Paniponi Dash!: Lethal Lesson

Reviewed By: Carla Land

ADV DVD

Review based on volume 1(episodes 1-5)

Rating TVPG

What it’s (basically) all about: Rebecca is a half-Japanese, half-American M.I.T. graduate. She is starting her first day as a high school teacher in Japan…and she is only eleven years old. Can an eleven year old control a bunch of tenth graders? Only her bunny knows for sure.

Nitty Gritty: Rebecca has her work cut out for her. Some of her students are a little…on the strange side. One of them seems hyperactive until you pull out her cowlick, another is so boring she keeps disappearing, and the class rep is on the homicidal side. Mostly a “slice of life” type show, no one episode has to be seen to understand the next.

There is a lot of screaming and some mild foul language (sucks, cakehole, hell), and a little fan service (mostly in the credits). At one point Rebecca flips her class the bird, which gets her conked on the head by one of her students. During a slumber party, the girls ask Rei how she got curves in all the right places. For the most part, this could be shown on television without any editing. There’s no nudity or serious fan service.

Special features include clean opening/closing animation, TV spots from Japan, ADVid Notes (pop up facts and explanations of all the inside jokes), a special opening, and information about the “Chalkboard Champion Contest” (which does have a couple of  movie quotes with bad language in them. “We ain’t found sh*t.” from Spaceballs, for example.) Previews included are for Nerima Daikon Brothers, Excel Saga, Comic Party Revolution TV, Fullmetal Panic? FUMOFFU, UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie: December Nocturne (which advertises “gratuitous nudity,” but doesn’t show any), and Nanaka 6/17, all of which are appropriate enough for preteen/ teen audiences.

Survey says: This series should be fine in your teen sections. Nothing in it gets much cruder than a PG movie.

Personal Ad: This is a cute one, and the theme songs are really catchy. I’d show this to my teen anime club without concern.