Super Milk Chan
Super Milk Chan is a Japanese anime television series directed by Hideyuki Tanaka and produced by Genco, Suplex, framegraphics and Geneon Entertainment for the 24-hour channel Animax. The show pre-began as 14 eight-minute segment episodes which aired on Fuji Television's Flyer TV block from June 18, 1998 to September 24, 1998 from 24:45 to 24:55, with the animation being produced by Tokyo Kids. The full-length show, entitled OH! Super Milk Chan, ran for 12 twenty-four-minute episodes which aired on WOWOW's Space Shower TV block from January 27, 2000 to April 13, 2000 at 19:00 and then 18:00.
The North American DVD release by A.D. Vision features two different English-dubbed versions: a straight translation of the Japanese version and an Americanized version with western pop culture references and short live-action skits featuring ADV voice cast members.
Summary
The show centers on the activities of Milk, a 5-year-old superhero who may or may not actually have any powers and usually can do very little besides making popular culture references. Its American slogan, as a result, became "Wholesome? Probably not. Good for you? Definitely." She lives in a house on a suspended platform with her malfunctioning robotic maid Tetsuko and her drunken pet slug Hanage. The show follows a fairly linear formula. In each episode, the President calls with a new mission; whether Milk actually takes the mission is not guaranteed. Regardless of whether or not she takes the mission, she always takes credit and celebrates her success by going out for "sushi." Likewise, there are a number of other constants that follow through the series, often under contrived circumstances.All of those episodes are rated TV-PG. It was later made into 12 full-length episodes, which are rated TV-14 in the United States. An alternate dub with American pop-culture references, harsher language and newly-shot live-action sequences with the ADV Films cast aired on Anime Network and was rated TV-MA.
Major characters
;Milk / Milk-chan;Tetsuko
;Hanage
;President
;Doctor Eyepatch
;Landlord
;The Ant Family
Other characters
;Haruo: A robot that Tetsuko has a crush on. He only appears in the 1998 series.;The Counterfeiter: A counterfeiter who likes Belgian waffles. He makes counterfeit bills to buy a lot of them. In the Japanese version, the real currency has pictures of "Kin" while the counterfeit bills have pictures of "Gin" - a reference to the oldest-living twins. In the Americanized version, the bills are differentiated by pictures of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
;The Colonel: Presumably from the Navy, he and his assistant try in vain to get in contact with The President in trying to stop the Punishment Missile, but to no avail; The President is on the phone with Milk and quickly forgot about said missile. Quickly becoming a nervous wreck, The Colonel tries to get help from Dr. Eyepatch, only for the doctor to be absolutely unhelpful.
;Kyuu the Myna Bird: A bird that Tetsuko started keeping, but died the next week. It looks like a toucan. His favorite thing is "Chaushu" and his favorite kind of girl is bouncy. One episode later, he is revealed to have died right away, like most myna birds do.
;Kanchi
;Leonardo the Japanese Bear: A violent bear from an Osaka bear farm. He defeats Robo Willy, but gets knocked out by Tetsuko's gas attack.
;Pastel Mr. Shin: A mentally disabled man dressed as a kindergarten student. He tries to get kids to play with him, but they can't because their parents said they couldn't. He gets shocked and throws a tantrum whenever they say he's not a kid. His name is a parody of Crayon Shin-chan.
;Keizao Butae/Colonel Flanders: The factory manager of the Gentucky Pork Legs Factory, who resembles Colonel Sanders. While hitting on an employee, he accidentally presses the laser control button, shutting down the power of the Pork Gun which allows Tonkichi & Tononko to escape. Keizao then hires a hitman to take them out.
;Barazou: A live-action cross-dressing man who appears frequently on the news. In the Americanized version, he is cut out and replaced by someone else.
;Akiko Maitake: Akiko is heard but never seen. She is seemingly a young Japanese girl who does video art. Her "art" is never much more than a pretentious monologue read by her as she takes a video of normal things happening in Japan. The videos are live action and cut randomly into the show in various episodes.
;Tonkichi & Tonko / Palmer & Penny: Two pigs that are in love with each other. After escaping the Gentucky Pork Legs Factory, they defect to a country where people don't eat pork. As soon as they arrive, they are turned into pork legs by a hired hitman. Tonkichi may be a reference to the pig with the same name from the anime Hamtaro
King's Idea Laboratory Mechas
- Robodog No. 1
- Punishment Missile - A huge, red missile painted with a strange face that is fired at the selected target by the President in order to "punish" the target.
- Submarine Milk 5 - A submarine that is used by Milk Chan to go underwater.
- Rice Cake Maker No. 3 - A rice pounder that is toilet-like in shape. It pounds rice cakes over and over.
- Dokochin 1 No. 4
- Pork Gun No. 5/The Porkcinerator: A laser gun that is used to shoot pigs and sends their bodies into another dimension, except for their legs.
- Mecha Elderly No. 7 /Geezerbot 1000: A robot that is designed to look like an old man. Fueled by ramen, he will suddenly become surly if he hasn't had any. He has no real function. This said to have debuted on The Tonight Show.
- Bear Slayer Robo Willy No. 8/Willy the Bear Slaying Mecha A robot designed to slay bears unconditionally. On the mission, after one year of searching the bear, Leonardo, he gets destroyed easily by Leonardo the Japanese Bear. His design vaguely resembles Jim Kelly's character in Enter the Dragon.
- Magic Shiitake 1 No. 9/Magic Mushroom 5000: Magic Shiitake is a mushroom shaped device that warps time and space within a given radius so the user doesn't have to make an excuse to get out of whatever he doesn't want to do.
Staff
OH! Super Milk Chan
- Director, Designer & Original Art: Hideyuki Tanaka
- Screenplay: Motoki Shiina
- Executive Producers: Hideyoshi Sukeya, Toshiaki Annou
- Producers: Masamitsu Morijiri, Kazumasa Watanabe
- Animation Production
- *Producers: Reiko Fukakusa, Masato Takami
- *Director: Kiyohiro Ohmori
- *Assistant Director: Kiyotaka Ohata
- *Character Designer: Takahiro Yoshimatsu
- *Art Director: Aritaka Okada
- *Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami
- *Sound Effects: Hiromoto Kasamatsu
- *Sound Modulation: Satoshi Yano
- *Sound Producer: Satoru Hirata
- *Music: DJ Tasaka, OZAKI, MOKU
- *Editor: Kazuhiko Seki
- *Storyboards: Hideyuki Tanaka, Kiyohiro Ohmori
- *Animation Production: Studio Pierrot
- *Produced in Cooperation with framegraphics
- *Production: Space Shower Network, Suplex
English Version Staff
- English Language & Subtitled Versions Presented by ADV Films
- Executive Producers: John Ledford, Mark Williams
- Produced & Directed by Steven Foster
- International Coordinator: Toru Iwakami
- Project Translator: Shoko Oono
- Subtitle Script & Timing: Sean Broestl
- Post Production: ADV Studios
- Post Production Manager: Shelly Thomas
- Sound Design & Mix: Wade Shemwell, Bryan Leach
- Recording Engineers: Stanley Thomas, Jacob Gragard
- Art Directors: Chris Hawley, Hiroko Fukumori, Michael Stovall
- Editors: John Carrithers, Roberto Garcia
- Online Editors: Joey Goubeaud, Neil O'Sullivan
- Production Assistants: Marta Bechtol, Miyuki Kamiya, Maki Nagano, Carole Pavlik, Emi Takahashi, Sara Muir
- OH! SUPER MILK CHAN - ©2004 FG/SSNW/SPLX/RTK/ADV
- English Language & Subtitled Versions - © 2004 A.D. Vision, Inc.
Theme songs
;Opening:
;Ending:
- "Hoodlum Highschool Rock'nRoll ~ President Version"
;Opening:
- "Disco Milk"
Episode list
Super Milk Chan
OH! Super Milk Chan
Milk's IT Revolution
A collection of flash shorts from the shockwave.jp website. This episode was only aired on Anime Network and was released on DVD in Japan. This collection includes shorts such as:- Everybody's a Picasso Here - A man by the name of Uotake Lupin the Third has been going around creating sculptures out of excrement and the President sends Milk to the care of the issue. The trio stops at King's Idea Laboratory, where they are given the Mecha No. 108 "Johnny" in order to construct a museum for Uotake Lupin to build his sculptures.
- The Reform That Accompanies Milk's Pain - After seeing an advertisement about the latest King's Idea Laboratory Mecha No. 109 "Silicone Vision", Milk decides to purchase it. While enjoying their new device, the President informs Milk that a woman named Isabella Kaneko has taken her patron hostage and barricaded herself inside. While the report is shown on the news along with the woman's photo, the Silicone Vision detects that she has had plastic surgery done on her. Milk decides to report this information to the police, who in turn would use it to convince the woman to surrender.
- Interactive According to Milk's Will - When an alien from Planet Kubota sends images of a man saying "I'm sorry, Dad" into peoples' heads, the President orders her to do something about it. The alien is arrested for his crimes. Later, while Milk and Tetsuko are eating sausages, the aliens decides to travel to earth, only to be arrested again.
- Milk's Fight, Hoshino; Virtual Rain of Fists - While Milk and Tetsuko browse the internet and talk about pop culture, the President calls to report news about a watermelon thief.
- Milk's Sense of Virtue as a Celebrity - The president calls to tell Milk that the sense of virtue in young women has been on the decline. To assist them on their mission, the gang head to the King's Idea Laboratory, where they are given Mecha No. 103 "Nadeshiko Panties", which are designed to stay attached onto underaged girls until they turn 18.
- Milk's Sound of Rain is Lupin's Melody -
ADV Films story arcs
100% Whole
Marcy Bannor introduces the cast and crew of the Milk Chan dub; Tommy Drake dresses up in drag for a replaced scene.Milk Shake
After a plasma TV is stolen from the break room, the ADV Films building has an automated lockdown drill. However, a blackout leaves everyone locked in separate rooms.Cryin' Over Spilled Milk
Chris Borque loses the sound effects for episode 8, leading the cast to perform them themselves. Meanwhile, Marcy is given Ecstasy instead of Aspirin.Milk & Kookies
The ADV cast and crew go to an anime convention, where Ben Pronsky is stalked by a fan.TV segments
These are the shows that Milk Chan and friends watch:- Tama & Chuutaro/Mousey and Kitty
- Mr. Deserted Island/Deserted Island
- The Four Tire Brothers
- Pastel Mr. Shin/Colorful Mr. Shin
- Police of the North Star/Fist of South Star
- Hirosue's Rush Into Poor People's Dinner
- Company NOW/Dollars & Cents NOW
- Technology Today!