I've been a big fan of Takahashi Rumiko's works and Takahashi Rumiko Theater, or Rumic Theater for short, is no exception. As the synopsis so straightforwardly states, there are a total of thirteen short stories that make up Rumic Theater. In a usual anime, this would fail miserably as twenty minutes is hardly enough time to develop a solid plot AND have character development to boot. However, this isn't just any writer we're talking about - this is Takahashi Rumiko.

The amount of story and character development achieved in each episode is simply astounding. What would take anything else several episodes to accomplish is done so fluidly in a mere twenty minute period. The artwork is also fantastic, and any fan of Takahashi's work will notice how well her drawing style has polished since some of her earlier works like Ranma 1/2, Mermaid's Forest, and Maison Ikkoku.

Unfortunately, such a format as this can introduce quite a few problems that wouldn't normally be present. The sheer amount of characters present in Rumic Theater makes it very difficult to remember any of their names. The only ones I actually remember were from the second episode, mostly because it's almost a mirror image of Ranma 1/2. Yamaguchi Kappei(Ranma) and Hidaka Noriko(Akane) both supply the voices for the two main characters in that particular episode and play the roles of Betto and Yukari, respectively.

Another problem with having so many characters and storylines is that the humor will sometimes miss its mark, and a joke which is meant to be funny will instead be a little dull. Consequently, there are maybe one or two episodes where the material just isn't very funny, but the story and character development in those episodes are still top-notch.