Trouble Chocolate
Abstract: A bizarre and confusing show, Trouble Chocolate staggers between plot holes and stereotypical characters without ever reaching any conclusions. The animation is poor, the characters designs not any better, and the background art simple to say the best. The voices acting is best part of the show, and excepting the talented Horie Yui, it is nothing write home about. If it wasn't for Mint and Deborah, there would nothing here worthwhile. Final Grade: C-
Genre: Sudden Girlfriend Appearance
Content: Light Ecchi
Reasons to Watch: The lovebirds Deborah and Murakata; Dictator Mint-chan and her 'evil' sidekick Spider Monster
Reasons not to Watch: Plot is without direction; Cheap and simple characters; Miserably paced ending
Plot: 3
The somewhat erratic Mormon writer Orson Scott Card once defined the difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction as thus: “Fantasy has trees while Sci-Fi has rivets”. Now, while it is possible to combine the two genres, it is never recommended, excepting the sub-genre of Dying Earth. (A good example of the Dying Earth genre is the excellent Scrapped Princess anime, but to get a really good idea, pick up the eponymous series by the legendary Jack Vance, which also was a great influence on Dungeons & Dragons. Ok, nerd mode off). Where was I? Oh yes, Trouble Chocolate does a really sloppy job with it's setting. Sci-Fi and Fantasy don't mix because they are mutual exclusive. Sci-Fi answers everything with technology, there are basic rules of nature it follows, and everyone can use it. Fantasy answers everything with magic, which can not be explained, even if there are strict rules it follows, and only special people can use it. In TC, magic and science exist side by side with little conflict, despite the logical problems inherit. And the attempt to whitewash the problem away just leads to more confusion. With the setting of the show rooted firmly in this uncertainty, logic flies straight out the window. No event in the show surprised me, since nothing made sense to begin. So I will ignore all of the blatant unpossibilities in the script and move on to other problems I can define. The next problem lies in the storyline. What is actually going on here? There are four different plotlines here, and the show skips from on to the next without really resolving any of them. First plotline: Cacao's and Hinano's growing romance. While the anime does grudgingly show some of Cacao's growing feeling for Hinano, nothing really ever gets resolved. I would be nice if at least some romance could happen. Second plotline: the magical miscards and the two Chinese stereotypes after them. The Miscards gives us our monster-of-the-week story, but half of the monsters that show up aren't really miscards. And nobody gives a rat's ass about the cards except for those cheap Chinese stereotypes anyway. First, why are miscards here if they aren't needed to provide monsters-of-the-week, and second, if they are important, why doesn't anybody else try to collect them? Third plotline: Truffle and his grandfather. Truffle is obsessed with Hinano. His grandfather wants to eliminate Cacao. Where is the action? There was what, one measly episode where this plotline was acted upon, and then it is swept under the rug until the final two. If this is so important, why doesn't it show up more? And even when it shows up, it feels forced. This plot point occupies the last two episodes, the traditionally heavy drama stuff, but the pacing is rushed and poor. It was clear the directors ran out of episode time, as with only five minutes left we had a half-a-dozen loose ends to tie up. And with only five minutes, the tying up bit was a complete mess, riddled with plotholes. Chief among this was that the guy being brainwashed somehow escaped on his own, located the trapped rescue party, brought them to roof, and never once noticed Hinano's condition. And there was no explanation given for this. Even the cheapest lampshade would be preferable to not not explaining at all. Fourth plotline: Dictator Mint-chan and her attempts at world, or school, domination. While this quite amusing, what does introducing a recurring villain into the story accomplish so late into the run? As much as loved the interplay between her and Spider Monster, she does little to advance the plot and really only takes up filler space, abet much better than the stupid Chinese girls, who filled the dead air time before. And who the hell is Danboy? He sends a magical e-mail for no reason and then disappears, and is not necessary for the plot. Why did this happen? But this is not to say the Trouble Chocolate is consistently bad. There are a handful of episodes, like Dictator Girl Mint or Debora vs. Mecha-Debora, which are quite funny. And there are a few classic moments, like when Sardine gets dumped at the end of episode 10, or when Murakata flashes his ass in episode 5. Actually, all the Murakata/Deborah scenes are hilarious. So the best description of Trouble Chocolate is that it is inconsistently bad. Grade: D+
Art: 4
I really need to mention this. In the OP, there is a brief scene with Deborah. Her legs are drawn backwards. Its such a glaring mistake, and so easily corrected, I had trouble believing it. Come on people, can we at least try here? Moving on, the characters designs are simple and uninspired, and the body animation is often crude. There are some nice bits, often involving Deborah and Murakata, but as a whole the animation is mediocre. The background is not any better. The colors assault the eyes with Candyland colors, and the buildings are all very simple and cheaply drawn. There is very little at all here. I have noticed times that the lip flaps did not match the Japanese voices, a surprising event for a turn of the millennium show. Personally, I was shocked at how poor some of the animation was in the 19 th episode. While animation tends to decrease as a show winds down, the work was so poor at parts it looked more like a caricature. And I can not end this without mentioning Hinano's hair, which has now overtaken Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka for the worst hair style in an anime I have seen. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Grade: C-
Sound: 6
Ms. Horie Yui is Mint-chan. Ms. Horie Yui is one of the most talented voice actress of a generation. It is no mistake to say Ms. Horie is the best voice actor in this entire show. A pity that she doesn't show up until the second half. The two main characters aren't bad, but they are lacking the chemistry that you can hear between actors like Kugimiya Rie and Hino Satoshi. Hinano is played by the journeywoman Tange Sakura. Her biggest role was probably in Cardcaptor Sakura, which I have not seen, but she performed as the voice Princess Mill in Maze, and like in Maze, she gives a strong performance undercut by poor writing. Cacao is played by one Yanagi Naoki, who biggest role was, uhhh, Night Wizard, maybe? Anyway, his performance is technically fine, but lacked a feeling of emotion. The OP was either catchy or annoying, depending on my mood, and the both EDs were forgettable. Grade: B-
Characters: 2
This will be fun. First, Cacao. The stereotypical loser shounen. He has no talent or ambitions, and lives only to eat. In other words, a horribly weak character. Apart from his infinite stomach, he is completely transparent. Despite the fact he has some magical ability (although only when drunk), he finds it boring and stupid, which seems very strange. Hinano is an airheaded tree fairy in a marionette's body. She plays the part of the Sudden Magical Girlfriend, and she plays it by the book: completely besotted by this shallow man. Suffice to say, this unconditional love is like any other similar tale: a dead end for character development. Almond is some sort of aboriginal or something, that has an infinite stomach. Yes, that is correct. There are two male characters whose only gag is that they eat a lot. Seriously. Almond is completely irrelevant to the story, and should have been left on the cutting room floor. Truffle, is the rich pretty boy that lusts after Hinano. He does annoying rich kid things, and tends to act as most as the punchline to slapstick jokes. Deborah and Murakata are the two lovebirds of the school, and they are genuinely funny. Particularly amusing is despite his professions of love, Murakata often runs away from danger, while leaving Deborah to fight alone. I have already spoken about Dictator Girl Mint, but it her sarcastic henchman Spider Monster that provides a lot of the humor of the duo. Azuki and Maccha are the twin Chinese girls in some sort form indentured servitude, that exist only to be annoying. And they succeed marvelously. And then there is the strangest character of the show, Professor Big Bang, the homosexual Frankenstein's Monster. Not that there is anything wrong with that. So in summary, character development: nil. Emotional development: minimal. Interesting characters: few. Backstories and context: nil. Cheap stereotypes and repeated jokes: plenty. Grade: D
Value: 5
Watchability: Trouble Chocolate wasn't that hard to watch, although it dragged at times. There were a handful of really bad episodes, but most were just mediocre. Grade: B
Re-watchability: There are some episodes that are worth a second glance, and are those Deborah/Murakata jokes. Grade: C
Historical Value: I once heard someone say that Trouble Chocolate was the worst anime they've ever seen. They clearly haven't watched everything I have. And VIZ did release this stateside, so someone most have seen something in it. But even if you could find it, please don't waste your money on it. It is crap. Grade: D+
Enjoyment: 5
I enjoyed the bits about the over-the-top lovebirds and the incompetent super villain schoolgirl. Everything else, well it kinda sucked. I kind of get the feeling that there are pieces of this show that could have been good. There are funny jokes, there is some good drama, and there is hints of a growing romance. But these pieces fail to come together in any coherent manner, and so much is wasted by poor writing and bad design. Grade: C
Errata:
Watched in Japanese with subs from VIZ. I would like to say that I am biased towards Ms. Horie Yui, but she really is this epic. I need to hunt down whoever at VIZ wrote the endcard e-mail jokes. I need to cockpunch him. Now that would be funny. I think there is some kind of weird synergy with Trouble Chocolate, as it ended up with the same score as the Sorcerer on the Rocks OVA, but I would rather watch Trouble Chocolate ten times over that rewatch that miserable OVA. All reviews are done independent of the original format or other adaptions.
Final Grade: C-