Totally Spies

Director
Vincent Chalvon-Demersay
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
52 episodes
Year
2001

Totally Spies

By Aki
23rd May 04

Here is an interesting example of how a show can look like anime but not feel like anime. At a first glance, it is easy to assume that this is, indeed, an anime series. While the art is brighter and bolder than usual, the style is what one would expect: the large eyes, small nose, and facial expressions normally associated with the anime style are all there. However, if you actually sit down and watch a few episodes, it becomes pretty clear that this is actually not an anime.

The main characters are three high school girls named Sam, Alex, and Clover who are actually spies for a top-secret organization known as WOOHP. But this series is set in Beverly Hills, not Japan, and the girls' high school is a typical American facility, not the usual Japanese school with sliding doors. Fashion is a major theme in this series; after all, we're talking about three high school girls here. A dress code for school, like we would normally expect to see in an anime, is definitely not included.

The series basically follows a new-bad-guy-every-episode plan. There are no hints of subplots or large-scale plots that extend over several episodes. Each episode is pretty much self-contained; you could pick any spot in the series to begin watching and you would be no less confused than someone who has seen it from episode one.

The plots themselves tend to be rather wacky and strange. I think the strangest one I've seen involved disappearing boy bands and a face-switching machine. Other standard episodes had evil geniuses turning people into animals in order to make fur coats, turning every major city in the world into an amusement park, or kidnapping young girls and growing their hair in order to harvest it and make wigs. In every instance, the three heroines must get out their high-tech gadgetry and save the world from either a new ice age or a fashion disaster.

In summary, Totally Spies may look nice, but it's not anime, and it's probably not worth your time.

3/10

-- Aki 23rd May 04

Totally Spies Images