Copyright © 1997 AIC / Photon Project

PHOTON is puerile, gratuitous and downright goofy. It is also really fun to watch!
Created by the same design team responsible for TENCHI MUYO!, PHOTON features the same formula: a hen-pecked guy assaulted by cute girls fighting for his affection and intergalactic villains seeking his destruction. However, PHOTON has a central character who is much more physically powerful than the occasionally feckless Tenchi, plus this show has a sense of humor that is at once more adult and more immature.
Don't get me wrong, PHOTON is funny —provided you don't mind comedy that occasionally centers around inexplicable nudity. At least once in the two episodes I watched, every character was separated from their clothes. Even the main bad guy spent five minutes on screen wearing only a strategically placed black dot.
Of course, pointless nudity is hardly the most important element of PHOTON's humor (it's just the most blatant, err, part). The best thing about PHOTON is its delightful characters and the hilariously bizarre situations they find themselves in.
Our hero is Photon Earth, a quiet and good-natured young man who lives on Sandy Planet at the edge of the galaxy (what is it with these desert planets in anime anyways?) Fortunately, Photon has superhuman strength and the curious ability to be unaffected by energy blasts. He has sworn to protect Aun, the local chieftain's bratty and bossy younger daughter who has the strange power to stop time whenever she gets stressed out. When Aun runs away to chase after a pop singer she has become infatuated with, Photon takes off to bring her back, carrying along his trusty staff and the box he likes to sleep in.
Meanwhile, a shapely female rebel named Keyne Aqua is desperately trying to escape the clutches of the evil intergalactic Empire's chief henchman, Papacha. The villainous and vain Papacha, assisted by his coterie of weird little minions called Pochis (that sort of look and sound like Clefairies from POKÉMON), manages to shoot down Keyne's ship and she crash lands on Sandy Planet. When Photon is himself shot off his landspeeder by Aun, he stumbles onto Keyne's crash site. Using the holy relic of his tribe—a magic marker (don't ask) -- Photon accidentally gets himself engaged to Keyne. (I won't even try to describe how Photon manages this, it's just too ridiculous and hilarious.) The rest of the show features Photon in his modest way keeping his promise to protect both nasty Aun and lovely Keyne from Papacha's machinations.
Oh, there's also the obligatory small rabbit-like creature in this show too. I'm not sure what role it plays yet, except to look cute...
PHOTON is splendidly animated, with lots of fast-paced action and tremendously expressive characters. Every scene is bright and lively, full of color and frenetic movement. This vibrant animation also clearly helps PHOTON's slapstick humor; whether it depicts the underdressed Keyne's trying to shoot a bouncing Photon or Aun pummeling the perverted Papacha, the smooth and energetic animation masterfully captures the comic activity onscreen.
The soundtrack is a pleasantly light-hearted accompaniment of Spanish guitars and the erstwhile harmonica. The dub is appropriately over-the-top as the voice actors nicely accentuate their characters to match the exaggerated expressions onscreen. Suzy Prue who handled Keyne did a particularly good job with her husky voice creating a pleasant counterpoint to Scott Cargle's cleverly understated Photon. My only complaint is that nobody translated the brief song between Aun's rock star crush and some other woman, which I gathered from the characters' expressions and vocal arrangements was probably pretty ludicrous.
At the risk of becoming repetitive, let me say this one more time: PHOTON is great fun! Sure, it might come with a warning label for viewers under 13, but nevertheless this show is too cute and funny to ignore. If you need a good laugh after a long day, stick PHOTON in your VCR, sit back and enjoy some wild and wacky entertainment.

Released in North America by U.S. Manga Corps
VHS, 60 minutes
Catalog: USM 1844
$19.99
Available in the U.S. May 9, 2000
Where to buy