If there's one thing that this show has going for it, it's the premise. I always found the concept of girls making manga pretty cute and ever since it's announcement I've been looking forward to seeing because, hey why not? The character design is pretty cute. No doubt the expectation of many is that it would be a cute and funny anime. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
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If there's one thing that this show has going for it, it's the premise. I always found the concept of girls making manga pretty cute and ever since it's announcement I've been looking forward to seeing because, hey why not? The character design is pretty cute. No doubt the expectation of many is that it would be a cute and funny anime. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
PLOT
To be fair, there's no real plot to speak of. It's a "gag-a-day" format, popularized by shows such as Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star and Nichijou.
The premise is similar to that of Mangirl. A bunch of girls in a manga club. Pretty straightforward stuff, and I don't think any more needs to be said.
PRESENTATION
I think this is where Ai Mai Mi falls the shortest. One of my biggest complaints about this anime is it's brevity. At 5 minutes long, it's painfully short and the writers have to come up with skits that will sure to leave the greatest impact within that short times span. The question is, are they able to pull it off? Answer: no.
In the first five episodes that I've seen the jokes totally flew over my head. They turned out to be more confusing than humorous. I get that the writers want to make the stories unique and wacky, but it's just too "out there" for the average viewer to really appreciate. Hell, I would have been happier with simple, even cliched jokes. At least those would have been funny. If you're looking for random humor involving high-school girls, there are much, much better anime. Ai Mai Mi is good for a few chuckles, but that's it.
ANIMATION
You'd be surprised that the animation quality isn't bad at all. On that note, it's not great either. However to be fair, it does fit well with the wacky tone of the show. It's fairly smooth and you can't argue with how bright and colorful everything is. It goes a step to set the mood of the anime... not like it was particularly good to begin with, but it can't really be helped. This anime is a good case of "Good animations, bad writing."
CHARACTERS
It's about four girls in a manga club. That's it? Pretty much. As expected from a series like this, the characters don't really have much of a back story. The main focus really is the antic they get into on a day to day basis. As I mentioned before, the humors is mostly hit and miss (mostly miss). On a plus side, their quirky personalities are amusing and it's interesting to see what kind of madness they get up to. That being said, they have the potential to be pretty funny but the sub-par writing and humor really is a stumbling block.
THE VERDICT
Ai Mai Mi tries to be funny. Sometimes it is, most of the time isn't. The short running time really is what set the whole anime back and maybe if it was a regular 22 minute anime, it would fair better. Obviously the writers needed to shoehorn humor into 5 minutes and the end result was, to put it nicely, unsatisfactory.
The show has a good premise, good animation, and cute characters, but there wasn't enough 'content' to really make me enjoy it.
The bottom line is this: if you're looking for a few quick laughs, easily amused or fond of extremely random humor, this show MIGHT be for you. If you're looking for a funny, cute anime with lots of laughs, look elsewhere. Ai Mai Mi tries to deliver the feel of a gag-a-day comic strip but fails to deliver.
Would I recommend it? Probably not.
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