For years theres a stereotype that boys dont like to watch cartoons aimed at girls and that all girls cartoons are crap. Neither of those are true even though they continue to endure to this day. Shows like Sailor Moon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic The Legend of Korra Littlest Pet Shop Pretty Cure and Jewelpet all have male fans who genuinely enjoy them and the shows themselves are genuinely good. But companies dont believe that girl shows can make a buck here in the US. I say screw that In fact we need more girls anime to come to the US and get dubbed if unedited and uncut of course. In fact Viz Media just licensed Sailor Moon and its the number one most watched show on Hulu and preorders for the DVDs are the highest Viz has ever received in history. Someone really needs to take a stand and bring many of these girls anime to the US so preteen girls can watch them and feel for the characters and find out what happens. Jewelpet Twinkle is definitely a gem of a girls anime that really needs to be brought here. Id love to see how the mainstream public reacts to it. Girls arent much different from boys in that they love stories with solid conflict characters they can identify with and root for and good aesops they can learn from them. Now before I begin this is actually the second Jewelpet series that Sanrio made. There is an anime before this but the problem is fansubs for it are pretty much nonexistent and the ones that are there arent complete yet. So our story is about a shy girl named Akari who wishes she could be more outspoken and is sick of everyone comparing her to her super model big sister. But one day she meets a cute white rabbit named Ruby a Jewelpet from a magical place called Jewel Land. Ruby needs a human partner so she can study in the Jewel Academy. Although reluctant at first Akari decides to befriend Ruby and study magic. Magical adventures await them and their friends. I remember watching two episodes of this when it came out but I never got around to finishing it until now. I have to admit the super moe style and the animation arent really much to write home about. They do their job just fine but theres very few moments of facial expression. But I do like the colorful backgrounds the actually NOT clunky CGI and the visuals used for the magic spells. Those are really well done. The Jewelpets do look like theyve had a bit too much plastic surgery but Im sure the little kid watching it wouldnt notice that. The music isnt anything really special either. The opening theme is cute but I think the French version sounds just beautiful the ending theme...not so much. Its a bit too upbeat and moe for my tastes. The background music pieces are nice albeit a teensy bit bland. At least they fit the atmosphere of the scenes theyre supposed to be in instead of killing it Nurse Angel Ririka SOS anyone?. The characters...to be honest I think Akari is the best main character in a girls show ever. She does start off as dull and bland but she really becomes a strong solid well developed character. Gasp She actually finds something shes good at She actually manages to get better at everything she used to suck at before with lots of practice She actually approaches things in a realistic non cheesy way I was blown away by the way the creators developed her and made her grow as a person. Honestly I think shed be a great role model for young girls. Shes super girly but she tries hard has times of weakness doesnt give up and with hard work she succeeds despite a few bumps on the way. But its the other characters that come off as generic. Theyre mostly a bunch of stereotypes the peppy girl the bishounen the ice queen and the bratty kid who flaunts his genius and while they go have days in the limelight some of their development is admittedly a little predictable. Leon suffers the worst of this as hes just a bit too perfect and even in the episodes where he does discover a flaw he still comes off as too perfect to me. The Jewelpets are pretty cute though. But I absolutely ADORE the main villain. I wont say who she is and to be honest she isnt even a villain but her development is awesome and shes a far cry from typical anime villains. I even like the guy Akari has a crush on True he is a tiny bit bland and looks like he could turn into a brooding angsty kid but hes actually quite nice and sensible and he and Akari actually have genuinely good chemistry together and work towards their relationship in a realistic healthy way. However what makes this girls anime awesome is the way it handles its fillers and aesops. Many anime fans decree that all filler episodes are garbage but thats not true. If done right fillers can actually be awesome examples being Popolocrois and this anime. I find that I like filler episodes that focus on developing the characters and know exactly what message they want to send out and thats exactly what Popolocrois and Jewelpet Twinkle do although even Jewelpet isnt immune from a bad episode. I will forever hate episode 40 for having a massive idiot plot featuring an annoying panda. My favorite episodes are 13 30 and 39 the first being about Akari trying to enter a manga competition but backs out due to writers block but she manages to find an alternative and she finds success. The third one is about Akari thinking her parents favor her sister over her which turns out to be not true and episode 39 is just full of heartwarming and scenery porn. Jewelpet Twinkle teaches a lot of great lessons to kids through its storytelling and characters in a sensible way and many of those aesops are: Its okay to be insecure work hard to get what you want theres always another opportunity for everything you can achieve your dreams if you never give up having friends makes life more enlightening and you can be as girly as you like and still be able to do what you like. Yeah this anime is VERY high on cuteness and girliness but it doesnt treat any of that as a bad thing. There are some problems Id like to address though. One thing I never understood was something in episode 8. In that episode Akari meets a girl from 12 years ago and it turns out she traveled through time. But they never explain how this is possible. Also...the ending. Now dont get me wrong I like it for what it is. But without giving anything away theres this REALLY random out of the blue Deus Ex Machina thats just thrown in there for absolutely no purpose than to separate the two main characters. It just felt tacked on and I felt like the episode would be better without said twist. I would have been fine with it if it had been explained in an earlier episode or something like that but they just yank it out of absolutely nowhere for cheap angst. But those are my only main issues with it. If youre looking for a genuinely good anime to show to your little sister niece or daughter make it this one. Its got plenty of cute good stories and good morals...if you can tolerate diabetically cute and cuddly animals.