Company - BANDAI
Age - 7 and up (All Ages)
Contains Episodes 19 to 22
Dual Language (Japanese/English)
Optional Extras? - Production Art section ("Fashion Gallery")
Time - 100 minutes
Planned by Minoru Ohno, Yuji Nunokawa & Shigeru Watanabe
Animation Production by Studio Pierrot
Produced by TV Osaka, Yomiuri Advertisement Agency & Bandai Visual
Directed by Takahiro Omori
A Production of Bandai Visual

Fancy Lala Vol. 5 - "Rise to Stardom"
Episode 19 : Something Chisa Left Behind
Well, truth be told it's actually something the teacher forgot to give Chisa years ago.
You see, when Chisa was Miho's age she had the same teacher Miho has now, and while she was his student she wrote an essay that won an award. Well, somehow in all the shuffle about and mixup he forgot to give her the winning essay back and it's been in his desk for about seven years (until now when he gives it to Miho to give to Chisa) and that is how the story begins.

Miho and Chisa get into a bit of a dust off when Miho returns home, with Chisa getting on Miho's case about her buying snacks and telling mom about her wanting to get a cell phone, which leads to Miho deciding she wants to be an older sister (because she could do a better job than Chisa). Uh-huh. For those of you new to the Magical Girl genre? One important hint is to NEVER make those kind of wishes while holding your "Gear" (in this case the Chrono pen/drawing pad) because as she makes said wish she sets off a chain of events that puts her in the past, INSIDE Chisa's body when she was 9!

Now, first off as some of you know, time travel is a bit of a sticky wicket. Not something you just do on a whim to pass the "time" (pun intended) away. Miho, however, avoids all the sticky complications of time travel because she's merely a "passenger" in Chisa's "head." She can't influence the outside world, and she can't even seem to influence Chisa - she's just along for the ride (hence she won't have to worry about breaking those pesky rules of time travel). Okay, mind you, when this episode began Miho had some pretty high standards of Chisa's perfection when she was 9 - that's going out the window this episode. She finds out that Chisa was a bit of a git, got into trouble, misbehaved, pigged out on snacks, cried (got scared)

- oh, on that. While Chisa's out roaming about (she should be home watching little Miho who's only 2 years old) she runs into Mystery Man, who offers her two eggs (yup, this also turns into an origin episode for Pigu/Mogu), and she ditches the eggs and runs off. While running off she somehow becomes lost and scared (thankfully two bicycle policemen find her and take her home).

Oh-kay. We have no established that Chisa is not as infallable as Miho's conceptions of her!
So Miho's concepts of Chisa at 9 aren't all they're cracked up to be, and I don't see how it could possibly get any worse... oh, wait, it CAN get worse! It seems that Chisa is a low down dirty rotten scoundrel to boot! Don't you just hate it when that happens?!? You see, in the future Miho has this little "complex" about bed-wetting, well, in the past the truth of that gets revealed and it‘s all bad. After once again ditching Pigu/Mogu's eggs (Mystery Man somehow got them into her room), Chisa proves how bad she is while she's sleeping because it seems that SHE'S the one with the bed-wetting problem, and she's been framing Miho for it for who knows how long! SHEESH GIRL! What kind of scum uses their little 2-year-old sister (who they're sharing a room with) as the "fall guy" for their bed-wetting, rolling same sister from her futon onto the guilty party's futon and frames HER for their mishaps? That's just low!
In short Miho gets an eyeful (and also a bit more because she can't influence Chisa but she can feel Chisa's emotions, taste what she's eating, and feels when she - you know) of her sister and learns that Chisa is as human as she is - maybe less with that blatant bed-wetting framing, but Miho gets one back on her when she returns to the future.

But wait! There's more!
1. Looks like Mystery Man picked up a few hints on "recruiting" from a brief encounter with Taro, seven years ago, but Taro didn't talk to him long enough to get a pen and book - of which he has at least TWO TO THREE DOZEN!! Man, this guy is a walking mini store of Chrono pens/magical sketchbooks!! What's up with that?!? Might find that out sooner than I suspect. But then again...
2. Yes, it is the origin of Pigu/Mogu, and near the end you witness their "birth" from their eggs.
3. Lala does NOT

appear throughout the entire episode. It's all Miho this episode.

Episode 20 : Together with Mom?!
Ever since Episode 4? Miho (as Lala) has been doing things for Lyrical Productions which involved the TV Station that Miho's mom works at, but Miho (as Lala) has not yet had a run-in with mother at work - until now that is. It seems that Lala is going to be appearing on a TV Show produced by her mom, so this is as good a time as any to get to meet mom for the "first" time during this job. As for the show? Think Fear Factor Japanese style, with celebrity stunts of which the last being the "Throw Miki Yumeno from a Bridge" thing with her tied to a bungee cord, and her terrible fear of heights.

However if working with her mom isn‘t stress enough it looks like more stress is burdening Miho‘s shoulders than the usual work related stress! You see, her mother's co-worker tends to call her (behind her back) "the devil (oni) Shinohara," and Anna (at school) puts the dumb notion that her mom might be having an affair at work in Miho's mind. Pretty much these two things puts a ton of stress on Miho and she flips out, so much so that she blurts out over dinner that her mom should quit working. Of course once she has the chance to think it over she'll regret saying that, but now what?! After a good heart-to-heart talk with her mom (as Lala), she finds an answer to her feelings of stress and there's a touching ending to the story. Another of those great episodes.

Episode 21 : Mr. Asaka's Girlfriend?!
I'll just skip this one because once again it's a case of possible mistaken identity and stalking as Miho's class ends up prying into the life of their 30-year-old single teacher Mr. Asaka. Meet Saburo, would be wannabe detective, possible future stalker for life. He's on a relentless (maybe even illegal) quest to find out if Mr. Asaka's got a girlfriend... which would be nice and all if it wasn't so wrong. Dude, the guy's like 30 years old, get over it and stop stalking him. Get your own girlfriend dammit!

Episode 22 : The Scoop! Lala's Identity Revealed!
Remember back in Episode 17? When Miho appeared on that show which became a Kappa (Water Imp) "witchhunt"? Well, it looks like two of the "wrong" type of people saw that show! The nosy

(probably as nosy as "Detective Saburo" last episode) devilish twin sisters of Sayaka and Asuka saw her that day (when the episode aired) and they've been dying (figuratively speaking) to get up close and personal with her to nail her "story" for the school newspaper. I won't say any more, because it's the last episode of the Volume, but somehow their quest to get her "Kappa" story turns into a quest to prove that Miho Shinohara is in reality Fancy Lala! Now they're stalking HER (didn't those crazy kids at Miho's school learn yet that stalking is a no-no?) and won't stop until they prove that Miho and Lala are one in the same! How is she going to get out of this? Find out by checking this out!

Fancy Lala Breakdown
What's Hot? - This is becoming repetitive so I'll be short and sweet. It's nice, solid series that's just plain interesting and good period. It's one of those all ages series that should be seen by all ages. If you'd rather watch something with more content or adult subjects than this isn't for you, sure, but I think a little bit of lighter fare every now and then is a good thing, isn't it? It's one of the few All Ages (7+) series I can recommend, and considering quite a few of my reviews focus on series for 13+ and over? That's got to be a good thing, right?

What's Not? - Yes, once again it might not be for everyone but then again you should probably give it the benefit of a doubt before you consider it obsolete.

Moments to Remember? - Actually things are slowing down now. It's going to be less memorable at the end, while at the beginning it's highly memorable... go figure.

What to Ignore? - Nothing that comes to mind... other than the fact we're nearing the end. That's it.

Overall?- I don't see why you shouldn't be buying this, but if you don't think it's for you then you should at least rent it. It has it's merits, but it's not for everyone. If you're a fan of the Magical Girl genre, or just wanting to put something into your collection for a lighter taste of anime in your set, this is something to consider. But, again, if there's doubt then rent it out and see what you think of it before you buy. I'm not forcing you to buy or anything so give it a chance, it might grow on you.