Starry Sky

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Reverse harem setup : formerly exclusively male academy is now co-ed, although there’s only one female student right now. Each episode focuses on a different male student, with a parallel to the zodiac constellations (although they’ve introduced a 13rd one for some reason). Apparently this school only teaches astronomy- or astrology-related fields.

Characters :

Tsukiko Yahisa, our female lead. Nearly no screentime so far.

Yoh Tomoe, Capricorn. This is a pseudonym : his actual name’s Henri Samuel Jean Aimee (sic). Half-French, choosing to go back to Japan in order to find a girl he fell in love with a decade ago. His parents approve (it’s implied his father did something similar way back when).

There are other various classmates, including a very enthusiastic Mr Exposition, but none of them got any names yet.

Production Values :

Low. It’s a net anime, and the animation is quite minimal (not to the degree of Nyaruani, though). It doesn’t look particularly good, but this could be my personal distaste for standard shojo character designs. Also, the episodes are only 11-minute-long.

Overall Impression :

Dull, dull, dull. There’s no real conflict yet, and the plot barely gets started at all. I can’t sympathize with Capricorn-guy, and the girl is a non-entity so far. Frankly, I doubt I’d manage to watch another episode without falling asleep.

But then, I clearly don’t care for the genre ; if you’re more into it than me, you could find some value to this show (it’s got a pretty impressive voice cast, for example).

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011.

Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love(craft-sensei)

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Standard harem setup, type B : young dude has cute girls leaving at his home for undisclosed reasons. Except they’re all anthropomorphic personifications of Lovecraftian Elder Ones.

Characters :

Mahiro, our male lead, appears quite bemused by the whole thing (it’s obviously not his choice). Dreading whatever next those crazy girls are going to do.

Nyarlko, our female lead, tries to play the magical girlfriend, despite the whole Elder One thing. Actually ends up overshadowed by her more colourful “siblings”. Obviously has some sort of nefarious agenda, but the show’s not telling.

Chtuko. Totally into Nyarlko.

Further episodes introduce Atoko (“nice” older sister, but with a filthy, filthy mind) and Nyarle (very, very shy).

Production values :

I had to check this wasn’t the Flash ONA that was produced a few months ago. Let’s be clear, this is barely animated at all (although it’s far from horrible looking). Also, the episodes are 4-minute-long… scratch that, if you remove the standard warning and the ED, you’ve barely got 2 minutes of actual footage per episode.

Overall Impression :

On paper, this sounded like a trainwreck. (Moe adaptation of the Lovecraft Mythos ? WTF ?) In practice, this is strangely endearing : the show is clearly aware that the setup makes no sense (and doesn’t spend any time trying to explain it, actually). There’s clear sense of impending doom, the least subtle sign of which being the “XX days until mankind’s extinction” announcement at the end of each episode.

I don’t really think it’s going anywhere (it’s too short for that), but as a mindless joke it works. And hey, it’s only a few minutes of your time.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011.