Note,
10.2.07 Ehhh? What is it with Di Gi Charat and King Crimson? First a
reference to the inside cover of the first album, and now the front cover
appears on the door of a ‘Prog Club’ in Puchiko’s school in the serious reimagining
OVA Winter Garden.
Initial
Impressions, 25.4.07. Bizarre, seeing the bizarre made mundane.
Entertaining, though. That final twist was obvious from the beginning of the
episode. Nice to hear the girl who debuted as Takahashi in Bokura Ga Ita in
another role
Final
thoughts, 18.9.12. I have to say, I didn’t notice that ‘Prog Club’ from
five years ago when I rewatched the Winter Garden OVAs. Maybe between
broadcast and DVD release the sign got changed. It was the weirdest moment in
the otherwise largely naturalistic adaptation (along with a twitchy cameo for a
piece of ‘art’…!), with the sign changing every few moments, and I’d certainly
have noticed such an iconic image. This time I just smiled at how Puchiko was
joining the Keiongaku club – and imagining her in K-On.
Anyway,
five years later the idea of a complete reimagining of a series isn’t such a
new idea for me, and at least to my mind this strange little nugget of
seriousness in a franchise known for its ultra-cutesiness and insanity strikes
me as very funny. It’s less like Mai-HiME becoming the rather different Mai-Otome,
and more like the skits in Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth being spun out
to whole episodes and played much straighter, which lends considerable
subtlety. It’s more like imagined universes with the Vocaloid characters,
or, I suppose, Xenoglossia with the girls from The iDOLM@STER. The studio even changed: from Madhouse to
J.C.Staff.
Winter
Garden is not funny, other than a few little moments, mostly with Puchiko
being either blunt or a cutey, having brought more of her personality from the
original than her sister did. It’s not zany. It’s actually a very, very typical
love story, starting with lots of coincidental meetings, and then being given
tension with a misunderstanding and the possibility of separation. What makes
it funny is the very idea that it’s based on Di Gi Charat, that these
sweet, ordinary girls are based on Dejiko and Puchiko – that Rabi-en-Rose is a
recognisable but consistently dismissed minor celebrity. It’s just a funny
concept, and the disappointment of viewers like me who didn’t get told the
nature of the adaptation beforehand and expected more me-kara-beams and
kuchi-kara-bazookas masked that.
Well,
years have passed now, and while it’s sad that more Di Gi Charat doesn’t
seem anywhere on the horizon, I consider this one a bit of gem overall and am
happy it’s part of the DGC canon, confusing all who stumble upon it
unprepared.
And,
y’know, it’s adorable how Dejiko doesn’t even seem like herself until she gets
to the verge of yelling, and the old Dejiko can just be heard in that voice.
Only just!
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