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Title: Pita-Ten
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, keep your kids away from this series. People in this series are very, VERY stupid, and this book with do nothing but encourage kids to be just as stupid as the characters in this book are! Speaking of things that may be objectional I could find none. Maybe a couple of scary moments, but thing really to speak of. Fans of drama, you're screwed with this series! Fans of comedy are urged to keep away from this series at all costs. It is not funny at all, and to call this a "comedy" is an insult to the word. |
"Pita-Ten" is a romantic shounen series written by Koge-Donbo, who is the mastermind behind "DiGi Chart," which has one of the largest underground cult followings in the anime and manga world. Seeing as how anime and manga are underground hobbies in the first place, the idea that there is actually an underground series of this hobby is alarming. The very idea of a series being of so minimal entertainment that there needs to be an underground following for a series that is part of an underground hobby is, quite frankly, terrifying. I still have not read "DiGi Chart" to this day. However, I have read "Pita-Ten," and if "DiGi Chart" is anything like "Pita-Ten," then I have even less interest in reading it now, as "Pita-Ten" is a loud, stupid, obnoxious series that made me want to strangle the author. "Pita-Ten" seems to want to reach the humor brilliance of "Tenchi Muyo," but it doesn't even seem to come close to the humor of "A.I. Love You."
In fact, this series is so much of a mess, that I can't even really begin to describe what the heck is even going on most of the time. The story opens up with the protagonist of the series (a kid of some age, in some grade, named Kotarou) leaving to go to school, only to see a girl wearing the most bizarre clothes greeting him in his hallway and asking him whether he would like to go out with her. Since the series does a poor job of establishing who anyone is in this book, I assumed that the look of annoyance on Kotarou's face meant that this girl did this often... but then Kotarou ran away from the girl in terror, and we find out a few panels later that he had no idea who that girl was, and what we THOUGHT was a look of annoyance was actually a look of terror. Maybe he should have at least asked her what her name was and, more importantly, how did she get in his house, and what was she doing there in the first place? This question is never asked, despite the fact that Kotarou ends up bumping into this girl several times at his school throughout the day. When he finally does talk to her, he finds out the girl’s name is Misha, she's an angel, and her mission is to make sure he is happy and safe. I'm telling you right now, if Jesus ever pulled a prank that would result in my getting THIS girl as a guardian angel, I would officially reevaluate my faith!
Misha is, to be kind, an absolute moron. She is neither charming, nor funny, nor smart, nor cute... in fact, she's not much of anything at all. She spends the whole series screaming for no apparent reason, she pops out of the weirdest places, she has rabbit ears for no reason whatsoever, and she's just a freaky character. Anyway, the reason Misha was sent to make Kotarou happy is because his mother died when he was a child, and ever since then his dad buries himself in his work, so Kotarou spends his days feeling rather lonely. Once Kotarou tells this to Misha, she tells him that she'll be his new mother, and starts talking to him in baby language. Once I reached this point in the story, my tolerance for this character (what little tolerance I had to begin with) just dropped off the RADAR, as this girl starts saying and doing the most ANNOYING things! Since Misha is the new self-appointed mother of Kotarou, she says things like "okie dokie" and "lookie wookie." She tries playing with him like he was a two-year-old, and just becomes a real nuisance. And as God is my witness, Kotarou must find her as much of an annoyance as I do, as at one point he seems to just start ignoring her altogether.
Shortly after Misha starts hanging around Kotarou (much to his annoyance), Kotarou's childhood friend, Koboshi, gets jealous that Misha is trying to steal her love interest away, and spends the rest of the book trying to pull Misha and Kotarou apart, many times with antics that are just as annoying as Misha’s antics are.
Must. Kill. At. All. Costs.
Of course, these two girls may as well be twins, as aside from their height they both look horrendously stupid, with wacky dresses that make it hard to tell the two apart. It's especially annoying to try and tell the two apart when they are in chibi form, as both characters are indistinguishable from each other. So this is just great, I'm not even two chapters into the series and already I have a headache the size of a bowling ball.
This has got to be the noisiest manga I've ever read. People are shouting all the time for no good reason, sound effects surround the characters like a tsunami, and people run around... a lot. They run from one place to another without purpose. I watched these idiots run around as if their heads were on fire hoping that someone, somewhere, would be holding a rope in their hands, waiting to trip them. At one point in the series, Misha mentions that in heaven, her grades were unusually low for an angel. I laughed at this point, if only for the fact that this line was such a pathetic attempt to justify the stupidity that emits from this character.
From other reviews I've read (from reviewers who, for one reason or another, find this moronic behavior "cute"), the series becomes interesting when a girl by the name of Shia comes into the story. Well, Shia came into the story in this book. She comes in, is unusually (and refreshingly) quiet for the first couple chapters, before she attacks Kotarou and makes him fall into a deep sleep that he may or may not wake up from. The resolution comes a few pages after the attack, and I find it surprising that this is the situation that sells people on the series, as I was just dumbfounded as to what exactly happened (to some credit, most reviews can't seem to figure out what happened either). Kotarou falls asleep, Misha shows up, Shia keeps talking about being alone for so long (whatever that has to do with putting someone in a coma), Misha hugs Shia, and everything goes back to normal. Big frickin’ whoop. If this is the turning point in the series, then I'd hate to see what the climax has to offer.
As bad as this all sounds, it isn't nearly as bad as the artwork in this series. I know many people consider the artwork in this series to be cute, but in reality it is horrendous and sloppy, almost to the point where many pages look unfinished. Characters will say that they are in one mood, yet the facial expression displays an entirely different mood. Most of the character development scenes are void of any backgrounds, as if the artist thought that doing this cheap "save time" effect actually worked in the story’s favor. Heck, there are times when there are several panels next to each other, and the differences are so minor that the panels look like they were photocopied.
Absolutely horrible. The artwork is at its worse when the characters are running, screaming, or doing anything that involves the use of energy, as these scenes quickly become overcrowded with poorly drawn sound effects and poorly drawn hyperactive characters that all look the same.
There are (unfortunately) a FEW positive things to say about "Pita-Ten," though! For starters, the covers for this series are surprisingly excellent, with great colors and wonderful art. Of course, I feel like I'm being desperate when I start looking at the cover artwork for good things to say about a series, but this title just isn't doing a good job at doing anything right. There are also a couple of nice scenes that touch your heart, including a scene where Kotarou reveals that he is afraid of a certain location because that's where his mom died, and he has never been able to get the images of her dead body out of his mind. This was one of the few scenes that tugged on my heart, and even made me think that this series would get better, but then Misha pulls Kotarou’s head between her breasts and reminds him that she is his new mommy, and I slapped myself for even thinking this series had any hope left.
"Pita-Ten" is a series that has been getting some alarmingly positive reviews, most of which I can't even begin to understand. There are so many good romance series to read out there, that putting this one as one of the highest rated ones out there is, quite frankly, insulting. VERY insulting, in fact! There are some great romance manga out there, including "Maison Ikkoku," "Love Hina," "Ai Yori Aoshi" (for the first book anyway), "Kodocha: Sana's Stage," "Kare Kano," and "Boys Over Flowers." ALL of these series are at LEAST ten times better than this one is, and far more worthy of your spending cash!! Why "Pita-Ten" has been receiving all this praise I don't know, but my recommendation is that you would be wasting your life if you read this, and you should stay away from this stupid title at all costs.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -