PUI PUI MOLCAR

DESCRIPTION

CAST

TV SHORT ComedyPUI PUI Molcar: DRIVING SCHOOL
MOVIE ComedyPUI PUI Molcar the Movie MOLMAX

REVIEWS

• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  84/100
  Molcar is sincerely one of the most charming, creative, and downright surreal anime of recent years.

  Pui Pui Molcar is one of the best anime of recent years, and you are missing out on it. Some of the ratings and reviews might be at least partially steeped in irony due to the weird memetic following works like this, Bananya, and the 2017 CGI Pingu reboot received. However, Molcar is sincerely one of the most charming, creative, and downright surreal anime of recent years.

  The best part is that you can literally watch all of it in under half an hour.

  So, what makes Molcar so fun? Simple: it’s a surreal, adorable comedy. Each episode is only 2 & ½ minutes, so the show relies on rapid fire joke after rapid fire joke to paint a strange and fun bite-sized story. While the first ⅓ of the anime consists of cute skits involving the molcars in order to flesh out this strange world of guinea pig cars driven by tiny toy people, the rest go in different directions. Zombie parodies, spy movie parodies, a racing episode with veggie boost power-ups, a fucking Back to the Future type episode. Each episode provides a radically different story from the last so that nothing gets stale. The sheer variety on display is staggering.

  Molcar is able to tell all of its stories without a single line of dialogue. The sound effects, movements, and expressions show it all, and do so with such high-octane energy. How else can the show go from an episode about a guy trying to make a romantic gesture in the midst of an ice storm, to one where a superhero fantasizing molcar gets an entire character arc stemming from receiving unwarranted magical girl customizations, back to back? How else can each of these stories still sell the emotions they wish to convey while being gut-bustingly hilarious and almost sickeningly adorable? Each of the cars have their own distinct, simple personalities that are as expressive as they need to be for these gags and stories to work, as do the one-off human characters.

  This show would be infinitely harder to sell if not for the stop-motion felt-doll animation for the molcars themselves, and the adorable noises they make. The way they integrate the felt with the props and other stop-motion elements, as well as the occasional 2D or live-action element, adds to each of the gags. Instances like the molcars boosting during the racing episode, or the magical girl decals reacting to whatever the hell is happening in that particular episode exemplify this. It gets even funnier once you start seeing actual people and cats reduced to tiny figurines, or when an actual hamster interacts with the felt molcars. It’s the kind of cutesy multimedia production that you just don’t see very often, and that proves to be a testament to just how much fun quirky stop-motion projects can be.

  There’s really not much else that can be said about Molcar beyond just rambling into review-padding digressions about stuff the Akira drift in episode 9 being followed up by an Akira parody poster in episode 10. Its setting and worldbuilding is as strange as its references and parodies are eclectic. It has an insane amount of energy, as well as a joke per minute ratio that gives early Spongebob a run for its money. Pui Pui Molcar is quirky, adorable, hilarious, and unlike any other anime you’ll probably see for a good while. The styles present here may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but with only 2 & ½ minutes per episode and a variety of cute jokes and stories presented in each, it makes for a wonderful comfort show. It’s really as simple as that, so go out there and have some fun, why don’tcha?

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• 

  Magenta

  98/100
  The smile on my face couldn't be bigger. A legitimate masterpiece and the Winter 2021 AOTS

  I want to preface this review by saying that everything that I will say in it is completely unironic. With how stacked the Winter 2021 season was, it might be extremely off putting to many people when I say that it is “the anime of a season” and a “legitimate masterpiece”. How can a children’s show about guinea pig and car hybrids be considered that good?

  Pui Pui Molcar is a kids show that comprises 12 two and a half minute shorts, which all in all take up around a half hour to finish. It really isn’t the type of show that you should even sell to a person, since it takes such a short time to complete. It isn’t even like it even has an actual premise. The setup for Pui Pui Molcar revolves around the antics of guinea pig and car hybrids called Molcars. There isn’t exactly an overarching plot outside of the individual episodes outside of the individual characters. The short runtime, the general premise, and the target demographic may sound like flaws to an unsuspecting person. What’s absolutely genius about Pui Pui Molcar is that it turns all of its flaws into its biggest strengths.

  Straight from the first episode, the first two things that are immediately noticeable is that the whole show uses stop motion animation and there is absolutely no dialogue. This show is the first anime that I have ever seen that fully commits to these two choices, and it works completely in the show’s benefit. Every single Molcar is extremely expressive, which leads to every emotion that they feel being extremely well telegraphed through their faces. The lack of dialogue isn’t exactly a factor due to how the Molcar’s faces just tell you what is happening just by their faces. The stop motion animation is also absolutely beautiful. I cannot overstate how gorgeous the animation can look at times. Every single moment is filled with vibrance and joy. The best looking episode by far is Episode 8, which still absolutely blows me away watching it. However, animation isn’t the only thing that this series has for it. The one of the highlights of this show is in the plots of every episode.

  The limited two and a half minute runtime for each episode leads to every single episode being told in a very efficient manner. This type of efficient storytelling is something that is rarely seen in anime, and really in any medium. A creative would have to be extremely talented in order to fit a lot of quality content in a runtime of only two and a half minutes. However, Tomoki Misato pulls this off wonderfully. There is no filler in every episode, which means that every single one feels dense with content. A lot of the episodes like Episodes 2, 5, 6, 10, and 11 have plots that are more intriguing than they really deserve to be, with better character arcs than most stories can imagine pulling off. The humor of this show is also top notch. If you have seen a cute video of an animal on the internet that made you laugh, watching an episode of Pui Pui Molcar is like amplifying that feeling tenfol. Every episode is packed with hilarious visual gags that always land. With the joke density of every short episode, it is astounding that nearly every one lands.

  The actual premises of the episodes do a complete service to every single strength that this series has. Due to the show being episodic, there is no real reliance on keeping a consistent plot. This factor means that every episode can go as off the deep end as they can without feeling unnatural. You could dedicate an entire full length review like this one to every episode, due they each possess their own brilliances, so I’ll keep it short. Episodes 1-5 and 12 are all pretty standard all things considered. They are what you would expect from this type of show. It doesn’t mean that it is bad, far from it. They are all very enjoyable and hilarious episodes to watch. Episodes 6-11 on the other hand, are a lot more interesting. Episodes 6-11 are each different types of genre parodies. A zombie apocalypse to time travel to an action movie, are all genres that end up being parodied in this show. Nearly every single moment of these episodes are an absolute delight to watch, since the fact there are no rules as to what the show can do makes every moment unpredictable. What is best about the show is that it never really sheds its main strengths while doing this. In nearly every episode the amazing animation and top notch visual gags are in full force. Watching this show weekly ended up being a treat, since the sheer amount of variance between the concepts that this show tackles always made thinking about what could happen next enjoyable.

  As I went on and on through this show, I just kept on asking, how? How does this show defy all expectations and become a masterpiece? How is every episode consistently amazing to the point of perfection? How is this even possible? Pui Pui Molcar feels like the best case scenario of what any show with any premise could be. Pui Pui Molcar sounds like a show you would call a masterpiece because of an ironic joke. However, through its stellar animation, wonderful visual gags, and legitimately amazing plots, Pui Pui Molcar shines through and becomes an unironic masterpiece.

  now watch it please, it is out on netflix, and if you don’t watch it, i’ll take anime away from you

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• 

  Groenboys

  92/100
  One of the best short anime ever made

  Pui Pui Molcar is a strange anime. It involves Guinea pigs that are cars. Each episode has its self-contained story and the tone of the anime definitely feels like it is targeted to kids. Despite that, Pui Pui Molcar became one of the most popular anime in 2020 in Japan. It really can’t be underestimated how popular this anime got: Millions of views on each episode, hundreds of thousands following the anime’s twitter account, each tweet getting tens of thousands of likes. Vtubers are talking about it, twitter is making insane amounts of art for it and Netflix has picked it up for their anime catalog. What the hell is so special about this anime?

  So I already explained the concept: Guinea pigs that are cars. Each episode we see a different Guinea pig car doing their own thing. Sometimes we see them in a traffic jam, sometimes we see them in racing competition and sometimes we see them fighting zombies. The scenarios are delightfully wacky, but that is par for the course with kids anime.

  Yes, this anime is made for kids. The anime airs on a children television and the tone of the anime is really family friendly, but why do then lots of adults follow it? Well let’s start with that the anime has no dialogue whatsoever. It sometimes has japanese text, but the characters never talk in a language. This way, not only japanese kids can watch this anime with ease, anyone around the world with a brain can watch this anime easily.

  Secondly, the animation. The anime uses stop motion animation, with a dash of traditional photo animation and green screen. The stop motion animation looks great. It is flued and satisfying to watch, but it also has enough stilted snaps to make the comedy hit good. Some of the dust/smoke/cloud effects look especially good and when the anime goes into action scenes the stop motion looks seriously impressive. The way humans/other animals are animated is also really funny and good looking.

  But by far the best thing about the anime is that it is insanely charming. The Guinea pig cars have adorable designs and make heartwarming squeaky noises. Each episode has a fun twist and a short but heartwarming and wholesome story, sometimes even hilarious. The music is bubbly and fun. The anime is just a great time.

  Never thought I would be saying this: Pui Pui Molcar is a contender for best anime of Winter 2020. Yes, in one of the most stacked seasons of all time, which includes shows like Attack On Titan, Horimiya, Mushoku Tensei, Wonder Egg Priority, Yuru Camp Season 2 and many more banger shows, I feel Pui Pui molcar is one of the top contenders for anime of the season.

  Not just that: I consider this anime one of the best short anime ever produced. It is short, sweet, adorable, charming, well-animated, memorable, and most important of all, set out something to do (make an anime that people of all ages can enjoy) and it succeeds in it. The only real complaint I have is that I wish this anime had longer episodes or had more episodes, but hey, that is just a sign of how good this anime is.

  Watch this if you have some time to spare. It literally takes less than half an hour to watch all the episodes, and you will waste no minutes of your life watching it. It is great for kids, it is great for adults, but most shockingly, it is great for weebs.

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