Obligatory note: If you read this review, please rate it and throw some feedback my way so I don't feel like I'm wasting my life :( In particular, tell me to trim the fat if you think it's too long.
Hime-chan's Ribbon: the end of an era?
Animation:Most longer-running series in HcR's era ran on relatively tight budgets, and HcR is no exception. Luckily, the series rarely tries to extend itself beyond its limits, so most scenes have "simple but effective" animation. Special effects are sparse, with transformations and other magical sequences featuring sparkles, shimmers, and fade-blending as Himeko transforms into other people and back to herself. Although HcR aired in the early 1990s, I'd imagine the manga was drawn in a late 1980s style, and the character designs reflect a very 1980s look. Big shoujo eyes, rounded faces, and voluminous hair are the order of the day, along with long thin limbs for the girls and correctly-proportioned "crowd-pleasing" looks for the boys. Some secondary characters are a little rougher, particularly their homeroom teacher, who is a square in more than one sense of the word. Even though HcR didn't need to maintain a high standard of animation for its target audience, they still didn't cut corners on the little details; Himeko and other characters have more than a few outfits in their wardrobe, and the animation never descends into "any character who's not important gets blacked-out / drawn without color" mode. Fortunately, HcR's premise of "everyone in the Magical Kingdom has a lookalike in the human world" allows for some convenient recycling of character designs.
Sound:Certainly a high point of the series. Although the OP/ED are all forgettable boyband fluff songs, I can't really hold that against HcR, given the audience they were going for. As for the rest of the soundtrack...well, it doesn't have the stylistic complexity of Cowboy Bebop's OST or the sweeping grandeur of Fafner, but it's far from bad. It hit all the right mood points, from silly and playful to heart-pounding intense (well, as intense as this show manages to get, anyway) to mournful and sad to tender and heartwarming. One piano track that often plays at the end of episodes is high on the "awww" factor, to the point where it could cross into overblown schmaltz for some people.
The voice acting is also a treat, as we get Ikue "Pikachu" Ohtani as the unquestioned star performer who plays the boisterous tomboy Himeko Nonohara and the refined, elegant Princess Erika of the Magical Kingdom. I didn't even realize this until I looked at the credits after a few episodes. She even plays another "girls must be elegant" character later in the series, but I'll leave it at that to avoid spoilers. Many of the other actors get a chance to play Himeko during transformation incidents, so it's often amusing to hear actors speaking in male voices trying to disguise feminine speech habits.
Yuu Daiki's Daichi sounded a little unpolished at times (and not just because of the character's nature), but she was convincing enough for the typical "female voice actor playing a boy" situation. Other highlights include Takehito Koyasu as Sei Arisaka; like many of his bishounen roles, Koyasu gives Sei just the right blend of confidence, mischief, and over-the-top naive "lover-boy" charm. One lowlight, however, is Rin Mizuhara making elementary school girl Hikaru Hibino sound like a 30something chain smoker.
Story:This is where HcR falters, and it may have contributed (along with the 80s character designs) to the series feeling obsolete and dated even while it was airing. HcR is pure 110% oldschool shoujo, in addition to following the traditional Magical Girl patterns. There is zero fanservice or "crossover appeal" for male viewers, and there is nary a hint of irony or parody of any genre elements. In cynical terms, HcR is a vehicle for preteen girl wish fulfillment (magically transforming into other people, several possible fantasy boyfriends to choose from), morality lessons, and merchandising (magical items in the form of fashionable accessories, and boyband albums -- not only do SMAP sing the OP/ED, they get an appearance in the series). This was a show aimed squarely at preteen girls, with none of the "magical girl series but it aired late at night for the otaku" elements of contemporary anime.
But there's no fun in looking at a very innocent children's series with the jaded eyes of an experienced anime viewer, so let's look at the story for what it is. If you can turn off the snark switch in your brain, Hime-chan's Ribbon can be very sweet, pleasant entertainment from a different era. And in a way, it's refreshing to see a Magical Girl series without any monsters-of-the-week, power of love&friendship special attacks, collection aspects, or "I will destroy the world for no apparent reason" supervillains. Just a girl who wants to catch the eye of the boy she likes, who is told "Here's the power to be someone else, how you use it is up to you."
The story is broken up into easily-digestible episodic chunks, presumably so that the young target audience wouldn't have to catch every episode or remember plot details. Over the course of the series, Himeko comes to understand herself and the people around her better, while befriending her lookalike from the Magic Kingdom and finding a different romance from the one she originally set out for. In most but not all episodes, she uses the transformation ribbon or other magic, and we get to enjoy seeing how she deals with and escapes a wide variety of situations.
So for its target audience, I'm sure HcR hit at least some of the right notes. But what does this mean for us as contemporary viewers? For starters, "Episodic" is apparently a dirty word here on AniDB. But I generally enjoy "anthology" type anime that are set up to have no overall story. The problem here is that HcR purports to have an overall story (Himeko testing the magic ribbon for one year to determine Erika's suitability as heir to the Magic Kingdom), but goes essentially nowhere with it, losing itself with episode after episode of repeated, predictable situations. Let's go to the flowchart:
Himeko or somebody in her life has a problem -> Himeko can't solve it normally, so she uses magic -> Himeko creates even more trouble by using magic -> creative use of magic, wits, or timely intervention from a friend solves the problem -> lesson learned -> repeat it all next week.
The situations featured are dictated by the time of year the episodes aired, so you get all the typical school situations like plays, culture festivals, and school trips, as well as all the standard holiday events.
Some of the magical problems and solutions are less predictable than others, but it's easy to tell from the nature of the series that the serious consequences laid out at various points won't be so serious when the time comes around. The problem with the magic is that once Himeko acquires more abilities, you'll be trying to outthink the writers on what tricks to use, and realizing that entire episodes' storylines would be rendered on an "if she would only use X" basis. The main romance between Hime-chan and Daichi quickly evolves into a "will they or won't they but they probably will" cycle, although I can forgive the show for not taking the romance too seriously because of the young age of the characters.
And for all this, I still haven't gotten to the ending. Lacking any real information on the history of HcR, I'm going to engage in reckless speculation. At one point, there's in-story indication that we'll get 78 episodes, yet things end with the decidedly odd count of 61 episodes. You all might have heard of a little show called Sailor Moon that was airing concurrently with HcR, and I imagine the craze over it was driving HcR into obsolescence during its airing, leading to sponsorship losses, budget cuts, and early cancellation. They even tried to "action up" a few late episodes, with limited success because the Magic Kingdom's magic is specifically declared to be peaceful and non-violent. That's the best explanation I can come up with for the extremely abrupt and inconclusive ending, particularly the contrived "from thin air" plot of the last episode. While there is some resolution to the romance portion (as you might guess from looking at the episode title list), the status quo reigns supreme when it comes to Himeko's ability to use magic and her association with Pokota, Erika, and the Magic Kingdom.
Character: I've touched on this a bit in the Sound and Story sections, but there's a little more to be said. Himeko, being the main character, gets the most attention and development. Despite the repetitive nature of the magical incidents, she does in fact mature and learn from her mistakes. She learns that magic is not the answer to everything (i.e. not every problem has easy solutions), the folly in meddling with others' affairs, and how to be honest to herself and others. And she really is an endearing character; I'd wager that the target audience had no problem identifying with her and her wish to be more feminine while still remaining true to herself and her interests (playing soccer, to name one example).
The other characters don't fare so well, as many of them are one-note, static characters. Or at least once they're "reformed" by Himeko, they assume a new static position. Daichi Kobayashi starts out as the bad boy with a heart of gold, and remains that way aside from his lessened annoyance with and increased attraction to Himeko. Sei Arisaka starts out as a mischevious playboy type, but is quickly revealed to be a rather incompetant Cassanova with nary an evil thought in his head. The most annoying character had to be Hikaru Hibino, Himeko's romantic rival and leader of the Daichi fan club. (You could say she established or followed the archetype for later fanclub girls in other shows like Fruits Basket.) Talk about "can't take a hint."
Other characters such as Himeko's teacher and family are pretty much one-noters, but I can't hold that against them as they are meant to be ordinary, normal people who happen to interact with an extraordinary girl. On the magical side, we have Erika, who gets to learn about the human world and learn to be more assertive with her father. Lastly, there's Pokota, Himeko's magical companion. As the "I don't think that's such a good idea" voice of reason in Hime-chan's magical mishaps, Pokota is an interesting character in that he doesn't suddenly enter Himeko's life when she becomes a magical girl. Rather, he was already a beloved toy who'd been silently watching over her for years. Their friendship and interaction provide some of the most heartwarming and saddest moments in the series, especially when they think they might be separated. Sadly for us emotional junkies who love a good cry, this never comes to pass.
Value:Well, I always like to express value in terms of currency and physical product, but an R1 release for Hime-chan's Ribbon seems very unlikely. It's old, it's shoujo, it's Magical Girl, and that's 3 strikes right there. Still, it'd have to be an attractively-priced release. While I liked the series, it's not one that I can imagine watching all the way through again anytime soon, due to the massive blocks of one-episode stories that don't inspire you to watch the next, the removal of any unpredictability, and the knowledge that there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Not to mention the 6 recaps within the last 17 episodes, placed in 3 hard-to-swallow back-to-back blocks. And you thought His & Her Circumstances was bad.
Enjoyment: Despite all the negatives, I enjoyed Hime-chan's Ribbon. Because Sailor Moon was my first "anime that I knew was anime," I've always been pre-disposed to shoujo and Magical girl anime (despite being a teenage and later 20something male), and I've never disliked old anime simply for being old. So if you don't like those "three strike" elements, you may want to avoid HcR. But I liked it as a "window to the past" of the Magical Girl genre, before it become known for the action/collection elements introduced in Sailor Moon, back when it was just about girls who could use magic. Sure, HcR was dated, cheesy, and shoujo to the extreme. But let me tell you, it had me up out of my chair doing the "Ike Ike Go Go Jump!" routine in a few episodes ^_^
Recommendations: If you want more action and overall story with your magical girls, then Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and the wacky Tenchi Muyo! spinoff & parody Magical Girl Pretty Sammy (TV) should suit your fancy. If you want modern-day throwbacks to the pre-Sailor-Moon era of Magical Girl anime, I'd recommend Ultra Maniac, Full Moon, Sugar Sugar Rune, and the delightfully-innocent-yet-innuendo-charged Shugo Chara! If you want another MG anime that's actually from the "old" era, I believe Magical Angel Creamy Mami is available subbed in English.
