Pani Poni Dash!

Pani Poni Dash!: B+

Another series directed by my favorite director in the Anime business, Akiyuki Shinbo, though one of his earlier works.  Like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (which Shinbo also directed), it is a slice of life series taking place at a high school and focusing on a very unusual teacher and their collection of very unusual (and predominantly female) students, and, like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, it makes extensive use of cultural reference, non sequitur humor and absurdity (though for the western viewer, cultural reference and absurdity often seem like the same thing).  Pani Poni Dash! (a name which does not make sense after you've seen the series) revolves around the students of Rebecca Miyamoto, a ten-year-old genius who has returned to Japan to teach high school.

As a slice of life series, there isn't enough plot to speak of, which does make room for more humor, misunderstandings and general comedic sociopathy among the cast.  It's fun and doesn't take itself seriously, the characters manage to be both caricatures and individuals at the same time and overall the humor holds up very well so long as you don't try to catch every single reference the series throws out.

All that said, it's a difficult series to recommend to people.  It's not brilliant, but it's good for a laugh, it's not lavishly animated but it's never painful to watch, and while I have very few criticisms of it I'm not entirely sure what sort of person absolutely must see this series.  I suppose if I had to criticize it I'd say that it doesn't really go anywhere: not that it really has anywhere it needs to go, it's a slice of life show.

So I guess in short: if you're into watching truly bizarre high school-ish antics, check it out.  If you're looking for something with a bit more story and meaning, skip it.