Just like Inferno Cop, is a collection of funny skits with a total running time of only half an hour. Neither are properly animated or have a proper plot. In Turning Girls, there's 6 episodes, each lasting about 5 minutes. They explore the lives of 4 young Japanese women each with their own... 'quirks'.
This set-up reminds me of 4-panel manga, manga where short jokes are squished into 4 panels and rely almost entirely on the authors wit. A good example of an anime like this would be Azumanga Daioh. Although Azumanga Daioh has regular length episodes, each episode is split into smaller junks so that they can still use the original 4-panel jokes. The reason Azumanga Daioh was so successful was because they put so much energy into the show, the jokes were laugh-your-ass-off funny and they didn't have to sacrifice continuity for it to work! Basically, it was everything that Turning Girls is not. Every episode I watched sapped away a bit of my soul and whilst I can't deny it was funny, it did not make me laugh; I just smiled quietly to myself. Whats the point of a gag anime that can't make some one laugh? And don't get me started on the fluidity of the show! Because every episode is only 5 minutes you could never get into it. Blink and you'll miss the joke! There's no build up or order, it's all a bit of a mess in all honesty! Even Cromartie High, in all it's craziness has more coherence than this rubbish!
There is one more thing that defines 4-panel and gag anime: quirky and lovable characters. Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh, Cromartie High, all of them are pretty defined by their brilliant characters. So what about the characters within Turning Girls? Well, I still have difficulties judging them since I've known them for less than an hour so for a start, I can tell you I haven't fallen head-over-heels for them. However, my favourite is Kaeru, "self-proclaimed idol". If that's not one of the best quirks to give a gag anime character I don't what is. Easily the best thing the show has to offer, Kaeru spends her air time pretending she's a super-popular idol and she doesn't hold anything back! She over-plays the moe to a most annoying degree and gets some brilliant responses for it. If they made an anime exclusivly about Kaeru, I think I'd actually like it!
Unfortuanately, Turning Girls has other, less pleasing characters. Nana is just incredibly boring. She is described as a natural airhead who captures the attention of lots of guys. Sound familiar? It describes a lot of anime herines! It's not over-played for ironic effect either, she's just your regular old airhead. Want to know what her "Quirk" is? It's her paranoia about her age. How incredibly mundane! The other two aren't much better either! Kai is a woman of few words, however, her alter ego -"Bloody Roses"- is a famous figure in Japan's Visual Kei scene. The contrast of "Bloody Roses" and Kai is vaguely amusing, but not more than vaguely. Finally, Chiwa who is a quite fun character. She's a yaoi fan and fanfic writer. Spending an episode in her head and seeing what fantasies she came up with was definitely one of the better times spent on the show. Personally, my biggest complaint is that each characters' "quirk" is used as a joke in one episode only. One Episode of Kei being exposed as a goth, one episode of Chiwa having gay daydreams. These traits all but disappear for the other episodes! One thing I like is an anime with referencing; pop-culture references or references to itself are always amusing!! Just another way in which this show is lacking.
Finally, the art. Like I said, it's not animated in the conventional sense, instead it's designed to look like paper cut-outs. They look ugly and barely move, maybe the hipsters amoung you will like the totally unique style but it has no appeal to me. I didn't mind the style of Yami Shibai, but with Turning Girls I find myself frequently checking whether the video froze because nothing was happening!
So, it's a pretty short review for a pretty short "series" and, well, I think it's clear that I didn't enjoy myself. Maybe ONA's just aren't for me, a bit too hipster perhaps. I appreaciate it's adventurous style, but it just didn't sit right with me. While you're not going to lose much time watching this miniature series, you're not about to gain anything from it either. Maybe if you have watched Inferno Cop and enjoyed it Turning Girls could be a good substitution for that and if you're just looking for something different, then perhaps I've found you just the thing. But as far as gag anime goes, there's much better out there!
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