Magical Witch Punie-chan - TV Tropes (2024)

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• Crack Pairing: Anego and Paya. Both harbor superhuman fighting abilities, a deep hatred coupled with a grudging respect for Punie, and both are more or less the closest thing Punie's ever had to difficult fights. One episode even has them in what's apparently a round of synchronized smoking.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Pretty much all the humor derives from this. Episode 5 has Punie-chan threaten to detonate a nuclear bomb (violating the Nuclear Weapons Taboo) and destroy the whole Earth just to avoid taking a test. Fortunately she's saved ... by Paya commandeering an American attack helicopter with his comrade from the Vietnam War, who proceed to launch an aerial assault on her classroom so she can switch her test with somebody else's in the chaos. And then she and Paya communicate using the passphrases for the Pearl Harbor attack when they're done.
• Cult Classic: First of all because of its underground reputation and unique humor.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Potato-dono, due the memes and his manliness.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Tetsuko's train shuffle and "choo-choo" sounds in episode 6 make her look and sound like Zenjiro Taira from Train to the End of the World, a much-later anime by the same director as Punie-chan.
• Love to Hate: Punie is this on spades. She is a total remorseless bitch who doesn't even hesitate to take advantage of her best friend (and sometimes in very painful ways), but the ways she kicks the dog are so over-the-top, extreme and funny it's hard to totally hate her.
• Jerkass Woobie: Anego. She can be mean. And evil. But she has showed compassion and concern for the well-being of her friends. We get to Episode six. Anego is on a date at an amusement park, and due to Punie's use of magic, the rides Anego and her date happen to be on at the time go haywire. The last ride is through the Haunted Mansion. Of course, Punie's magic changes this ride to being driven on the freeway at night by an idiot who just got his license and is a big fan of racing manga! This could be bad, but Anego takes command of the vehicle, does a couple of downhill drifts, brings the vehicle to a complete stop, and saves the day. Her reward? Her date flees from the car, and simultaneously tells Anego not to invite him on any more dates and cries for his mommy! The very next scene after that, I dare anyone to say they didn't want to give Anego a big 'ol hug. She looked so heartbroken. Apparently strong, assertive, independent girls like Anego aren't allowed to be the hero in her particular world, this likely being the reason very pretty Anego feels she has to be such a jerk.
• Nightmare Fuel: The show is so bright and virtuously portrayed Beneath the Mask of Punie that after this show, many MOE anime begin to look too ambiguous and frightening.
• Memetic Mutation: Anime and manga contains so much absurd and unexpected humor that almost every line or scene in it can potentially become a meme.
  • "POTATO-DONOOOOOOO!" and other jokes about the potato-samurai.
  • The phrase "Lyrical Tokarev" in the OP became a meme in Russia, after it was used as the name of the characters on the anonymous board 2ch.
  • The OP itself due to everything just engulf in flame while Punie cheerfully dance.
  • When a famous location is on fire, internet people in Japan will Photoshop and put Punie dancing in the front
• Moe: Let's see, Tetsuko is a Meganekko, a Cute Clumsy Girl, a train nerd, and she is rather well endowed.
• Watch It for the Meme: Although the adaptation is already quite old and too postmodern even by modern standards, it is still popular among people who are attracted by its absurd humor and a parody of optimistic anime series.
• Special Guest: Gesomi (sadistic substitute teacher in episode 5) are played by Saeko Chiba who previously play the main character in another anime that also written by Tsutomu Mizushima.