Last updated October 01, 2006.
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September 06, 2006: Pitari Tenshi

"Wait...the cat is EVIL?!" That was the revelation that sold me on Pitari Tenshi.

Nyaa on Koboshi's head
Nyaa on Koboshi's head.

I have had Pita Ten in my "to watch" queue for, well, about four years, I guess. I just never really had a good reason to start it. The reviews were favorable, but on the whole it just seemed TOO CUTE for me to stomach until I was really in the mood for something like that. I had a similar problem with getting into Little Snow Fairy Sugar (Chicchana Yukitsukai Sugar, A.K.A. Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar), although the biggest hurdle there was my hatred for every single non-adult fairy, not the show's high-test cuteness. I'm glad I watched all of Little Snow Fairy Sugar, though, as it turned out to be quite good, and it has one of the best OPs of all time.

But I digress. I was talking about Pita Ten and its evil cat.

Just so we're clear, Pita Ten is cute as Hell. I mean sickeningly so, and I probably would have quit watching if it hadn't been for addition of Shia and Nyaa early on and my aforementioned surprise that the cat (of which I was slightly familiar from promotional art and one dance-a-matic animated gif) is EVIL.

Kotarou and Misha
Kotarou and his angel, Misha. Good luck, Kotarou.

The basic premise of the show is that a junior high school angel, Misha, comes to live next door to a motherless grammar school student, Kotarou. Wacky adventures ensue. Simple enough, but what really sells the show for me is its talented voice cast:

I have to start first with the woefully underrated Miyuki Sawashiro, perhaps best known for her work as Mint on Galaxy Angel and as Puchiko on DiGi Charat. She also completely made the third episode of Top wo Nerae 2 for me as Tykho (especially during the "Buster Machine no Tamashii" segment). Admittedly, she doesn't really do anything special here in Pita Ten as the male lead, Kotarou, but she does sing the ED quite nicely.

Shia and Nyaa
Shia and Nyaa.

Yukari Tamura (Ranpha, Nanoha) voices Misha, a well-meaning pink-haired angel. I rather dislike Misha, mostly because I don't like characters that are always trying to be helpful, but forever screwing things up and making things worse. I do like Misha's "hee hee hee" laugh, though.

Rie Kugimiya (Shana, Zero no Tsukaima's Louise) does a great job wailing as Koboshi Uematsu, a little girl who sometimes seems on the verge of losing her mind.

Yumi Touma (Urd) plays the cat, Nyaa, who is ostensibly Shia's familiar, but is really more her instructor in practice.

Nyaa and Shia
Nyaa and Shia.

You see, Shia is a demon in training. That's right. (You can tell she's a demon because she has tiny bat wings on her giant, poofy hat.) As a demon, Shia is HOPELESS, because she's pretty much the sweetest, nicest girl in the world. As you may expect, Shia's good nature drives Nyaa crazy.

Shia is voiced by Yukana of Tessa and Cure White fame. Believe it or not, Yukana actually uses an even sweeter voice for Shia than for Tessa or Honoka. You could bake a cake.

Shia
Shia.

We also have Mitsuki Saiga as Ayanokouji/Ten-chan, a male schoolmate of Kotarou's, and Motoko Kumai cranking up her Li Shaoran voice a few bars as Dai-chan, Ayanokouji's sworn rival. Sakura Nogawa plays Dai-chan's weirdo sister.

I've only seen the first 10 episodes of Pita Ten so far, but that's because episode 10 was TOP FUEL HILARITY and I'm still gasping for air. In any case, I'm sold, and I'm somewhat surprised that it hasn't been licensed in the United States yet after all this time.

TOP FUEL HILARITY, I say.

September 14, 2006: Pitari Tenshi

Misha
Misha.

Just so you know, Misha is pretty much the worst angel in all of anime—even worse than the angel that got punked by Ritsuko's exceptional typing ability.

September 15, 2006: Pitari Tenshi

Shia
Shia.

I guess to be fair, I should also point out that Shia really is the worst demon of all time.

September 19, 2006: Pitari Tenshi

Koboshi
Things tend not to go Koboshi's way.

For the record, as far as Rie Kugimiya characters go, Shana > Koboshi > Louise. Shana has got that FLAME HAZE nonsense and a Yoko Takahashi-driven ED backing her up, and Koboshi is fun because she's always freaking out. Louise just sucks.