Lyrical Tokarev, kill them all!Tanaka Punie is a Princess of Magical Land, and heir to her mother's throne.However, in order to become Queen, she must spend a year in a normal Japanese High School. Besides the normal troubles you might expect, she must deal with assassins who want to make sure her family will no longer control Magical Land, as well as competition from her two little sisters. Hilarity Ensues, but not how you might expect. Man oh man, is it not like how you'd expect.As the series progresses, more characters are introduced and more and more tropes are shattered.There's Tetsuko, the Straight Man who can only watch in horror as Punie and all the "villains" she attracts rip apart every ounce of innocence in the world. There's Anego, the local gang leader and Punie's rival, who really doesn't stand a chance. And then there's Paya-tan, the mascot, but known to some as Colonel Paya Livingston.The anime, released as an OVA in 2006, is based on a manga by the Hideki Ohwada and consists of four double-length episodes.It has been directed by Tsutomu Mizushima, who is also involved with Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro Chan, a better-known series with which it shares quite a few similarities in the comedy department. The show has been released in the west by Media Blasters as Magical Witch Punie-chan, but they sadly omitted the omakes from the original. It will be re-released dubbed in June 2011.As a very dark satire of the Magical Girl genre, Dai Mahou Touge constantly pushes the envelope, and then arguably sets the envelope on fire. And then it bakes the ashes into a pie, which will be delicious.
Action Girl: Most of the time, Punie ends up relying on her extraordinary wrestling abilities rather than her magic, due to the presence of Green Rocks.
Affably Evil: Our protagonist, ladies and gentlemen!
Arc Words: "Submission is the Princess' way!" It's not what it sounds like. Rather, "submission" in this case refers to submission wrestling techniques.
Badass Normal: Anego falls neatly into this category. She regularly shakes off broken limbs, including a broken neck, which she's even shown snapping back into place.
Book Dumb: Despite being of highschool age, Punie's educational level is at kindergarten level.
Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick- Most prominently in the Omake, when Tetsuko inquires about the apparently fascist Magical Land, as well as the peasant uprisings.Punie just smiles and continues like nothing ever happened.
Crazy-Prepared: Punie finds out she's going to have a pair of younger twin sisters. What does she do? Start training to learn to fight two opponents at once.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Paya. Not that it helps him. As of three times when he got serious, he was up against Punie (though he shattered her ribs, cracked her skull, and a few other rather substantial injuries), a god, and an entire army on horseback led by Anego during one of her Crowning Moment Of Badass.
Cute and Psycho: This is what happens when this trope is applied to an entire anime.
Cute Witch: The show is a vicious parody of this subgenre.
Dancing Theme: Punie performs a cute little dance in the OP, while historical monuments are ablaze in the background.
Dark Magical Girl: Elise; but since this is a parody, she's actually a lot nicer and more heroic than our horrible heroine.
Defeat Means Friendship: Anego becomes pretty chummy with Punie after the first episode, although it seems more like a grudging admiration of Punie's viciousness than a real friendship.
Elise joins Punie's class after being defeated, and helps Anego carry Tetsuko out of the school after an accident. She's probably not too friendly with Punie, though.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Punie does this before the series begins, one of her foes is an elder god who she had beaten up and down horrible things to previously, and he runs away in fear when he realizes it's Punie that's he's fighting again.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: the delinquents call their female boss "Anego" ("Big sister" — the female equivalent of "Aniki"), which is perfectly normal. But then, everyone starts calling her this way for some reason. Does she even have a name?
The name tag on her gym uniform even has the hiragana for Anego.
Evil Sounds Deep: Punie's voice deepens when she drops the cutesy princess act.
Everybody's Dead Dave: The sport's festival's conclusion. Anego and Punie's sisters has successfully destroyed Punie's army, and are pursuing her. At this point, Punie tearfully admits that the era of traditional combat is past...and now begins the age of gunpowder. Cue her horse leaping over lines of reserve troops with flintlock rifles, who proceed to kill more or less the entire student body. Anego is the only survivor, and even she keels over after a final word. Shortly thereafter, Punie's sisters are shown captured...and Punie spanks them for 'not being nice.' Fortunately for everyone else, it seems Anego's ''Highlander''-esque immortality is a common trait for the rest of the students, and they're right as rain next episode.
Grotesque Cute: Watch the first episode and then try to peel a potato or cut up a carrot or eat any sort of fruit or vegetable. I dare you.
Harmless Villain: Up until the last episode, pretty much everyone except for Paya-tan, who put up a rather good fight. This has less to do with them being weak as with Punie winning the Superpower Lottery.
Henpecked Husband: The King, whose role is often reduced to either crying about his daughters (and brutally shut up by Esmerelda quickly after) or being used as Esmerelda's chair.
Improbable Weapon User: Punie's younger twin sisters attack with a giant pair of scissors.
Informed Ability - Punie's submission techniques mostly work because most of her opponents obviously didn't learn the (relatively simple) defenses against them. Letting her walk up to you is not a good idea, for example.
Kryptonite Factor: Punie's submission techniques are mainly one-on-one tactics. Subverted in that it doesn't really stop Punie from kicking ass.
Also, the reason Punie keeps resorting to her submission techniques is because everyone and their dog seems to have access to the evil doll that can seal off her magical powers. Again, subverted in that if anything, this only makes the ensuing beatdown worse.
The queen herself has extremely creepy red eyes with no irises or pupils.
Refuge in Audacity: Considering the amount of damage Punie tends to inflict on people and her surroundings, it's probably this that has stopped the police from coming and allowed said police to continue living.
Secret Test of Character: Subverted in the last episode in that Punie is expected to use deviousness to win against her now overpowered sisters. Punie passes with flying colors.
Shout Out: Lots. The Necronomicon Ex Mortis apparently has a recipe for cupcakes. An older reference from the first episode is from Oishinbo as 'Kaibara' and 'Shirou' are eating the magical train curry. There's also a helicopter scene straight out of Apocalypse Now, complete with Walkürenritt.
There's a whole shoutout to Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket when Paya is asked if he's returning to the Army - specifically, that of an ambush in Platoon, Paya-as-Willard rising out of the mud, and Paya killing the VC sniper.
the things that nulls punie's magic power? Gundam merchandise.
When Punie's mother is listing other witches she beat out for the throne, she mentions "Akko, Sally, Megu, and Momo."
Tsundere: Anego. This becomes more pronounced later in the series.
Verbal Tic: Paya adds "-paya" to all his sentences whenever he's in cutesy mode.
Villain Protagonist: If you couldn't guess from her incantation, Punie is not quite as good as she first appears. Her mother is probably even worse, if only because of her experience.
As a very dark satire of the Magical Girl genre, Dai Mahou Touge constantly pushes the envelope, and then arguably sets the envelope on fire. And then it bakes the ashes into a pie, which will be delicious.
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