Anime: Kero Kero Chime 3r1u2e

A cute, innocent, adorable and funny shoujo anime.

This is maybe the most underrated anime I've ever seen.

The series follows the adventures of Mimori, a princess of the magical frog kingdom. Aoi an almost normal boy, he's from the human world, but a spell by Mimori's big brother Makaeru was cast on Aoi, so whenever he touches water he turns into a frog and now he tries to find the magic book to loosen this curse. And their friends. Later in the series some villains, Suu the princess of the snake kingdom and some of her loyal subordinates, who are also looking for the magic book appear and the end has surprises for everybody to offer.

The animation is full of bright pastel colors, and lots of cute characters just like the manga by Fujita Maguro. Overall I found it nice and not looking like from 1997. So I was surprised to see that the anime was already 6+ years old.

The music is nice, I liked especially the opening & ending themes which all fit (imho the 1st OP You're the only one was a bit better than the 2nd Love&Peace and the 2nd ED Kiss was a bit better than the 1st Something). But the background is also nice and fits perfect for this happy-happy series.
The seiyuus are doing their job well and manage it to give their characters more deep. You just have to love Mimoris voice, Aois voice also fits just great to his chara.

The story is simple and easy to follow, but considering it's made for a younger audience it's ok and with some turns in the end it makes up for some repetition in the middle. Although I must it that the plot was a bit rushed and the conclusion was not the best, but then again who would have expected a serious one. :P

Some words for the characters, one of the strengths of this anime. There you have a shoujo pair, which is untypical for these kind of show, but this change implies some new and funny situations and they have a bond between, which grows slowly but steadily.

Aoi the male part is serious to the death (the only one in the whole show who's not in the happy-happy mood), he's concerned about everyone, sees everywhere dangers, can't bear with his situation, most of the time in a bad mood and bakayarou is his favorite word it seems, as he uses it in every 2nd sentence.

His female counterpart, Mimori, is the exactly opposite cute, cheerful, trusts everybody and even in the most dangerous situations she doesn't flip out like Aoi due to her simple mind. Even though she has lost her parents she's never sad about it and firmly believes she'll meet them again.

The other characters are deep as well and of course in a happy-happy mood. There is Mimori's big brother Makaeru, a wannabe magician whos only purpose is to make Aois life as hard as possible, so it seems. Shouko a weird know-it-all crystal-ball especially its english is hilarious, Leap a leaf-spirit who messes always and everything up. Three flying caterpillars Shippo, Mammo and Pappo. And of course this show has also some evil but dumb villains, Suu and Uroboros.

All of the characters are extremely positive and energetic, and for some this might create some issues as not everybody enjoys watching extremely happy situations all the time. So if you are searching for the typical shoujo elements you won't find most of them in KKC.

Once you've finished the 30 eps and have seen the end it looses of course a bit value. But it isn't the plot which makes the strength of this show, the characters are and the anime overall. I watched it so far only once, but I'll surely rewatch it.

Now for the enjoyment. I enjoyed this one a lot. It's not one of your typical shoujo animes, the charas are pretty good, the fast changes between serious and comedy are well done. The light hearted humor and warm feeling in Kero Kero Chime is something you don't meet everyday and the music and voiceacting suit the series and the characters perfectly. There are not many minus points in this one, at least for me. ;)

The only things I could rant about is the end which was 1. too open for me and 2. screwed a bit up with conclusion of what had happend 10 years ago (I don't want to spoil so I only say Mimori's and Suu's parents...)
and the overdose of happiness, which was sometimes a bit annoying, but at the same time it's the cause for a lot of the comedy situations.

Overall I would recommend this anime to everyone who likes shoujo/comedy animes, like Card Captor Sakura or Kodomo no Omocha (Kodocha). It has also a lot of fantasy elements, but it doesn't really fit in this genre and I don't think fantasy fans would find this appealing, but who knows? You just have to love the happy mood and the cute charas and backgrounds (unless you dislike everything cute). :)