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AKA: G-on らいだーす
Genre: Sci-fi comedy
Length: Television series, 13 episodes, 23 minutes each
Distributor: Currently unlicensed in North America
Content Rating: 16+ (violence, fan service, innuendo)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Najica Blitz Tactics, Nurse Witch Komugi-chan, Puni Puni Poemy
Notes:
Rating:

G-On Riders

Synopsis

The world is being invaded by enemies from space! Only, the invasion is being carried out by a subcontractor who is not only inept, but over budget and behind schedule.

Just as well then that the world's only hope is a school that hides a secret: it's actually a fortress where schoolgirls are able to "Resonate" (whatever that means) and summon magical swords with the power of their eyeglasses.

This program is brought to you by the sponsorship of LensCrafters and Hanes Her Way.


Review

By the time you see a panty shot of someone wearing short-pants, you realize that this show caters specifically to two types of audience (which, oddly enough, cross over fairly significantly in anime fandom):

Guys who like girls with glasses.
Guys who like to see panties.

From the synopsis, you can clearly tell that G-On Riders is not a virtuoso work of animation. Intelligence is clearly not the word one uses to describe this series -- the main characters are hopelessly brain dead, and the gimmicky inclusion of a "nun" named Sera offers more proof that the Japanese have no concept of the Catholic clergy as more than glorified Halloween costumes. (To the creators' credit, they also treat the Japanese shrine maiden character with about the same level of seriousness.)

The sheer level of obsessiveness with meganekko (the Japanese term for "girls with glasses") and their undergarments is simply astounding. The animators made sure that every single girl in this series wears glasses. It's a lecherous optometrist's wet dream.

You have to wonder if there really is any redeeming value in this whole show ... and there is. The invaders (a bunch of incompetent and ridiculously cute little alien twelve-year-olds driving mecha called, of all things, "Fancy Beasts") are absolutely hilarious, and go a long way in making up for the largely vapid protagonists.

As long as you don't take this series seriously at all whatsoever, you may find that G-On Riders is actually quite entertaining and fun. It does fall into the quandary of many entries in its genre -- is it genuinely funny because it's a parody, or is it so cliched that it has become self-parody? With the whole Cosmo-Banchou cyborg aspect and the thoroughly and utterly wrong final episode, I'm inclined to think two things. It's probably the former, and if not, who cares?

While it's not something you should watch if you feel that all anime must strive towards intellectual content, G-On Riders is hilarious, and very, very magical. That special kind of magical that may give you the munchies.Carlos/Giancarla Ross

Recommended Audience: This show is recommended for older teens and up due to some violence and extreme amounts of fan service.



Version(s) Viewed: digital source
Review Status: Partial (7/13)
G-On Riders © 2002 Katsuzo / G-On Project / Big West / Wowow
 
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