***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Ai Mai Mi. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Life is a series of random events. For three high school girls, this couldn’t be anymore the case.
Ai (voiced by Yuka Otsubo), Mai (voiced by Aya Uchida), and Mi (voiced by Maaya Uchida) are members of the manga club. The latter two can’t find this any more boring, which annoys the former to no end. As a result, any distraction that appears, it's going to cause some problems. And distractions have a tendency of finding these three.
Ai, Mai, and Mi, on a daily basis, navigate through, and sometimes are the cause of a lot of pure nonsense. They, along with their upperclassman Ponoka-senpai (voiced by Ai Kayano), are never at a loss for things to do.
Too bad this variety isn’t always for their benefit.
No matter how mundane something appears to be, these girls will find a way to take it to the next level. It is best to get out of their way. Once they get going, this is not a group you can stop.
Series Positives
Why don’t I begin annoying people right at the start of Pre-Blog Month 2? To everyone who read my last review, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka, you know how underwhelming I found that series. A problem I said the show had, centered around a contradiction-filled plot. A large chunk of it didn’t add up.
Yet where Zombie made little sense, Ai Mai Mi reveled in making zero sense. What was the point of this series? You tell me because I’m coming up with nothing. Nevertheless, I like this one way more than I do Zombie. This was true when I first saw this show and it is still true having now watched it again.
How is such a thing possible when Zombie has many clear advantages over Ai Mai Mi?
Without question, Zombie had better animation. It was a nice-looking series. Had there not been things distracting me, I would have emphasized this more in the review. In addition, despite its supernatural and goofy nature, it was the more grounded series. Looking at these two shows on their surface, Zombie is more accessible than Ai Mai Mi. Through the premises alone, it would be Zombie with the higher enjoyment potential. After all, of the two, Zombie is the one with an actual story to tell. 
Except that was the issue. While there was a story, Zombie didn’t do a great job of telling it. An end goal doesn’t mean much when you don’t know how to get there. Although there was a purpose, Zombie had trouble finding its way. There were too many wrong turns that prevented the series from doing everything it wanted to do. Ai Mai Mi didn’t have those limitations.
This show didn’t have anywhere it wanted to go. Ai Mai Mi didn’t have to worry about getting lost since that was never a possibility. When you set yourself up to wander, the random encounters on the journey become the experience. This series didn’t bother with the finish line because it didn’t exist.
Ai Mai Mi picked a direction and went full steam ahead. It didn’t stop for anything.
The short answer is, this show was stupid, and it knew it too. Ai Mai Mi understood and embraced what it was. Since it was having fun with what it was doing, this translated into a more entertaining experience. If you were to ask this series “why”, its answer would be “why not?”
That said, reviewing Ai Mai Mi had me worried. This was always going to be a challenge. When I first watched this show, I only needed to know that I liked it. Now, I must explain my reasons. And having to explain this series, that was a daunting proposition. What compelled me to try anyway?
First, Ai Mai Mi is short. The most time-consuming aspect of every review is actually watching a show. No matter if a series is good or bad, it usually means a six-hour sit I can’t get out of. And that’s a standard, thirteen-episode anime. A twenty-plus episode viewing will take at least half a day.
Thus, anything I can knock out in thirty minutes I will take.
Second, the Ai Mai Mi franchise has more than one season. If you can believe it, there are three. The first two I saw before creating this site. Then in January of 2017, to my surprise, a third season aired. Since I enjoy this series, I want to put it under the Anime Hajime banner.
Too bad I didn’t see the point in reviewing the latest installment without having done the previous. In fact, this is not the only show this month I applied this thought process too. Hence why I will be getting to Aria the Scarlet Ammo as well.
Unfortunately for me, this meant I had to hold off on series I would love to return to. I'm looking at you Ouran High School Host Club. One day.
I shouldn’t be complaining too much. I was happy to give Ai Mai Mi another go. As it turns out, that sentiment wasn’t unjustified. If anything, I enjoyed this series more the second time.
Energy
I will be the first to say it. Ai Mai Mi’s animation was nothing to get excited about. It’s by no means bad, but high-quality it was not. The artwork wasn’t that polished. You could almost see the animator’s hands as they moved everything into place.
This worked in the show’s favor. This cruder, rougher style had a charm that I won’t deny. It made the entire series appear more durable. That’s important because things got a little hectic.
Ai Mai Mi was fast, and it never stopped moving. Every bit of motion was expressive and full of energy. Gestures were more exaggerated. With this show’s more jagged edges, it could absorb all the momentum of these episodes.
Another show that had this same idea was Kill la Kill. You only need to watch the opening minutes of that series to get what I’m talking about. Both these shows knew how to floor it. Yet there are two things I need to make clear.
One, Kill la Kill is a far superior series. This is true in general as well as in animation energy. Kill la Kill was much wilder with what it wanted to do. Based on what I have said, that should mean the visuals would have taken a larger hit than Ai Mai Mi. Except that wasn’t the case. Quite the opposite.
Kill la Kill is a beautiful, well-animated series. This was the show that made me fall in love with Studio Trigger. Thus, aren’t I contradicting myself? I will leave that determination to you after I explain my second point.
Like I mentioned, Ai Mai Mi is a short series. Each episode was only about three minutes long. Compare this to Kill la Kill which had over twenty, thirty-minute episodes. To go one hundred percent balls-to-the-wall takes a lot of energy. Kill la Kill knew going hard its entire run would have been unmaintainable. 
There needed to be a cooling off period. This is where the show could focus on its characters, its world, and its intrigue. With more to consider, it makes sense this series had higher quality art. This was a positive consequence because the higher energy scenes looked even cooler.
Is it any wonder then why we would get something like Ai Mai Mi? This series didn’t care too much about character development, world building, or lore. Even if it did, there wasn’t any time. Time that was even more limited when a significant portion of each episode was the ending theme.
Like it was with Kill la Kill, this show knew what it had to work with. And what it had was an excuse to go at max speed from beginning to end. Long before things became tired and drawn out, the show was over.
By the way, the ending theme for Ai Mai Mi is one of the catchiest in anime. It was a perfect complement to this series.
So what though? This show was fast. All that means is this show was fast and fast doesn’t equate to interesting. There has to be something to grab your attention. For Ai Mai Mi, its hook was its humor.
Warning, this series is not a highbrow comedy. There weren’t any multi-layered jokes. Everything was as it came. And what came got pretty immature at points. This was the kind of immaturity you find in children who also happen to be adults. For actual kids, this series isn’t for them.
This show wasn’t what I would consider vulgar, but the possibility was there.
There was a scene where a giant monster showed up and started eating Ponoka-senpai. Like it was for Kore wa Zombie Desu ka, this series had no problem using blood for humor. The sheer brutality of what was happening, coupled with how long it went on for was really funny.
I don’t want the term “immaturity” to always be a negative quality. There’s nothing wrong with a little silliness from time to time. Where’s the fun in being a stiff every minute of your life? I know damn well a clever wit isn’t the only thing to get a laugh out of me.
We have covered two aspects of Ai Mai Mi’s energy. Yet there is still another component we must discuss. This show was like a fire. And as it is for any fire, there need to be three elements for one to exist. Those elements are fuel, heat, and oxygen.
For Ai Mai Mi, its fuel was its animation. Its heat was its comedy. For its oxygen, that distinction goes to this show’s characters. More specifically, it was the voices behind these characters. The four main actresses were fantastic.
Again, deep character development wasn’t something this show did. Nor was there any time for this. The voice actors needed to bring Ai, Mai, Mi, and Ponoka-senpai to life. That is what they did.
Ai was the straight man of the series. She was also the most level-headed of the group. Plus, she was the only one to ever think about her actions. Being the most collected, she was the one most susceptible to the nonsense going on around her. As such, her usual calm, stern voice would need to make way for the biggest freakouts among the titular trio.
Ms. Yuka Otsubo, Ai’s voice actress, nailed this.
Mai was the childish one. She saw the world through a special pair of rose-tinted glasses. I say “special” because she was the type of kid who never learned the concept of limits. Her attention span wasn’t great, but when she did focus on something, nothing positive ever came as a result. It’s normal for a Japanese high school girl to start walking her dog and end up in New Jersey, right?
This uncompromising determination was dangerous when it coincided with Mai's more sadistic side. The welfare of others wasn’t always her concern.
Ms. Aya Uchida, Mai’s voice actress, found the balance between innocent and concerning.
Mi was the troublemaker. Her impulses were the cause of many of the complications in this show. She was also a tad mean-spirited and loved getting under Ai’s skin. This was then bolstered even more whenever Mai was on the same page as her. Except much of her attitude was bravado. Whenever things got bad, she was the first one to crack.
This caused Mi a lot of grief because her stubbornness was its own beast. Granted, everything that happened to her she earned. It’s interesting to think the bossy Mi was Ms. Maaya Uchida’s doing.
Ms. Uchida is the person who gave us the adorable Rikka Takanashi from Chuunibyou and the lovely Hiyori Iki from Noragami. This is a testament to how good of an actress she is.
Ponoka-senpai was Ai Mai Mi’s deus ex machina character. I mean that as a positive. This show was so absurd, it was only fitting it would employ no-thought solutions to dilemmas. Unlike the other three, Ponoka-senpai only appeared when she needed to. Her arrival always meant nonsense was on its way. But what made her a blast was her beautiful deadpan delivery. A result from the solid performance of Ms. Ai Kayano.
To go back to my fire analogy, the flame created by Ai Mai Mi’s animation, humor, and characters was relaxing. Some of the best memories I have, involve me sitting around a campfire BS-ing the night away. Don’t get me wrong, this was not the kind of show that hit me with a wave of sentimental nostalgia. But it did remind me of something.
Those fireside conversations got rather dumb. Yet dumb can be fun. And dumb fun was what Ai Mai Mi was.
Self-Contained
About 99.9% of the time, there was nothing connecting this show. With the sole exception of one throwaway line, you could watch this series in any order without any issues. Another of the many things Ai Mai Mi didn’t concern itself with was continuity. Each of the characters died at least once. And that wasn’t even the craziest thing to happen to some of them.
The point is, each episode was its own entity. Where one ended had no bearing on where another began. This made it so this series is perfect for picking it up and watching it whenever. But there was a lot more going on than you would expect. The episodes themselves had a distinct flow to them.
Ai Mai Mi was as random as they get. Except there remained a “logic” to what was going on. There was nothing logical about this show. That notwithstanding, there was a clear path between events. When you get to the end of an episode, it will never be too far away from where things started. There were overarching themes.
For example, the girls found themselves in a time rift. I wouldn’t worry about how this happened because it happened and that’s all the information you’re going to get. But once they were in the rift, they stayed there. After their arrival, everything that took place tied back to the initial event. It didn’t matter how weird things got.
Each episode had a ridiculous premise to it. Yet each episode only had one ridiculous premise to it. Ai Mai Mi didn’t change things up in the middle of whatever it was doing. This series didn’t throw in curveballs for the sole sake of being wacky.
This consistency within episodes was a well-played move. It was like pushing a boulder down a hill. The further the rock goes, the faster and more chaotic it gets. Though it is leaving a wake of destruction, you could see where the thing has been. It's also not rocket science to guess where it’s going to go.
To change course in a dramatic way during this rampage would require a ton of force. On top of that, said force would need to hit at the exact right moment. Otherwise, nothing will happen. Sooner or later, the thing is going to stop.
For Ai Mai Mi, the bolder was this show’s high-octane energy. The wake of destruction were the episodes. This series knew to let the boulder die out on its own.
For a show as silly as this, this was a smart thing to do. You’d be surprised how much thought goes into being stupid.
Series Negatives
There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who find Ai Mai Mi’s brand of humor funny. And there are those who think it is obnoxious. I am a part of the former. If you are a part of the latter, then there is nothing I can say that will convince you to give this show a chance.
There is nothing else in this series. It put all its eggs in one basket and took off like a bat out of Hell. If you’re one of those people who aren’t sure which group you fall into, I suggest giving the first episode a look. Doing this will let you know for sure if this is your kind of thing. 
If you liked what you saw, you’ll do fine with the rest. If you think this is the dumbest thing you’ve ever witnessed, it doesn’t get any better. If anything, it gets much worse.
For those who would enjoy this show, there are two things you need to know going in.
First, on occasion, there are bits of Japanese style humor. If you are well-versed in Japanese comedy, then ignore what I’m about to say. If you are not, and I can’t say that I am, some jokes are going to go over your head.
Is it wrong for a Japanese show to do this kind of thing? Absolutely not. This isn’t a negative to this series. Besides, the majority of this show doesn’t rely on this. Ai Mai Mi is accessible to most audiences. For the instances that are not like this, the pace is so fast the moment is over before you have the chance to say, “I don’t get it.”
The second thing is a negative to this series. Ai Mai Mi has no staying power whatsoever. The moment the show is over, you are going to start forgetting what it was you saw. While you are watching, everything is hilarious. Afterward, you will know, “Yeah, that was fun.” You’ll also be able to say, “Okay, but what did I see?”
To write this review, I felt I had to start it as soon as the final episode played. Even then, I was having trouble. To fix this, I did the only thing I could think of. I watched the entire series two more times. It wasn’t until after that ninety minutes did I have a firmer grasp of what it was I liked and disliked about this show.
Ai Mai Mi is like a good dream. You know that you had one. Too bad no matter how hard you try you cannot remember what it was.
These things aside, there is another technical aspect to this series that could use some work.
Ai's Involvement
This is not a slight against Ai. I wanted to see more of her which is why I’m bringing this up. This was the Mai and Mi show. There was a disconnect between the main trio. This forces me to ask, “Why was this a thing?”
With Mai and Mi causing the madness of this series, they did their roles without any issue. Ai, as the straight man, also performed her job well. Ai never pushed anything to happen. She was always along for the ride and had to clean up whatever mess her friends caused. To put it another way, Ponoka-senpai did more to add to this show’s personality. I can’t help feeling a character whose name is in the title, whose name is first in the title, shouldn’t be so overshadowed.
The thing is though, someone like Ai needed to be in this series. If everyone was wild, then there would be nothing to push back against the chaos. A show like this doesn’t need something to control the madness. But it does need something, or someone to point it in the right direction. If this was all Ai was, I wouldn’t have anything to say.
Except this wasn’t all Ai was. On occasion, hints of a more carefree personality poked up. There was a part of her that sometimes wanted to let loose and join in. Whenever this side of Ai appeared, she felt more a part of this show.
This version of Ai shouldn’t replace who she was. Yet it wouldn’t hurt for her to be the troublemaker every now and then. It would keep the audience more on their toes.
I don’t remember what comes of this in season two and I have no idea what season three is. Since I don’t expect this series will add any more time, I’ll change what it is I’m hoping for. Allow Ai the chance to participate more.
Final Thoughts
This is one of my favorite short-form anime. Everything about it is the right kind of randomness.
This show was energetic. It was loud. It went for more interesting choices rather than more logical ones. Plus, this was the perfect format for this kind of insanity to thrive. Whenever I come across this type of anime with a short run time, I always ask the same question. Could this have worked as a standard-length series? The answer to that is a resounding no. And that’s not a bad thing.
The quickness of this show allowed everything to go big without getting out of hand. That’s not an easy thing to do.
As it stands though, I know there are some people who will never find this series appealing. I get why that is. Yet for those who want something that hits hard and fast and you want to have a good time, that makes this easy. Ai Mai Mi is worth checking out.
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? How would you advise Ai Mai Mi? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.
And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.
I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.
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