THEM Anime Reviews
Home Reviews Extras Forums
AKA: オー!マイキー (Oh! Mikey)
Genre: Mannequin figure show
Length: Television series, 26 episodes, 5 minutes each
Distributor: R1 DVD from ADV Films
Content Rating: 7+ (mild language and themes)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Pulling the Jerry Springer DVD Box Set out of the department store dumpster and watching it.
Notes: The only credits in the show are of the show's cast (Mikey, James, and Barbara), the director (Yoshimasa Ishibashi), and the names of the show and episode ... nothing else. I guess the rest of the people (if any) went into hiding after hearing the complaints on this one.

This show was originally featured on the show Vermillion Pleasure Night. In a similar scenario to Takeshi's Castle/MXC, the segment was licensed while the host show was left behind.
Rating:

The Fuccons

Synopsis

An American mannequin family adjusts to life in Japan as mannequins ... why are you staring at me? That's it.


Review

I must have laughed through the whole episode of this thing. Not because of the comedy, but because it's so friggin' dumb.

The plot is established in each episode as the idea of each episode. In other words, there is no continuing of an idea through one episode into another. Maybe it became difficult because of the sheer shortness of the episode. Maybe it was because they knew there would be a backlash. The total amount of time in each episode is 120-240 ... seconds (timewise, 2-4 minutes) and hardly leaves time for the whole show to organize itself. The moment you finally get the point of the show, the final scene plays.

All the characters in this show can be easily recounted. James, Barbara, and Mikey are the only characters one can recount from the show because anyone else got wiped out or given airtime in the period of 1 minute. Even Kyoto (one of Japan's busiest cities) is devoid of any signs of intelligent life (I say "intelligent" because the main characters and the other characters present are not qualified to be called "intelligent"). These three people are so absent-minded that the guy from Abenobashi was made into MENSA's chairman. The characters repeat every ... single ... line ... over and over again. They also treat you like you don't care, because you don't. Fourth wall, meet chainsaw.

Music? What music? There is no music in the whole thing other than the so-called OP and even that isn't a song. It more resembles a SFX. This so called "theme song" plays while Mikey and family cut-n-paste themselves into the It's a Wonderful Life title card. Having watched the said movie myself and having enjoyed it, I would like to tell Mikey and family to get out. Unfotunately, even if there were good music, it wouldn't help this series out too much.

Animation quality is absolutely perfect ... if your budget is three cents. The only scene in the whole episode I watched that was animated at all was when the telephone was swinging back and forth ... while not moving, kind of like a pendulum. Everything else is just a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Scene transition must be a no-no here. The stop frame work on the show corresponds to the vocal time of each seiyuu. This would be a good thing, but ...

The voice actors are so misplaced that you believe your ears are bleeding. You reach up to your ears and you take your hands away and find out YES! You do have bleeding ears! James sounds like he was drinking too much but looks perfectly sober. Barbara sounds like an Anne Robinson-esque Mary Sue. Mikey himself sounds like he is tired and sad that he is even involved, something I don't blame him for. At times, Mikey changes his voice to that of some dumb idiot who doubles as a ventriloquist's dummy.

As this is a still-frame mannequin show, there is no artwork at all. The scenes are so underbudget that even the backdrops are mostly from real locations (or maybe it is the other way around, with the artwork being lifelike), which bring the objective of the show into question. The accuracy of the show makes you wonder who really did the directing: Mr. Ishibashi or the preschool classroom at Haroldsburg Elementary?

(In closing, I wish to say that the source I was watching The Fuccons off of has only aired one episode and I have very limited means of acquiring the other episodes, though that doesn't mean that I will not keep watching.)

Back in Ancient Egyptian times, the equivalent to this would have been to chop off your tongue, but since this is the modern age, the human race needed a new torture device. With horrid characters, nasty voices, and bad plot, this is perfect. It even doubles as a milestone of Neo-Surrealism.Jake L Godek

Recommended Audience: Not a single soul, whether living or inanimate. The inconsistency is easily seen and witnessed. Whatever you do, don't waste your time or money on this.



Version(s) Viewed: Television broadcast, English dubbed
Review Status: Partial (1/26)
The Fuccons © 2005 OH! Mikey Project Japan
 
© 1996-2015 THEM Anime Reviews. All rights reserved.