..did this show ever exist or was that like a fever dream my head? Because when
I was a kid I would wake up in the morning drowsy turn on the TV and see an
American anime at least I think it's an anime I don't really know what the rules
are there is captain Mikey an anime it was marketed as the first anime to be
produced entirely in the United States
today I'll be showing you Kappa Mikey America's first-ever anime citation
needed no matter how you feel about this show I think we can all agree that the
intro is bangin as fuck but Mikey isn't just on vacation he has a very good
reason to be in Japan Kappa Mikey is an anime about a group of actors who work
on a Japanese animation it's weird I know they act on an anime
named Lily mu which has dying ratings probably because it's just a shitty
version of Power Rangers and so the showrunners run a scratch guard contest
to find a new star for it enter American actor Mikey Simon who wins the contest
and moves to Japan to take the role the first thing you'll notice is that Mikey
himself is not an anime character in fact he looks more like Larry Cooper
from Nickelodeon's KaBlam in this show nationalities are expressed
through art style America being Western cartoons in Japan being anime by
starring a western actor Lily move quickly soars back up in ratings thanks
to what is really just a weak jump the shark stunt
however capital monkey isn't about Lily move rather the show is about the
off-camera life of the show's actors unlike most contemporary anime and no
I'm not pretentious for using that word most 2005 anime was like this Kappa
Mikey is episodic rather than following a connected story so most episodes can
be watched in pretty much any order standard story structure goes something
like this Mikey messes up during a Lily Moo scene
gets faced with a conflict preventing him from acting well and must spend the
rest of the episode overcoming that conflict once he does he can do the
scene correctly you can interchange Mikey with other characters but
generally it's gonna be around him the show itself has a very slice-of-life
approach to the formula settings are very rarely bombastic or budget pushing
but they use Japan as an opportunity to make references to anime and Japanese
culture which makes up a lot of the show's personality story wise there's
only one thing that holds the show back Mikey's literally fucking retarded
number 1 Mikey is a terrible actor we know this because the show tells us that
he's a terrible actor
number two Mikey is a terrible friend often taking full advantage of them for
his own gain you sold us out to the papers I'm so sorry guys I panicked when
mr. Suzuki said he'd published a photo of my pimple would you say it like that
number three Mikey is a terrible human being often making the conflict twice as
bad as it could have been no big deal oh just even out the other side other
main characters include Mitsuki that's my name almost mine with something I
forget your name he's an optimistic voice of reason who for whatever fucking
reason is attracted to Mikey alongside Mitsuki is Lily things are gonna change
around here previous star of Lily Moose she's a fiery tragic past attuned dare
day but we'll call her exactly what she really is a bitch showing artists
Mikey's best friend playing the intelligent main villain of Lily mu but
being a lovable oaf off camera case I get attacked by hungry it's pretty much
sonic boom knuckles guano is the cute animal sidekick of the show but this
trope is subverted by the fact that he's also an overworked and mistreated show
writer actor and director you've got a runaway Benson I'm sorry Oh sue is the
owner of Lily mu Studios and the producer of the show
he's the chaotic neutral boss who will often put his actors and uncomfortable
scenarios for the sake of his own agenda so I kicked Oh sue is yes-man
at all times these make up the core characters of the show but interestingly
most of them are voiced by anime dubbers mitsuki's voice actress had previously
voiced mokuba from yu-gi-oh and now we're together again she also
voiced mami tomoe and south Kiku Yuna and I'm super fucking stoked about it
gwah knows voice actor had previously voiced Koro from one piece don't get all
cocky just because you snapped off one of my cat claws Lily's voice actor had
previously voiced Kiki Benjamin from Tokyo Mew Mew goat our choice actor had
previously voiced and this one should be obvious Oh Gemma yellow from Yugi OGX
even Mikey's voice actor has an acting catalog ranging from Full Metal
Alchemist to ukyo to Shama and King demon fighter samurai deeper than of
murder my favorite anime of all time Mikey himself isn't even an anime
character and they still got a dub actor for him because the show is episodic
there's very little development in terms of story and while they'll do minor
things like having characters move or date it all ultimately reverts back to
its original state at the end of the episode and stays in story limbo for the
duration of its two season run the decision to make the show episodic was
never explicitly stated but given how the show was made for an American
preteen demographic it's safe to assume that this was chosen so it would fit
more alongside other cartoons of its time and considering how well a Vitara
Teen Titans did I would say was a mistake so the story is nothing to write
home about but let's move on to the production quality which is also nothing
to write home about the show is ugly as fuck not visually pleasing usually
treading the line between adequately anime and low-budget school doodles it
feels like they never lock down in our direction leading to a collage of
various art styles which may work in its favor for pointing out anime cliches but
for a foreign demographic like 2006 Americans it probably did more harm than
good the art style does not make the show
unwatchable but it does make it feel less like an anime themed cartoon and
more like an anime themed Newgrounds parody the show also uses CGI for robots
and mechs and given that it's used to mock enemy cliches I'm not bothered by
it but the low-resolution of the show often gives off a very uncanny feeling
it also abuses sound effects more often than Johnny test's does to the point of
an I don't know if this was to make it more
like a normal cartoon but it makes it wear thin very quickly a lot of this
improved into the second season but only marginally and by that point it was on
the end of its lifespan anyways a lot of the show feels like the creator's wanted
to do more but they didn't have the budget for it so they had to settle
because it's episodic the show's writing centers a lot around dialogue and
slapstick humor joke quality Rangers from witty visual gags too lowbrow fart
jokes but usually remaining fairly consistent throughout an episode there's
a lot of jokes that would probably go over a kid's head which is good for the
parents who would watch it with their kids but because there's no continuity
and the character dynamics are actually just character statics it's hard to
justify going back and watching it alone especially as a 20 year old man a lot of
the conflicts happen because of plot convenience and I just realized they
used the term plot convenient son ironically while trying to prudently
dissect the writing of a kid's cartoon fuck I could go on explaining the story
but there's really not much else to it a 2008 DVD of the first full season was
advertised but nothing ever came of it and sometime after kappa Mikey was
cancelled for good in my research I couldn't find a definitive reason why
but it's a fair guess that it was due to low popularity the final episode of the
series is a Wizard of Oz parody named The Wizard of Oz ooh it's a regular Side
Story episode which makes me think they didn't expect to get cancelled it's a
shame the show got no true send-off and ended with no closure whatsoever but to
be fair there was very little closure to be had for all the things the show had
done I feel like there are a lot of missed opportunities what about an
episode where the cast travels to America and we get to see a reverse
dynamic of the show's theme Americans could find matsuki and Lily
over-sexualized and there would be an overarching moral about orientation in
the children's cartoon what about an episode where Mikey is plastic surgery
and it turns him into an anime character Mikey would have to come to terms with
the crippling realization that his physical appearance is the only thing
people liked about him and we could have a season long arc about his manic
depression kappa Mikey was a show marketed and made for kids but because
anime was still far from the mainstream during its run the show never managed to
grab a large following lots of questions will be forever unanswered did Mikey and
Mitsuki hook up is guano secretly emitted in a fairy
costume did Lily ever stop being a bitch we'll probably never find out since the
show was cancelled people have tried the petition for its return but nothing's
come a bit yet it's been radio silent from the Creator Larry Schwartz
aside from occasionally reposting memes
the show is my definitive it's so stupid it's hilarious shows it knows every joke
it makes is retarded so it basically blows it out the window I don't think he
lives here anymore what the fuck is this show if you want to go watch this show
now you're gonna have a tough time because it's not really available for
streaming anywhere there are some places you can find it but I don't really know
where that's not for me to decide so I'm gonna give this show a very generous 6
out of 10 just high enough that this technically isn't am a video this has
been my review of what TV Guide calls the first ever American anime and a cool
one too