The show is a tribute to the wacky adventures and mini-dramas that young females go through. Ran Kotobuki is a 16-year old gal who has tons of attitude about everything modern day life has to offer in Japan. She sees herself as ruler of a shopping district/mall and does whatever she thinks fit her image. She gets in trouble at school, drives her family (all of which are in law enforcement) crazy, and acts like she rules the world, although she does stand up for what's right (in her eyes) against any and all who would do wrong. Fiercely loyal to her way of life and friends in a contemporary setting, she provides a perfect example of what young females should not strive for in a society that imposes it's will on youngsters. The show is full of cultural references and translations that pop up on screen to keep the viewer informed as to what's happening. The limited anime style was actually appropriate for the show here and the messages were loud and clear in terms of what everyone thought. In a sense, it was a show about the coming of age of young women that have led sheltered lives, which "should" be lame, but works to entertain.

Episode 23:Tear It Off! Rip, Rip! Teacher's Golden Image!:
Episode 24: Off To Machida: The Monkey Leaves: Tatsukichi Gets Dumped?!:
Episode 25: Yamoto: Dead Serious: Yamato Proposes!?:
Episode 26: Hard-Working: Super Cop: Ran Kotobuki!:

The episodes here followed the generic formula of Ran bossing everyone around, stands up to a bully teacher, protects her boyfriend from an untimely demise, helps her friend Miyu land a job in a pastry shop, and becomes a super cop out to save the Universe from itself. If you've enjoyed the earlier exploits of Ran and crowd, you'll probably like this one too although it didn't say anything different than previous volumes. I'm rating this one as a Rent It but again, you'll either love it or hate it, and I've learned to accept it as a kind of mental floss to prepare myself for watching better shows.

Picture: The show was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color and was bright and clear. I saw no problems with the picture and its colorful nature. The transfer was nearly flawless as well but the style of anime was very limited in terms of movement and quality.

Sound: The sound was presented with a choice of either 5.1 Dolby Digital English or the original 2.0 Japanese with English subtitles. Both were crisp and clear with no problems and a solid mix between the vocals and music.

Extras: Aside from the usual clean opening and closing, there were the usual trailers. There was a short feature "The Super Gals Explain It All" where one of the English dub characters provides some background as to the attitude of the females portrayed here (in character no less). There were some production sketches and a paper insert with a variety of cultural notes and definitions to the slang used too.

Final Thoughts: Most anime fans will either love this one or hate it with little middle ground. Those who like strong female characters and romantic comedies will likely enjoy it a lot while the rest of anime fandom will find the scripts and voices (on both language tracks) to annoy the heck out of them. I liked it at first but then I saw it became repetitious which is not something I care much about. Volume 5 wasn't as good as this one but this DVD wraps up the first season (was there a second season?) and the last episode was among the best I've seen.

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