Series Review: Getsumen to Heiki Mina
In reality I’ve watched Getsumen to Heiki Mina in two parts: the first eight episodes that took forever to get subbed, and the last three episodes recently. Mina certainly has one of the most outlandish concepts for any magical girl series ever. The main character Tsukuda Mina has to juggle her responsibilities of being a high school student and being an announcer for a popular TV show, SpoLuna. However, she’s also Tsukishiro Miina, a member of the rabbit force that protects Earth’s sports culture from evil alien rabbits. Yes, the main enemies of this show are sport loving rabbits.
The rabbits aren’t really the main point of the show, though, as it’s more about Tsukuda growing up and accepting the dual aspects of her life. She’s aided by a few rabbit force members in her struggle, most importantly the berserk fighter Ohtsuki Miina. An interesting theme in the later episodes is contrasting the young heroes like Tsukishiro with the clearly older Ohtsuki, and it all works out in a way you don’t often see in these kind of shows. Sadly the show ends early at episode eleven. While it wraps up the story of Tsukuda nicely there’s clearly still a lot more story they could of told. Of all the rabbit force members in the show, almost half show up solely in the final episode!
Production wise this is a gonzo show, but it’s one of their better efforts. There is CG galore, but I didn’t really have a problem with it. It builds a vision of the future that, much like Macross Frontier, isn’t that hard to imagine. Sadly, those expecting the Miina show from Densha Otoko will be sorely disappointed. Admittedly seeing this animated would of been better than what we got. But for what it’s worth Getsumen to Heiki Mina is a good, modern take on the old cliche’s of henshin heroines, and while the story does end prematurely, at least the viewer can be satisfied that the characters have grown.
