Review The girl from Phantasia

Most anime asks you a question and answers it as it's message. Princess Mononoke asked us where should the balance between man and nature. Mobile suit Gundam asked us about the nature of war. The girl from Phantasia asks us how lame can a Urusei Yatsura rip off be.

The show starts off with Akihiro, the local ataru wannabe tripping over a rug left out in the middle of the street. Seeing that the rug may be useful in getting points with his girlfriend he decides to take it home. When some local people berate him for stealing trash, he say that he is just preserving resources. Unbeknownst to him those very words are heard by a girl inside the rug. You see this is not an ordinary rug, it is a magical rug that contains an entire world called phantasia. Phantasia was created as a refuge when humanity became selfish, and the words that Akihiro said made Malon, the knight sentry of Phantasia think that humans had changed. So Malon decides to pay Akihiro a visit much to his suprise.
If you have been watching anime for some time you can pretty much predict what happens.

As you can probably tell from the tone of my writing, I am not that happy with The Girl from Phantasia. It is just a retread of every loser boy and his magical girlfriend anime. I usually like these kind of shows, even more than most anime viewers but this show is just too much. Unlike other shows of the genre this one has nothing new to offer, no new twists on the idea. Teh characters aren't even that good. Especially Malon. She is the Belldandy archetype minus a brain. At least Bell could think straight.

The artwork for the show is decent. It isn't great but nothing that would make you puke.

As I have said before I didn't like The Girl from Phantasia. Maybe It could have developed into something worth watching but there is only one episode. I am glad that only rented it and didn't shell out the cash to buy it. I give the girl from Phantasia 2 out of 5.

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