TAB: Tom's Anime Blog

Ground Defense Force! Mao-Chan (also known as Earth Defense Force! Mao-Chan) has one of the stranger series concepts that I've seen. Japan is being attacked by cute aliens, which look like cartoon cats, puppies, and other cute animals. At least in the early episodes, Japan's self defense forces (the Japanese military) could easily defeat the aliens... but how would it look like if soldiers started attacking cute things?

So, instead, they put together a defense force consisting of second-grader magical girls, the granddaugters of the heads of the Ground, Air, and Sea defense forces, Mao, Misora, and Sylvie, respectively. As they are as cute if not cuter than the cute aliens, people are happy to see them win, and government approval skyrockets.

I'm a fan of Ken Akamatsu's work, which includes A.I. Love You, Love Hina, and Negima. While Mao-chan is significantly less ecchi than his other work, the story is still good, and that's what matters. Mao-chan goes on for 26 13-minute episodes, but manages to stay fresh and non-formulaic.

There is a whole cast of supporting characters introduced in the credits, like the girls' grandfathers (the commanders of the various military branches), Kaogome, the girls' commander and schoolteacher, and Chinami and Yuriko, cute alien catgirls going undercover as high school students.

This series is not without its flaws, the biggest being that the backstory behind the cute aliens, and why they are attacking Japan, is never really explained. Likewise, we don't ever really get a good explanation of what Chinami and Yuriko are doing on earth. Because of this, the ending of the series feels rushed and incomplete. (The ending is okay at best.)

Still, the rest of the series is interesting and creative enough to make up for a disappointing ending. I'll call Mao-chan a good series, as getting there is well worth it.