This has been on my to do list for a while but after careful consideration I have now picked my top ten guilty pleasure anime.
Dishonorable Mentions
Digimon, Pokemon & Sailor Moon
They all used to be guilty pleasures but are now appreciated classics, Sailor Moon as of it's new series has gone all contemporary, while the other two still run on decent money despite being over 15 years old.
10. Cutey Honey
Better known as the mother of all transformation sequences, Cutey Honey is on here for it's shameless attempts at adult fanservice, it's cheesy dialogue and sentai background, yet it still looks better than most Magical Girl shows in the last ten years.
9. Ultimate Girls & Hyperdoll
Sticking with sentai heritage, Ultimate Girls was an attempt to spoof the Ultraman series and make fun of ecchi shows in general, it never misses a moment to constantly rip off the girls clothes and make them fight the most dodgy looking monsters. Hyperdoll is an older series but follows a similar concept of skimpy clothes and crappy monsters. However both have amazingly catchy theme songs and the whole premise is so laughable that you can't help but enjoy it.
8. Debutante Detective Corps
Anyone who has followed me from day one knows that this show was the first series I ever reviewed, a minor OVA series about five stupidly rich girls forming a detective group to try and stop bad guys wanting to kidnap them and demand their money. It's laughable the amount of effort that went into this OVA and stands the test of time as a heckle worthy anime for the lazy afternoons.
7. Fighting Video Game Anime
Fighting Games have terrible stories and not one of them has ever managed to be good in anime form despite having enough of a diverse cast to allow it to be good. Anime like Powerstone, Virtua Fighter, Fatal Fury, Street Fighter II, Tekken, Variable Geo and Darkstalkers all have to share this position on this list, but say what you like about it, it's still very entertaining to watch these failures.
6. Angelic Layer
It's interesting to see CLAMP try a shonen series but ultimately still feels like a shojo, nevertheless the fighting dollies of Angelic Layer is still a million times better than some of the rubbish CLAMP have dug up over the years.
5. Those Who Hunt Elves
Anyone using the tagline, "Stripping Elves for Fun & Profit" will get serious looks of confusion from so many people, made even more weirder when the characters are a school girl, a martial artist, a Hollywood actress and a T74 Tank that later gets possessed by a cat spirit, all of whom are led by an elf woman who ends up turning into a dog. Despite all that it's wonderfully good fun to watch.
4. Love Hina
It's become a popular bashing subject between anime fans and I can see why but read much closely it still manages to be a decent love story, this is made more clear in the Manga whereas the anime feels cheap in comparison and lets face it, everyone always cheers when watching Naru get punched.
3. Rio Rainbow Gate
This show was written to be completely bashed by anime fans but it's attempts at being serious when Rio herself does her best by using the heart of the cards setup makes this such an enjoyment to watch if only to see how absurd the premise can get, the fact that this was made by Tecmo of Dead or Alive fame is plain to see as its never shy with it's fanservice.
2. Wedding Peach
The term "Sailor Moon ripoff" was common place in the 90s when many Magical Girl shows wanted to claim some of it's popularity, the most high profile being Wedding Peach, about a group of three girls who transform into their Wedding Gowns before going into their mini-skirts of power during a fight scene. It's a cheesy ripoff, the dub is one of the worst in anime history and feels like something Precure would come up with (which surprisingly they haven't). Saying that, it had a decent soundtrack, it ran at a higher quality than Sailor Moon and you just can't help but appreciate the ambitious attempt this anime tried to accomplish that it so nearly became a worthy rival.
1. Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
Oh god, oh god, oh god. Yes another terrible magical girl show but it's so laughably stupid that it's become a hidden cult classic, it's also the only anime that manages to use it's whole color palette for both it's villains and mermaids and finally we have the songs. Even shows about Magical Pop Idols such as Aikatsu and the Pretty Rhythm franchise could never compete with Mermaid Melody's cheesy pop, for a long time it served the internet's meme community until the next bad anime took over.
I guess this review came as no surprise to anyone who's been watching the Fantasy Zone. Time now for Rio Rainbow Gate.
Rio Rainbow Gate is an anime created off the back of Tecmo Koei's line of Pachinko games. Rio herself also appeared in Dead or Alive Xtreme which also sums up the shows content.
The story is about a Casino Dealer named Rio Rollins who is the daughter of a more famous Casino Dealer. She works at Howard Resort who is owned by a perverted yet strangely good and honest boss. Her mission is to get the mystical Gate Cards which will grant her a wish and hopefully get her closer to her missing mother who isn't really missing. Along the way she must take down her step sister who is also her greatest rival.
Oh boy Formulaic or what, it sounds like YuGiOh zero with boobs and that's exactly what it is and it comes with an impressive checklist of cliches.
1. Annoying child character who becomes an episode plot point and ends up as a surrogate younger sister.
2. Main character is loved by everyone and is ridiculously talented at what she does and knows Heart of the Cards Magic.
3. Early bad guys talk big but still lose.
4. Side characters do nothing but look pretty, one of them will be emotionless.
5. Clumsy character is ridiculously adorable and over exaggerated.
6. There is a line of sexy cosplay to look forward to.
7. Rival shows up unexpected but acts as a friend.
8. There's a robot girl with a gimmick of losing her head.
9. Casino Games are a bit over the top and always serious business.
10. Big enemy shows up and derails main character using psychological torture.
11. Rival reveals that she's behind all this and challenges main character.
12. Rival is stronger than main character and crushes her spirit in the process.
13. Early bad guys switch sides out of respect for their former enemy.
14. Main character goes on a self discovery journey and reclaims her lost spirit and confidence through an unknown spirit guardian who is really someone close to her.
15. Main Character challenges rival again and wins.
16. Big enemy gets desperate and tries to do an ass pull moment.
17. Main character pulls a Madoka Magica God Scene.
18. Series ends with sudden new characters indicating a second season that won't happen.
I don't normally write with this much sarcasm in my language but it kind of warrants it. Rio Rainbow Gate proves how bad Yu-Gi-Oh's storyline was by re-writing it as a proper anime show, adding boobs and even more lousy cliches.
At the very least the show is reasonably entertaining, you can easily find yourself absorbed in the weirdness around you particularly Anya Helsing when she manages to destroy three supercars through bending trees by accident through her sheer clumsiness. But still it's budget anime at it's finest and you certainly won't gain anything watching it. No dub thank god, it's bad enough in Japanese.
Final Verdict: It's terrible but good terrible, for the price you pay for it, it certainly is worth the money and worth at least one viewing and I will admit that I want to go to a Casino now, so at the very least it's achieved it's primary goal.
