When your neighbor is an angel-in-training, there's no telling what could happen! Kotarou used to spend most of his time alone, but when the apprentice angel Misha moves in next door, his life is thrown into chaos. Misha immediately clings to Kotarou, but since she doesn't know much about life on Earth, her ''divine intervention'' is anything but helpful. She constantly breaks things, gets into trouble, and causes all sorts of misunderstandings. Now, Kotarou finds himself in one weird situation after another. Where will he end up next: The accidental lead in a school play? Literally glued to his friends? The victim of a voodoo doll? Who knows, but at least he won't be bored! Based on the manga series by Koge-Donbo (Di Gi Charat). Directed by Toshifumi Kawase (Beyblade) and Yuzo Sato (Magical Warfare). Special Features: Clean Opening and Closing, Event Promo, Liner Notes, Commercials. Audio: Japanese 2.0 stereo, Subtitles: English.
D**1
Hidden gem
I first saw Pita Ten about 10 years ago, when I stumbled across a fansub on YouTube, and I loved everything about it - so much so that, for a time, I thought it was the best anime that I would ever see! The characters are great, and with the focus being on slice of life stories, they all have plenty of time to develop, which makes even the filler episodes a joy to watch... and although the Pita Ten anime does tackle a couple of serious themes, it does so without ever becoming angsty or dark, unlike the manga on which it is based. The animation is pretty basic by modern standards, but the music is still excellent, the banter between the characters is still hilarious, and about half-way through the series there is an amazing cliff-hanger, which comes out of nowhere and which never fails to blow my mind! In fact, everything about Pita Ten is better than the cutesy art style might lead you to expect - and whereas a lot of anime tend to start off great and then slowly get worse, Pita Ten starts off slowly but keeps getting better, until it culminates in a perfect ending that is both bitterly sad, and enormously satisfying. Even after all these years, I have never forgotten the impression it made on me... and so, when I found out that Pita Ten was finally getting an official release in the West, I knew that I had to get it, even if it was Region 1 encoded!One multi-region DVD player later, was it worth the purchase? Well, yes. The presentation is as you would expect, and the special features are only barebones, but the episodes themselves are what really matter and to get all 26 for this price is an absolute bargain. Most importantly, the English subtitles are a good translation, and it looks like they follow the original Japanese dialogue more closely than that old fansub did... of course, in places this does make for some slightly clunky dialogue, but on the whole it is perfectly fine. In the entire series I only noticed one subtitle mistake (a missing word), which is not bad - and although there are times when the subtitles go by a little too rapidly to read, I suppose this is unavoidable when multiple characters are speaking quickly (and you can always just hit pause to slow things down if you have to). My only nitpick is that they have used the same yellow text for everybody, instead of having a different colour for each character... but on the plus side, the Liner Notes included on each DVD offer a little bit of extra insight into the translation of some of the episodes, which I found made for some interesting reading.On the whole, I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for an upbeat, light-hearted but surprisingly powerful anime, that relies on the strength of its characters to carry the story. It's a real hidden gem, that will make you laugh and make you cry... and I absolutely love it!
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3 weeks ago
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