Tag: female harem

And you thought there is never a girl online? (Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light novel series about… well, it’s one of those where the whole premise is spelled out in the title.

Characters

Nishimura, our male lead, is one of those open nerds who has no issue with spending most of his free time on MMORPGs, and in particular Legendary Age, a med-fan dungeon crawler where he plays a tank knight under the alias of “Rusian”. After getting badly burned a year ago, he’s convinced himself there’s no real girls online.

Ako is the incompetent healer of his regular party, and after insisting for months she finally got him to marry her in-game. The joke is that she is an actual girl (that’s even her real name) ; that weird shy girl in his class who’s basically Watamote‘s Tomoko if she played MMORPG, complete with the utter lack of social skills, and the simmering hatred for “normies” lurking under the surface.

“Apricot”, the party’s black mage leader, is one of those players who spends tons of cash at the in-game store to buy tons of showy stuff. You know the type. Anyway, they suggest an offline meet… and she’s also a high school girl ; most specifically, the student council president.

As for “Schwein”, the party’s other fighter, they turn out to be Segawa, Nishimura’s twin-tailed tsundere classmate (he’s never seen the “dere” part), and doing up to now a great job of passing as a normie. Also, she didn’t know her handle meant “Pig” in German.

Production Values

Perfectly okay, if a bit fanservice-y in some character designs (I hope Ako invested in a strong enough bra).

What did I think of it ?

On the one hand, the joke is nearly perfectly executed. Clearly the writers get the kind of hardcore MMORPG it’s portraying, and it show in all the little cute details. It’s got good comedic timing, the characters have decent chemistry together, and overall it’s a fun joke.

But… laying out the central gag took the whole episode, and there’s little sense of where it can go after that. How do you proceed from there ?

Oh, well, this first episode was good enough that I’m willing to try out a few others to see what’s next. So, mission accomplished !

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2016 – Page 3

Hundred

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Our token magic school/battle harem light novel adaptation of the season.

Characters

Hayato, our bland protagonist, somehow scored compatibility tests with the Hundred (the super-weapons used to fight against stuff) that he’s been fast-tracked to the Little Garden island academy for training, and become a beloved celebrity before even showing up. He’s mostly nonplussed by this, and his only condition was medical care for his ill and possessive little sister.

“Emile”, his new roommate, is just as passionate and possessive, and seems to share some history with him that he doesn’t remember. Also, that’s totally a girl, a fact the show isn’t even subtle about, but somehow Hayato manages to miss despite walking on Emile coming out of the shower. Seriously, it’s really, really obvious ; the only question is whether she’s doing it to get closer to Hayato, or she has other motives besides that.

Claire, the asshole student council president (with the mandatory drill hair), decides to expel on the spot the couple of girls who came late because they were waiting for Hayato at the airport (and he successfully dodged them). With Emile cutting in, this eventually leads to Hayato being challenged to a duel by her to prevent the three of them from being expelled.

Production Values

Other clue that Emile is a girl : the camera keeps perving on her. Not that those battle suits leave much to the imagination.

What did I think of it ?

Oh, dear. My kryptonite genre, and its worst clichés are already piling up like clockwork. (At least they don’t even try and pretend that Hayato is an underdog.) I’m actually mildly interested by what’s going on with Emile, but since that would entail watching more of Hayato being a complete non-entity of a protagonist…

Nope, just nope. Not bothering with any more of this.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2016 – Page 3

Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue (Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Oh, another visual novel adaptation which crosses over with the sports genre ! Except this one has a male target audience.

Characters

Interestingly, our main character for now is Asuka, the ditzy cheerful girl. She’s just now getting into Flying Circus, a sports that involves sommersaulting around with flying shoes.

The game’s male lead, Masaya, is relegated to a support role for now : he’s brooding in the background about how he used to be good at FC until a fateful incident two years ago, and offers a few useful pointers (as well as recognizes Asuka’s innate talent).

There are other girls. Kinda tells you how much I payed attention, eh ?

Production Values

Well, it certainly does the job of selling a definite sense of wonder about flying in general, and Flying Circus in particular.

Also, magic skirts are thankfully in effect.

Overall Impression

Zzzzzzz… Sorry, I just don’t care. The characters are very boring, Masaya’s angst is laughable, and the spectacle inherent to the gimmicky sport isn’t enough to carry the show on its own.

I’ll pass.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 4

Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle (Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a “magic school” light novel series, because there must always be at least one each season.

Characters

Lux, the male lead, used to be a prince of the Empire of Arcadia until it got overthrown by a rebellion and got replaced by something vaguely more egalitarian (with a magic academy to train a new elite). Because light novel crap, his first scene involves accidentally breaking into a female bath, because of course it is. But he’s totally a nice dude, we swear !

Lisesharte is the girl he stumbles right in front of, and rightfully incensed. Wait, they still have princesses in the new regime ? Because she’s one, somehow. Anyway, cue the inevitable duel.

Of course, despite all this mayhem Lux still gets enrolled into the academy, where he’s about to meet a whole set of haremettes, heavily showcased in the credits.

Production Values

Decent enough, I guess ; I’ve already forgotten about it.

Overall Impression

On the one hand, the show does make an attempt at setting up an halfway interesting geopolitical background that had me mildly interested. But then we’re already back to the same old trite clichés, which are EXACTLY why I’m so down on the “magic school” subgenre on principle : it’s an excuse for the writers to get lazy and pad their story out with one-size-fits-all hijinks. It’s not even a particularly good execution of those, either.

Also, I half fell asleep while watching this, can barely remember any of it, and stalled for days before getting around to writing it up. I think my subconscious is telling me something there. Like, really not to bother with this one.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 4

Girls Beyond the Wasteland (Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a visual novel about highschool students producing a visual novel.

Characters

Buntarou, our male lead, is your usual “helps out everyone” aimless high-school student, but at least he’s got good banter with his friends. Since this is a VN adaptation, it takes the slow approach of making us spend a lot of time with him just going about his day before the plot finally gets introduced. We do learn that he has some decent writing talent, but moreover he’s good at taking charges during crisis and making everyone work together while assuaging egos. All skills that should be invaluable later on.

His close friends include Yuuka, his tomboy childhood friend with a talent for acting, and Atomu, the third wheel who’s doomed to fade into the background.

Kuroda is a weird girl who keeps checking him out. After a tense not-date, she eventually reveals she’s been scouting him for her VN-making circle. She’s very driven about it, viewing it as her future career rather than just something to keep busy during high school. That, er, may be a bit over-optimistic, but hey, this is a wish-fulfilment fantasy.

Production Values

Perfectly okay.

Overall Impression

It’s your average “school club” series, basically. Its origin means that it’s more interested in setting up the long game than rushing through particularly noteworthy sequences ; as a result, it lacks some punch to really catch the audience’s attention.

I’m willing to give it a second episode to see whether it picks up a bit, but as a Thursday show it’s facing fierce competition for my time.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 3

Fall 2015 capsules

Also deserving a mention is Lupin III: L’avventura Italiana, the first new proper Lupin III TV series in ages. As it turns out, the franchise has been very popular in the Italian market, so why not make a new series that’s actually set there for maximum pandering ? (It’s already been airing over there for the last couple of months.)

This is actually better than it sounds, since Lupin III’s shtick involves globe-trotting as a matter of course anyway. I thus have no issue whatsoever for his gang to show up in Italy for a random caper, and then stick around there for a while. The token new Italian semi-regular character does bring some added spice into the well-worn character dynamics, too.

This is the point where I have to admit I haven’t watched much Lupin III at all ; it got big well before my time and I’ve always found the franchise’s sheer size a bit intimidating. I do plan on checking out the highlights such as Castle of Cagliostro in due time, but so far my exposure is mostly limited to The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, which was very atypical indeed.

This series is a much more conventional entry point, with pleasant kid-friendly adventures that have enough of an edge to entertain adults too. And heck, I’m a sucker for heist shows anyway, so I have every reason to watch this. (Miyuki Sawashiro voicing a very delicious Fujiko is the cherry on the cake.)

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015

 

Hacka Doll the Animation is a series of shorts adapting… a news phone app ? Seriously ? It’s certainly not a ringing endorsement, as it stars a trio of bumbling AIs who completely fail to be of any use to their hapless owner. Which is actually mildly funny, all told, as they’ve got good comedic timing together. Very dumb, but entertaining enough for me to give it another episode. (After all, it’s only 8 minutes a week.)

 

Oh, and Noragami is back ! It’s still as stylish as ever (that god-tier Taku Iwasaki score !), although this episode spends a lot of time recapping the premise, the main characters, and the basics of the Hato/Bishamon feud which is apparently going to take center stage. But so far, so good.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015

 

Lovely Muco (Itoshi no Muco) are 12-minute shorts about the daily life of the titular dog, Muco. There were actually two previous anime series adapting this manga, but only as 2-minute shorts padding the schedule ; this is a back-to-basics reboot that requires no previous knowledge. And in any case, the OP sequence displays just about everything you’d want to know about the character dynamics (including from the cast who have yet to show up).

It’s a very simplistic, family-friendly show about Muco being a cute dog, and the communication failures with her laid-back master. It’s mildly entertaining, but I keep having the nagging feeling I’m at least two decades older than the target audience. The animation is very limited, but sells the jokes well enough for a gag show. And it certainly knows how to make a dog look expressive.

 

Kagewani are 8-minute horror shorts about a crypto-zoologist investigating monster sightings instead of, you know, actually teaching his college classes. But most of the episode is devoted to one of those “celebrity” monster hunters who’s busy faking one such sighting until things go very badly when his team encounter the real thing.

What makes this show stand out is the rotoscoped animation ; together with the overbearing colour filters and the nervous shakycam often at awkward angles, it gives off a strong “found footage” flavour. Unfortunately, it also looks like crap. (Which, I guess, completes the “found footage” look.) And frankly, it’s not particularly compelling, funny or scary ; it just doesn’t work for me at all.

 

K – Return of Kings if off to a rather mixed bag for its second season. It’s even more visually impressive than ever (how much budget do they spend on those super-kinetic fight scenes ?), although I’m getting tired of the camera switching to pervert mode whenever Awashima’s on screen. But the script seems intent on being as confusing as possible, starting off with an overly-long gratuitous fight scene that’s set before the first series, for some reason (as evidenced by the presence of the dude who got killed in the first episode), and then it switches without warning to the post-movie status quo. (Which, admittedly, isn’t very complicated ; “the gothloli is the new Red King, and the Greens are now attacking everyone and being jerks for some reason”.) Hopefully it’ll find its footing back soon enough.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 2

 

Young Kindaichi’s Casefile Returns Again has been off to a good start. Actually, I’m slightly weirded out that we start immediately on the trail of the recurring villain introduced at the end of last season (Kindaichi’s usually more about one-off mysteries than ongoing storylines), but it’s a good way to keep the stakes high, especially as the supporting cast are all there and have something to do. And, well, I have a sweet tooth for mysteries, so I’m all for this.

 

Speaking of which, Owarimonogatari opens with a double-length episode that’s basically a lovely done-in-one closed-room mystery. It’s awesome. And despite how much Ararararagi has become the weak link in this show over time, he’s actually quite fun here, as Ougi leaves him absolutely no room to fall back on his usual excesses. This was a very good opener indeed, and setting a high bar for the season.

 

Attack on Titan – Junior High is very, very stupid. It probably doesn’t make much sense unless you’ve watched the main series. (Or, heck, read the manga, if the Ymir/Krista material is any indication.) What it does right, though, is being at least mildly funny most of the time ; and it’s having a lot of funny playing with Sawano’s bombastic score and the original anime’s direction for maximum comedic effect. At least for one episode, the joke works.

 

Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan is a gag manga adaptation about a childlike hotsprings fairy meddling with teenagers’ love life. In three minutes it makes its point, namely that it’s the same romantic comedy beats I’ve already seen hundreds of time, without any particular spark. Pass.

 

Miss Komori Can’t Decline! (Komori-san wa Kotowarenai!), on the other hand, does manage to spin a few decent laughs out of its premise. Unfortunately, it looks like crap and barely lasts 2 minutes. Oh, well.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 2

AntiMagic Academy 35th Test Platoon (Taimadou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Oh goody : this is the third light novel adaptation about teenagers in magical high school this season. Third time’s the charm ?

Characters

Uh, the AntiMagic Academy is a more interesting setting than most of its ilk : it’s an explicit military training facility, preparing the next generation of witch-hunting inquisitors. Students are divided into Platoons, who go onto proper field missions all the time.

Takeru, our male lead, heads the titular 35th Test Platoon. They’re known as complete screw-ups who keep idling around instead of performing their missions. His laid-back leadership may be part of the issue… or maybe it’s the only way to handle such a rag-tag of misfits.

Usagi, the sniper, always gets distracted and can’t aim for crap. Suginami, the mission control, spends more time teasing them than actually giving them intelligence. (And her hacking always gives them more trouble than it’s worth.) Also, they’re kinda lacking a proper heavy hitter.

Enter Ouka. Who used to be a proper graduated inquisitor, but got sent back to training after she turned out to be way too intense and lethal on her missions. The academy make a point of assigning her to the 35th Test Platoon ; she doesn’t get it, and keeps soloing everything anyway. While she is very good at witch-hunting, she’s way too vicious about it, and it leads to an immediate clash with her “teammates”.

Production Values

You can always count on studio Silver Link to make a show look better than average ; not so much with the animation than with the colour design.

Overall Impression

This is a complete shock : I actually quite liked this. WHY ? Let’s take a review :
– Making the setting explicitly military-based shifts the plot beats to something more palatable. There’s virtually none of the standard high school tropes at play here. Even the “competition” between platoons (with explicit points) is framed around real-world missions that give a clear indication of what the academy is grooming its trainees for. (Instead of generic tournaments with no obvious purpose but having super-powered teenagers let off steam.)
– We come to a nearly fully-formed cast. Instead of “Here’s our male lead encountering a bunch of potential haremettes in quick succession”, it’s “here’s our fight unit, which happens to have one dude and three girls”. The one dude feels a lot less special and singled out by the narrative. Focusing the episode on only those four and the bare minimum of supporting cast also helps out.
– It’s quite fast-paced. In one episode, we get the whole cast introduced, two missions, already some character development, and foreshadowing for the antagonists. As it turns out, cutting down on the cliché fluff and being mercifully light on techno-babble leaves out a lot of room for actual stuff to happen.
– There’s a lot of good casting. Yoshimasa Hosoya is a very interesting choice for the male lead, as his baseline is “angry dude”. Takeru is way more nice than his average, but there’s still a heavy subtext of barely-contained anger to his interpretation. Which gives him an edge over most of his type. Also, having Ryoko Shiraishi and Rumi Ookubo for the comedy sidekicks is always a boon, as they know their stuff.
– Nobody’s a princess.

None of this is rocket science ; and it’s not like this is a great show by any regards. (For one, it still has a “dude falls onto the tsundere’s breasts” gag.) But it’s all little touches that make it a show that I’m actually mildly interested in following, instead of just wanting to strangle the writers for their laziness.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 4

I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner (Ore ga Ojousama Gakkou ni “Shomin Sample” Toshite Gets♥Sareta Ken)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light novel series about… well, that’s the nice thing about the premise being laid out in an awfully long title.

Characters

Kimito, our protagonist, is a completely ordinary high school student. One day, he’s suddenly abducted by a bunch of MIBs, who turn out to be the agents of a secret and elite academy for super-rich girls. The principal lays out their conundrums : the academy’s alumni are so sheltered that they don’t resist contact with the real world, and become agoraphobic shut-ins. So the idea is now to gently break the students in by having them interact with the one guy carefully selected by the staff. And just to be on the safe side, they got a gay dude.

… Which is news to Kimito ; it seems his childhood friend trolled the MIBs while they were researching him. But given the alternatives (with the distinct threat of castration), he’s not going to protest his heterosexuality too much.

Reiko, as class representative of the first-year class Kimito is now attending, helps out a bit to prevent him getting mobbed in. She’s just as sheltered and naive as the lot of them, though.

Aika is another girl he runs into (cue accidental groping, because of course). She’s even more proactive about learning “commoner” stuff from him, as she sees it as the panacea to her socialization troubles. And hey, the two of them already have decent chemistry as friends within a few minutes.

Production Values

Okay enough, I guess. And just about as much fanservice as you’d expect from the premise.

Overall Impression

Urgh. Some of the individual bits are okay enough, and it goes out of its way to avoid the common ojou-sama stereotypes, but there’s not getting around the fact that the latent homophobia inherent to the premise and much of the gags really, really bugs me. And that’s a complete deal-breaker for me.

I’m out.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 4

Asterisk War – The Academy City on the Water (Gakusen Toshi Asterisk)

(12 episodes + another season already announced for Spring 2016)

What’s it about ?

You may have noticed over the years I’ve been doing this that there’s a specific subgenre I can’t stand and will take a lot of work to make me care about : the light novel adaptation about teenagers in magical high school, with tons of gratuitous fighting and technobabble.

Well, lucky me : there’s three of them this season, and this is the first one.

Characters

Ayato, our boring male lead, is a new transfer into this magical academy, and thus everyone happily exposits to him how everything works here and in the world. Not that he really cares ; and I can’t really blame him, since I don’t either. He’s vaguely following the footsteps of his older sister, whose stay at the academy 5 years ago was apparently so tumultuous that records have been expunged (and the action prologue certainly seems to concur with this)… Wait, that sounds way more interesting than anything else in the current timeframe. Why are we following HIM instead of HER ? It’s not even like he’s passionate about finding out what happened to her !

Julis, our token tsundere love interest. With fire-related powers, of course. And even a literal princess from some random European country, because of course monarchy has made a resurgence in the future somehow. Cue avalanche of terrible romantic comedy clichés : him walking on her while she’s in her underwear, the token magic duel where he ends up cradling her and grabbing her boobs by total accident, them being forced to sit next to one another in class…

Claudia, the scheming student council president. She’s intent on getting on board for the inter-academy magical tournaments (for reasons that escape me, since he looks like nothing special so far), and she goes about this through a fix of friendliness, helpful exposition, and downright sexual assault and trolling.

In case you’re wondering, the mandatory pervert best friend does show up in due time, just in time for more clunky exposition.

Production Values

Decent enough, I guess ? The camera is firmly stuck into pervert mode, though.

Overall Impression

Have I mentioned why I heavily dislike this subgenre ? Well, it’s because most of them are crap like this : uninspired, tedious, heavily derivative, and relying on clichés to make up for the lack of creativity. All of the characters are annoying (aside from Claudia, who’s just creepy), the jokes should have been retired decades ago, and the plot seems to be heading nowhere but towards a generic tournament arc. This show has absolutely nothing to it beyond the wish-fulfilment value, but that’s completely lost on me.

And this has already been greenlit for two seasons ? Dear gods. Well, I’m not sticking around, that’s for sure.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 2

Everyday Life with Monster Girls (Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a harem romantic comedy manga series. Warning : this is often borderline softcore porn.

Characters

Kurusu, our protagonist, is an ordinary dude whose life got upended when he became a “Host” for the Semihuman Cultural Exchange program : basically, the monster-people who had remained hidden by the governments until a few years ago are now mingling with humans so as to achieve peaceful coexistence.

Miia, his charge, is a lamia (half-snake) girl. She appreciates him not recoiling in horror at her sight and is very affectionate… maybe a bit too much, as her affections and attempts to snuggle often end up with her strangling him.

Ms Smith is the government agent in charge of supervising Miia’s stay. She’s very obnoxious on monitoring them, although this is presumably partly to cover up her own mistake (as Kurusu didn’t volunteer, and Miia got to him by error). She’s very keen on enforcing the “no sex” rule, too.

The OP and promotional material promise that more monster girls will show up soon and join the regular cast.

Production Values

Very, very fanservicey indeed, with next to no censorship. You’ll get to see nearly every inch of Miia’s body.

Overall Impression

You know a show has its priorities straight when it starts off with a three-minute-long “snuggling in bed” scene, continues with a bath scene, and only after that bothers to explain the plot in a few quick flashbacks. The episode also manages to visit a lingerie store and a love hotel.

I’m sure this appeals to people with certain fetishes, but I found it rather boring. The “racism is bad, m’kay” subtext feels rather perfunctory, and the contrived reason for the constant cock-blocking makes the numerous foreplay scenes more frustrating than arousing. It certainly stopped being funny very early on.

Let’s be frank : I nearly fell asleep watching this. I just don’t care, and won’t be pursuing it any further.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 5