Star Oriental - Who's Your Favourite Star?
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Star Oriental - Who's Your Favourite Star? |
Review of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland: by Theo Ching,
This 29 minute OAV is very nicely done, reportedly worked on by the same staff at Madhouse who did the X^2 video, although the LD is a little pricey for it's length, at 5800 yen, which translates to $70-90. That's almost $3 per minute! ;-( But if you're a fan of CLAMP, Lewis Carroll, and/or the bizarre, campy types of Anime, this disk could be well worth it. The storyline in the video follows the same basic formula as in the original manga seen in Newtype and Genki R.
The OAV is composed of two 15 minute parts, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland and Miyuki-chan in Mirrorland (Through the Looking Glass). As the titles imply, Miyuki-chan is a loose parody-interpretation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass classic novels. In this case, Alice has become Miyuki-chan, an adorable blonde high school girl with the compulsory cute sailor fuku uniform. She is voiced by Mariko Kouda, who fine-tuned the art of portraying the frazzled teenage girl as Miki Koishikawa from Marmalade Boy. The other Carroll characters are all depicted as attractive females, and as Miyuki-chan encounters each of them, they perform a familiar dance in which they ask her name, she answers "Miyuki desu," and then they try to get fresh with her. The show concludes with Miyuki singing the EP, "Iya yo!" (No way!)
Before getting offended or making any value judgements, we should remember that this work is just a fluff piece designed to entertain the audiences without requiring the lengthy time investment or cerebral exertions of some other CLAMP works, and to put food on the table for this remarkable group of women in between their major projects. Of course, I'm not sure what kind of "entertainment" CLAMP had in mind when they came up with this! ;-) It's a mystery to me whether this show is some kind of lesbian fantasy intended to push some hidden buttons among the female viewership, or to simply pander to the male viewership by parading one scantily-clad femme after another and making Miyuki-chan sweat (which she does in classic Anime fashion). I, myself, certainly didn't know what to expect, having purchased the LD on the basis of being a Lewis Carroll fan. Whatever CLAMP's secret purpose, I've transferred some of my weakened dollars to their purses, and I and most of the people whom I've shown it to have enjoyed it, so the video has served its function.
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