Ask John: Will Maico 2010 or D4 Princess Ever Get Translated?

Question:
After viewing Android Maico 2010 at GenCon last year and D4 Princess at Otakon, my girl friend and I were very happy to finally find fansubs of both. What can you tell me about both series? How many episodes were there for each? Were they popular in Japan? Do you think either of them has a chance of being brought over to the US (especially D4 princess, as the episodes were quite short). Finally, in Android Maico, the android goes haywire in one episode and says “Punyoon” after every sentence. What does that mean?

Answer:
There’s a lot to this question, but it’s always nice to be able to promote lesser known but deserving titles. Android Anna Maico 2010 (the “Anna” is short for “announcer”) is a light drama about a struggling radio station that introduces a pink haired android host, complete with the bugs associated with a prototype computer. The series consisted of 24 eight-minute episodes and played along with the SD Ah! Megami-sama and Neoranga TV series as part of the initial season of the Anime Complex anthology program. D4 Princess also lasted through 24 fifteen minute long episodes as part of Anime Complex II. Neither show earned a cult following in Japan, but neither was received poorly either. Maico 2010 actually has come to America already, in manga form. ComicsOne has translated the Maico 2010 manga and offers it in an inexpensive downloadable version in their “sci-fi” section. With the current market, I don’t foresee the Maico 2010 animation being picked up for American release mainly because, while the character design is cute, there’s very little to the series that’s likely to interest mainstream American consumers. After all, most of the series occurs inside one single room. D4 Princess, on the other hand, is a series that I can imagine being released domestically, especially if interest in shoujo anime continues to increase in America. D4 Princess is an action drama about a young heiress living on her own for the first time at a private school where she learns to use and fight with her “panzer,” a melee weapon used for high-tech gladiatorial combat. The show is exceptionally bright, vibrant, childish and playful, and may be to cute for many viewers, but it does also contain some very violent and exciting battles that would appeal to fans of Dragonball, and enough drama toward the end of the series to appeal to fans of more weighty shoujo anime.

As far as I know, Maico’s “Punyoon” doesn’t have any meaning. It’s simply a nonsense word used to show that she’s malfunctioning. These sort of nonsense words, or words used only to emphasize characterization, are beginning to gain more popularity in anime recently, though. Noelle of Tenshi ni Narumon has a similar nonsense word, “pururun,” which she uses as an all-purpose description, and Corrina from Tales of Eternia, May of Hand Maid May, Kurumi of Steel Angel Kurumi and Ebichu of Gainax’s Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster all end their sentences with the Japanese article “desu,” which means, very roughly, “is.” This is done to make the characters seem excessively polite, in an airhead sort of way, and adds distinctive, unusual characterization to the characters.