Running time: 25 minutes
Number of episodes: 26
Vintage: 2006-10-05
Age rating: ???
Genres: Comedy, Romance
Animation Production: Studio Hibari
Production: Bandai Visual, Lantis, Studio Hibari, Sumomo Production Committee
Source: Anime News Network
The Good: Sexual inuendo jokes can be really funny.
The Bad: The good jokes are few and far in between; it hops around from funny to lame fighting drama; loses focus a lot.
Status: Dropped
My impressions and review:
So what is Sumomomo Momomo? Sumomo Momomo is loli. It’s comedy loli. It’s comedy loli with some crappy fighting. I dropped it though, so what’s wrong with it? Well… it’s not always funny, that’s what’s wrong with it. The show starts off with a crazy set up that is almost guaranteed to generate a few laughs, and indeed it does, but then it quickly gravitates into more quirky uninteresting romance story. There’s nothing wrong with this of course, but in the case of Sumomomo Momomo that makes it less appealing. With every addition of characters the show loses focus and turns into a twisted harem with some of the worst character designs imaginable with every intent of maximizing weird crazy moe. There’s no clear bonding between the characters and there’s inconsistent narrative making Sumomomo Momomo a weekly trial and error for laughs and no substance to carry it beyond that. In other words, you won’t really care that you saw this anime or want to go back and revisit it, that’s not good enough for me.
Due to the lack of focus and the divergence from comedy to quasi-serious romance bundled with a very weak narrative, Sumomomo Momomo lost all of its appeal to me. I was hoping it would turn out well because I liked the first episode, but the more I watch the less I enjoy the show.
It would be interesting to know at which episode you stopped. The anime certainly takes its time to get there, but from reading the manga, I can tell there’s some really powerful drama coming up. It may have started as seemingly light-hearted comedy, but it’s really drama with some comic relief in the form of loli fanservice.
Episode 13 may have been slightly annoying and a bit of a breach in narrative continuity, and it’s indeed not taken from the manga, so I assume the animators have thrown it in as some kind of filler. But I don’t think it is indicative of subsequent episodes, which should bring about substantial character development and a pretty compelling story arc. I’m a little too lazy to watch this raw, though, so I’ll be waiting for luperry’s release of the latest aired episodes to tell for sure.
Heh. I actually got tired of it by episode 13 for more or less the same reason you pointed out. There’s supposed to be assassin’s after Inuzuka and then suddenly a bunch of weird girls want to marry him. That was the tipping point for me.
Even if the sudden change in the show is made up by the animation studio and not part of the original manga, it still lowers the quality of the overall production. Since I have not read the manga I don’t have anything to look forward to, and being bored half-way through really makes it hard to continue. Whether or not the end of the anime goes back to its roots, the trail of stale episodes still remains.
I might be too harsh and vague with my critics, but when there’s timeless comedy such as Azumanga Daioh out there that I could watch over and over, Sumomomo Momomomo just can’t compare. Obviously Sumomomo Momomo has more than comedy as its selling point, but in reality it was its only good point. At best it’s just “something to watch this season” but no where near as compelling or funny as the better stuff in the industry.