Anime / Super Milk Chan

"Wholesome? Probably not. Good for you? Definitely."

Super Milk Chan is an anime comedy about a foul-mouthed 5-year-old girl named Milk P. Chan, who has been entrusted by the President of Everything to defend the world, despite the debatable presence of any actual superpowers beyond her ability to make pop culture references. In each episode, the President ("of Everything", according to his name) 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 (or something)." Likewise, there are a number of other constants that follow through the series, often under contrived circumstances.

Super Milk Chan began as eight-minute segments (14 segment episodes) on the Fuji Television program Flyer in 1998, followed by a half-hour program, Oh! Super Milk-Chan, in 2000. Across the Pacific, the show ran on [adult swim] between 2004 and 2005 in the US, and on Locomotion around the same time in Latin American satellite TV.

Over 15 years later, a reboot entitled Super Milk Chan Forever was announced in February 2021 and is currently in development. The teaser can be watched here.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Jerkass: In addition to being far louder and more tactless in her voice, Milk Chan's unlikable qualities are cranked up in The Gag Dub; Milk Chan is (usually) kind of a jerk in the original/straight dub (but also calm and soft-spoken in personality), but she is never this mean. For curiousity's sake, here is a comparison.
• Adam Westing: The Gag Dub includes live-action segments centered on the cast and crew of ADV Films, in which they play themselves as a dysfunctional group of misanthropes and prima donnas. These replaced what were, effectively, poetry over live-action stock footage from the original.
• Affectionate Parody: Pastel Mr. Shin
• All Just a Dream: Played for Laughs in "When Pigs Fly", where the President literally craps himself in fear when he's about to be eaten by an anaconda. Turns out it was all just a dream... but he still crapped himself.
  "Oh my god, that dream scared the shit out of me! Hey, what's that smell- oh wait a minute, don't tell me..."
• Art Evolution: Between the shorts and Oh! SMC.
• Art Shift: Will do this on occasion.
• Authority in Name Only: The President.
• Bilingual Bonus: Hanage means "nosehair" in Japanese.
• Camp Gay: Milk's landlord. The Gag Dub makes a lot of hay out of this.
• Catchphrase:
  • Milk: "YOU DUMBASS!"
    • Gag Dub: "SHUT UP!!"
    • The original Japanese version: "BAKATTSURA!"
  • [Milk picks up the phone] "Hello, this is [fill in the blank]. Just kidding."
  • "Roger, roger."
  • "The mission is complete. Let's go eat sushi or something."
  • "Oh, yes. I am the president."
  • Dr. Eyepatch always says "Please forgive my rather unorthodox introduction" when he greets Milk on his TV screen.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Milk-chan in the Gag Dub, several times.
• Coconut Superpowers: Part of the joke is that Milk may not actually have any superpowers.
• Couch Gag: The background of The President's office changes every time it's shown. The background is usually that of a real-life location.
• Dating Sim: Milk plays one in episode 5 and constantly loses at it.
• Deadpan Snarker: With the exception of the Gag Dub, Milk Chan has a mostly deadpan personality.
• Deranged Animation: See below.
• Dueling Dubs:invoked Two different English dubs exist for this series, both of which were made by the same company (ADV Films) at the same time with almost the exact same cast.^*  Exception: Tetsuko is played by Monica Rial in the "straight" dub but by Marcy Bannor in the Gag Dub. One dub is extremely faithful to the original Japanese while the other is a Gag Dub (see below).
• Eyepatch of Power: Dr. Eyepatch wears one that constantly changes its design whenever he appears.
• Fartillery: Tetsuko can produce powerful farts which she calls her Tetsuko Gas. It's strong enough to kill a wild bear.
• Gag Dub: Along with an incredibly faithful straight dub, ADV also made one of these. The gag dub replaces the (absurdly obscure) Japanese pop-culture references with American ones and swaps the live-action sequences with footage of the English voice actors. It also skews waaaaay over to the mature side of the spectrum. ADV did this because they weren't sure what exactly [adult swim] wanted, so they decided to give them options. Much to ADV's surprise, [as] aired the "straight" dub. Both versions are on the DVD release (The straight Dub is present in pure white DVD discs while the Americanizated Dub is present in DVD discs that have colors in the shape of the North American Flag).
  • Later on, even the straight dub adopts some gag dub elements, mainly during the video essay sequences.
• Gainax Ending: The ending of the TV series.
• Gasshole: Milk Chan's maid Tetsuko has the abillity to produce powerful farts called Tetsuko Gas. It's really her only ability beside cooking and cleaning.

• Hypocritical Humor: In the Gag Dub: "These damned dubbed anime. Why do they always change the script so much?"
• Inner Monologue: Hello, this is the voice of Hanage's heart...
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Milk Chan can be selfish, vain, and short-tempered, but she is not devoid of decent qualities (This is most notable in the end of Episode 8 where she convinces The President's pet cat Kanchi to return to him after she ran away!).
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Colonel Sanders of KFC appears in one episode.
• Medium Blending: The series often uses a combination of animation and live-action images.

• Mundane Utility: Printing fake money... to buy Belgian waffles. And doing it with Hot Blood.
• Once per Episode:
  • Dr. Eyepatch appears on a television monitor to advertise a new King Idea Labs product.
    • Dr. Eyepatch's eyepatch changes every episode he shows up.
  • The President will call Milk Chan to deliver her orders; the background in the President's office and the objects on his desk change every episode.
  • Milk's Landlord angrily knocks on her door demanding her pay rent; Milk finds a new way to scare off her landlord each episode.
• Our Presidents Are Different: The President (Of Everything) is strictly a President buffoon type.
• Purple Prose: Akiko Matake's live-action video essays are crawling with pretentious writing.
• Recycled Script:invoked Invoked. One episode repeats the same plot twice in a row with minimal variation, then cuts off just as it's starting a third loop.
• Reset Button: Tetsuko uses a time-travel device when a sleepy Milk misses out on her new pet lizard eating a bug. It never works, prompting Tetsuko to use it over and over. And the scene in question happens just as the President gets nearly electrocuted by his hair-dryer...
• Robot Buddy: Several, Tetsuko and Robo-Dog being the most prominent.
• Running Gag: Out the ass. Seriously, between the original and the Gag Dub, there are too many to count.
• Self-Deprecation: The original has this to an extent, but the Gag Dub takes it up into the stratosphere, especially in the live-action sequences.
• Shout-Out: The show is made of this, and the references are different between the original and Gag Dub.
  • The original Japanese intro features the main characters reenacting scenes from the intros of other anime, the most recognizable of these being Heidi, Girl of the Alps and Cutey Honey.
  • There's a Kadabra on the President's desk in one episode.
  • Milk plays a 4DO in one episode.
  • In another episode, the President has three Doms on his desk.
  • The President also had a Rei Ayanami figurine on his desk in another episode.
• The Stinger: Every time Dr. Eyepatch ends one of his transmissions, there is a brief period of silence, followed by Dr. Eyepatch popping back in for one brief final message before he leaves for good.
• Stock Footage: Used liberally in the original version. The Gag Dub replaces a lot of it.
• Stupid Boss: The President.
• Surreal Humor: Obviously.
• Take That!: While the original was mostly shoutouts, the Gag Dub skewered just about everything, including itself.
  • George W. Bush's administration is a frequent target.
    "Attention. Attention. Radar has detected an armed nuclear missil—I'm sorry, a 'weapon of mass destruction' heading for our country."
  • Whenever the landlord is on screen, expect a lot of jokes about gay culture. The Gag Dub amps this up to eleven, with several of Milk's ploys to scare off her landlord involving her taking advantage of his gayness.
• Tsundere: A non-romantic example; Milk Chan harbors a love-hate relationship with Tetsuko and The President, alternating between tormenting them and getting along with them.
• Verbal Tic: "Dasu" (The President), "wan" (Robo-Dog).
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Although the series is full of Japan-specific references, the setting is only referred to as "Our Nation"… and Japan doesn't have a President.
• Wingding Eyes: Milk's eyes will sometimes emulate a slot machine (accompanied by electronic slot machine sound effects), with yen signs or other odd symbols coming up.

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