Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland

Original Title: 不思議の国の美幸ちゃん
Romanized: Fushigi no Kuni no Miyuki-chan
Literal: Miyuki of the Mysterious Country

Plot Synopsis

Poor girl. While rushing to school, Miyuki finds herself side by side with a skateboarding bunny girl and before she knows it, they've both fallen down a big black hole! Unfortunately, that's the most normal thing that happens to Miyuki. Lost in a "Wonderland", Miyuki desperately tries to find her way out, but instead encounters a series sexy women who instantly like her. Maybe a little too much...

Quick Review

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Reviewer: Legion
Review Date: 2002-06-05

Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland does an interesting job of creating a really strange, pervasively quirky atmosphere loaded up with fanservice and thinly-veiled lesbian overtones. There is basically no plot, and no characterization, either--Miyuki is just plain confused all the time, and everyone else is a seductress to some degree, hitting on Miyuki left and right. The work is categorized as shoujo, but if it hadn't been done by CLAMP you'd probably call it 30 minutes of fanservice--certainly no romance to be found, and there isn't a male character in it. The visuals are appropriately quirky and imaginative, and while the characters feature trademark CLAMP eyes, they're a lot more curvaceous than the average CLAMP female. The acting (Japanese-only) features several notable talents and a likable, harried Miyuki, but there's not a whole lot of dialogue. The music is also interesting, in that there's a single, long, playful melody that plays from beginning to end, with queues fitting the various situations--some will like it, others will be begging for a moment of silence.

It has little to do with the classic stories on which it's based, but Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland was quirky enough to keep me amused and entertained throughout its 30-minute run. I'll admit that it does have one fatal flaw: it's not a title you'll end up watching many times. As such, I can only recommend it if you're up for something offbeat, weird and, of course, quirky

US DVD Review

I want to state right from the get-go that I think ADV did a good job on this subtitled disc. However, I do have a flaw and a couple nitpicks that I'd like to get out of the way first. The actual flaw is in the packaging. From previous announcements and discussions, ADV never really considered a dub for this title. However, the back of this disc indicates that there's an English language track. I thought that it was really strange that slipped through the cracks, as it's a rather obvious flaw, one that will end up with many confused costumers.

My first nitpick is that my Sanyo player lists the language track as "Others" while my PS2 lists it as "English." It doesn't really make any difference, but ADV could've properly listed it as "Japanese." My second nitpick is actually formed off a positive aspect of this disc. Despite the lack of an English track, the subtitles on this disc are optional DVD subtitles. However, there's no selector for them on the menu. They simply start up with the show. All the other subtitled-only DVDs I own have a subtitle selector in the menu and I felt it should've been here too, but again, it doesn't really matter.

Now for the positive aspects. From what I've seen on ADV's disc and from what I've read about the Japanese disc, ADV's DVD is almost like the Japanese disc with the region coding changed. The video on this disc is pretty decent. The colors look nice and solid, but there's a little cross coloration (rainbows) that are usually minimal, but become noticeable in a few panning scenes, which caused some ugly jagged edges. It wasn't unbearable and the majority of the video is generally pleasing. Reportedly, the Region 2 Japanese disc looks about the same. The audio, due to the show's nature, is soft, but comes across clean and clear. There aren't any extras aside from a PDF file that lets you print off a picture of Miyuki and some costumes so you can dress her up. I haven't had the chance to try this out, unfortunately.

When I said ADV's disc was a lot like the Japanese disc, I meant that if you were to turn the subtitle track off, the video would be exactly the same as it was in Japan. All the episode titles, text and credits are left in Japanese and translated with DVD subtitles when needed, with follow-up English credits at the very end (with a Japanese cast list no less). So in the end, ADV's DVD is almost exactly like the Japanese DVD (which also lacks extras) and that's why I think they did a good job with the material. Add the fact that this disc is priced at a low MSRP of $12.98 and it's hard to pass up (heck, I got it at under $20 Canadian at a retail store).

Content Guide

Rated 15+ by ADV.

Violence: 1 - Miyuki falls down a lot and gets into a little scrap with a couple of the Wonderland folk.

Nudity: 2 - A fair bit of skin, but any actual nudity is pretty low detail.

Sex/Mature Themes: 3 - All of the girls come on to Miyuki with varying degrees of forcefulness, but it never goes too far.

Language: 0 - Not a swear word to be found in the subtitles.

Notes and Trivia

Miyuki-chan in Wonderland is based on a single-volume CLAMP manga of the same name, serialized between 1993-1995 and published in book form shortly after the anime was released. It was available in English from Tokyopop, but is out of print as of this writing. I'm told that the manga version is also weirder then the anime, which certainly makes me want to check it out.

A note on the title: The Japanese title of "Alice in Wonderland" is "Fushigi no Kuni no Alice" ("Alice of the Mysterious Country"), hence the Japanese title of this anime, "Fushigi no Kuni no Miyuki-chan." The two parts of this OAV (even in Japan, they were released and sold as a single volume) are, of course, based on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There."

Availability

Available in the US from AD Vision on subtitled DVD. Previously available on subtitled VHS, now out of print.

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