having small breasts. she doesn't seem to truly understand she's being seen with predatory eyes by ah-kun, but in this universe, ... it's something that makes sense and isn't used in an exploitable manner; the whole point is to bring out the moe in the viewer! every character is tailored towards different moe archetypes and every character gets a good amount of screentime (and naked scenes) so, despite ink-chan being the poster girl, you have a big arsenal of waifus to choose from. it sometimes backtracks, experiments, and you can subtly notice the lack of certainty from the production team.

POP himself, the character designer, couldn't have done better!!!! every girl is beautiful in their own sweet way, and the eye-catching uniforms are the main reason i stuck around to buying merch of ink and got into the show in the first place!!!!!

the second to last episode goes all out with the magical/surreal aspect of the show. the last is the aftermatch of the climax. a lot more tame and moe than the serious schtick they were trying to go for in the episode beforehand

final thoughts: the target audience is extremely narrow and i'm sure they were experimenting with how much you can do with late night anime. there's a LOT of porn and if you expect something plot oriented, this might not be for you. in the other hand, if you just want cute girls doing cute things, this also might not be what you're looking for since there's still some sort of ending goal and male focus. the directors shift the focus from ink to ark heavily in the last few episodes. it's an anime you have to be patient with and you can only form a true critical point after finishing due to it's spontaneous nature. it's still good though, because it's meant to be a satire.

AAAAAH ink you're so CUTE INKKKKKKKKKKKKK ₍₍⚞(⸝⸝>⸝⸝<⸝⸝)⚟⁾⁾