Pani Poni Dash (TV Series)

Pani Poni Dash!
Japanese Name	ぱにぽにだっしゅ! Pani Poni Dasshu!
Director	Akiyuki Shinbo
Animation	Gansis, Shaft
Broadcasting	TV Tokyo

Pani Poni Dash! is an anime series based on the manga Pani Poni by Hekiru Hikawa that uses parody, frequently referencing Japanese and American pop-culture in many ways. It features several first year students and their teachers in a school in Japan, though the main focus is on class 1-C.

The anime aired in Japan between July 3 and December 25, 2005, and contained 26 episodes in total. The anime has since been licensed by United States based company Funimation in North America (it was once licensed by ADV Films for $138,666 effective June 30, 2006, however, through a fallout of ADV's license partner Sojitz/ARM Corporation, Pani Poni Dash! was transferred to Funimation), ADV Films in the United Kingdom, Banciao City based company Mighty Media in Taiwan, and Seoul-based TVee.co.kr in South Korea. King Records subsidiary Starchild has the video and music rights for the anime. A special OVA was released with DVD box set containing the anime series, on April 15, 2009. Funimation released a complete DVD box set on March 10, 2009.

The episode names are based on adages and proverbs. Each episode is only loosely connected to the central plot. Many of the jokes in the series rely on satire, established character behavior, Japanese Internet and anime culture such as emoticons (At some points in the series, a character's face is replaced by an emoticon.), or non sequitur comments and actions (especially by [[Ichijo]]). The series also contains numerous parodies and references to popular culture, which include Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, The Exorcist, Gundam, Devilman, Super Mario Bros., Little Black Sambo, and the Cthulhu Mythos.

Plot

Pani Poni Dash!'s central storyline revolves around Rebecca Miyamoto, a child prodigy homeroom teacher, and the antics of her class 1-C. The characters attend a high school called the Peach Moon Academy (桃月学園 Momotsuki Gakuen) where Rebecca has taken up a job as one of the teachers after being the youngest graduate at M.I.T. and is being watched by space aliens who screw up the story every now and then. Though the story hardly strays from the focus of the four first-year classes labeled 1-A through 1-D, the mishaps that occur in them, the teacher's lounge, and on school trips also become sources of material for topical allusions regarding satire, anime, Internet, gaming, and popular culture.

List of Episodes

1. "Summerwear in the Coldest Season, Winterwear in the Hottest Season"
2. "A Safflower Stands Out in Any Garden"
3. "It's Always Harder On the Ones Who Have to Watch"
4. "Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch"
5. "It is a Treasure If It Is Fulfilling"
6. "Poking a Bush Only Lures Snakes"
7. "Good and Bad Luck Are Decided by the Person, Not the Calendar"
8. "Bear with Sanshō Spice Is Like Carp with Pepper"
9. "There Are Eight-Year-Old Sages and 100-Year-Old Kids"
10. "Even a Thoroughbred Has Its Habits"
11. "Inscrutable Are the Ways of Heaven"
12. "There Are No Classes Among Humans, But There Are In Humans' Hearts"
13. "The Wages of Sin Come Like the Tip of a Needle"
14. "Hugging a Stone and Jumping into an Abyss"
15. "Endure Patiently and You Will Not Wilt"
16. "Adversity Makes a Man Wise"
17. "The Way to Heaven Does Not Favor Anyone"
18. "Good Things Come to He Who Waits"
19. "Art Causes Harm to the Body"
20. "A Wise Man Will Know When to Approach Danger"
21. "A Demon Wearing Clothes"
22. "Today a Man, Tomorrow a Mouse"
23. "Misfortunes Never Come One by One"
24. "You Are Responsible for Your Own Death"
25. "A Time of Crisis"
26. "No One Knows What May Happen Tomorrow"