You want maids? You get dolls!
Hi guys, Ares here. I’ll take over Pastel Memories’ reviews. I’m not sure how it happened but let’s roll with it…
Pastel Memories keeps being… strange.
From a certain point of view it’s your typical anime with magical girls jumping in fantasy worlds to save our own world from whatever evil… thing. On another point of view, the twelve protagonists are all fetish-fuel otaku with racy dresses and steam-punk weaponry.
And still, while it seems a series geared toward parody and fanservice, it doesnt’ seem to deliver too much of the latter, and the quality is a bit lacking (except for the ending, which is an awesome teaser). So… yes, you can expect at best some cleavage shot and giggling boobs.
Should also be noted that the protagonists (and the ugly mascot) seems some kind of portrayal of the animals of the Chinese zodiac. All this makes Pastel Memories a kind of wildcard, making us wonder where every episode is trying to go.
That said, apparently the protagonists will shift from one episode to the next. The protagonists of this one are Michi, Yuina and Kaoruko. You don’t know who they are?
Here, like this maybe you’ll remember.
So, if the first episode was a long introduction and the 2nd was a parody of Is the Order a Rabbit? (Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?), the 3rd one is a more or less a blatant parody of Rozen Maiden (with some Dragonball here and there). But let’s go in order…
We’re back to the Rabbit Shed Shop, our friendly maid-cafe, where the girls are quarrelling about a new event. And while neko-girl Yuina wants frilly maids for making quick money and the ojousama-like Kaoruko speaks about being classy, the titular quiet loli Michi is not giving a damn and just sew new dresses for the dolls of the cafe.
(Isn’t she cute?)
Michi seems however troubled by the fact that her childhood friends (Kaoruko and Yuina) don’t remember the anime Rosy Maiden, that apparently they all watched back in primary school.
Luckily an attack from the virus target the Rosy Maiden world and so Michi jumps headfirst in it, pulling Yuina and Kaoruko along with her.
Here, they finds that the classy dolls are now… less classy…
Michi is fazed by their lack of cuteness but luckily Kaoruko gives us at least a close view of her “class”.
While the couple of dolls starts bickering, Michi uses some kind of power no one previously mentioned, a “Memorial Change”, to turn her own uniform in the clothes of her most beloved character of that world. I’m not sure if it got some real utility.
Well… this is fanservice, but not of the kind I expected…
Anyway, in the meantime Michi gets kidnapped by Not-Suigintou, threatened because the doll wants a cute dress too and then ends up ambushed by Maya.
All business as usual, let’s go to the juicy parts.
And I mean Maya.
Thank you, Maya, until now it almost seemed a review from some shoujo-themed website.
Meanwhile Not-Shinku open some “path” to Michi’s dreamworld and send the other two there. Here they start killing the memories-eating virus, thus remembering about Rosy Maiden, that they watched together with Michi.
Finally, Yuina and Kaoruko find their way to the place where Michi is fighting and give her as much support as they can. In the meantime a huge mother-virus appears and start punching around the girls like mosquitos.
We get some pretty appreciable cleavage shots. Unfortunately, quality is still a issue.
But the main enemy (the only one worth bringing down) is a bit too big and so Karouko and Yuina give a quite literal interpretation of “giving support” to Michi…
Ok, is strange, but we can get around it…
(And thanks to Maya for this Doronjo-like dynamic exit)
All’s well that ends well. The giga-virus is destroyed, Yuina and Kaoruko now remember about their first anime and most importantly Not-Shiku and Not-Suigintou got their dresses back and stop behaving like two drunk hobos…
(Admittedly, at this point I really didn’t care much about the dolls anyway…)
Back into the real world the Rabbit Shed is finally having its event, themed on the priced anime that Michi & friends just saved, with classy maids’ cosplay.
Pretty appreciable, expecially how Yuina brings the tray. I suppose those needs support too…
WebMs:
Overall thoughts: This episode (like most of this anime ’till now) more than fanservice-y is kind of cute parody with a bit of sexy innuendo. Arguably the ending theme is the more catching part of the episodes (for fanservice, for graphical quality and because the theme is quite good as well). As for the actual fanservice and graphic quality, chances are our only hope is that the BD edition will enhance such features.
Stitches courtesy of ScissorMeTimbers.
