Gakkatsu
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a badly animated teacher
Well, at the very least the utterly horrid flash shows are getting better. Don’t get me wrong, this was still far from good, but it does spend much more time into actually animating its characters and make things move, rather than High Score or Haiyoru Nyaruani which just were a bunch of still frames with moving mouths. These five minutes actually had some decent direction and camera work. The soundtrack actually was energetic, the dialogue was delivered with some actual energy, rather than trying to be as annoying as possible. But yeah, what’s this series about? An overly enthusiastic teacher with strange ideas like trying to rename that bump that some people have on their wrists. There was some nice dialogue in this episode that makes it a good gimmick for one episode, but it’s still got no chance to actually be worthwhile in the long run. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that these shows are actually getting better, but they still have a long way to go.
OP: Surprisingly catchy…
Potential: 10%
Ozuma
Short Synopsis: Our lead character runs into a cute girl.
Clumsy, is how I’d describe this first episode of Ozuma. It definitely doesn’t win points in the build-up or execution. It feels like the characters all read their lines a little too fast, and this show doesn’t seem familiar of the concept of pauses between lines. The animation also is quite poor and I really expected more of Ryousuke Takahashi. On the other hand though, we’ve got a very strong contender for the best character designs of the season (which probably can only be contested by Saint Seiya and Lupin; yes, I know they’re all remakes of past character designs. I can’t help it that most characters look the same nowadays), along with an interesting setting focused on all sorts of desert vehicles. This really is meant as an homage to the Matsumoto Leiji series. This unfortunately means that if you’re not familiar with him, you’ll probably miss a lot here. Despite the flaws though, the end of this episode did give me that vibe I’ve had with some of his other stories. Let’s see whether this one can develop into something interesting in just six episodes, however it really has to fix the poor acting for that. It’s not like every character here is badly acted, but there is some pretty bad stuff among them.
OP: Dull J-Rock
ED: The singing isn’t bad, but the song is a bit boring and it’s just another dull slideshow mostly comprising of only the females in the series. Show some of the guys for god’s sake.
Potential: 60%
Hiiro no Kakera
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a princess who needs to be protected by hot bishies.
Studio Deen has always been the most prominent producer of shoujo series. So yeah, when they decline, it’s no wonder that the entire genre takes a nose-dive. With Hiiro no Kakera they’re basically making the same show yet again. This pretty much is another Hakuouki or Brave 10, only this time things take place in modern times. The bishies here are the same bishies that you see in all those other series. The execution is the same as ever and does very little to entertain. I have to give the series this: it does know how to build up an atmosphere, and at least the writing is better than usual with these series. The animation however…was really bad here. There is movement, but that movement is incredibly awkward. The worst was when one of the characters tried to do a somersault and instead randomly slowly floats into the air for three seconds. That’s also a case of bad direction here: there are no attempts made to make things look better or more interesting than they actually are. The only thing that the graphics have going for them is that the backgrount artists are really good, but that too seems wasted here with this lackluster execution. When was the last time we had a good reverse harem anyway? Yumeiro Patissiere?
Potential: 15%
Woah woah woah! Wait a second here….There are good reverse harems?! I thought those were like myths.
Fruits Basket, Saiunkoku Monogatari, Pretear, Yumeiro Patissiere, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge.
If we expand this to series where a female lead meets a lot of “hot” guys: Ashita no Nadja, Escaflowne, Please Save my Earth and Skip Beat.
I don’t know about Pretear, but almost all of the series that you’re mentions are either manga/novel adaptations or anime original, none of them are based on dating-sims game(otome game)for female players which are nowdays bishies series like hakuoki, utapri, and this hiiro no kakera are based on, so yeah I think you get the difference there psgels why these kind of series, especially that comes from deen lately tend to suck anyway. The worst part is, these series sells like hotcakes so you’ll definetely going to see a lot of this otome-game based anime in the future from now on.
Fruits Basket isn’t a harem, at least, it isn’t in my eyes. It sets up fairly early on that Kyo and Tohru are going to end up together in the end, Yuki ends up viewing Tohru as a mother figure, and the only other male that likes Tohru romantically is Momiji (and even then it is left purely at a crush level).
The rest of the characters are positively influenced by Tohru in some way, but it is in no way a reverse harem, since all of the other characters have someone that they romantically love that is not Tohru.
I agree with Pretear though, and the other ones you listed I haven’t watched, so I can’t say whether they are or not.
They kept up the Kyo/Tohru/Yuki triangle for as long as they could, in the manga at least. The only thing that made it obvious who Tohru would end up with is shoujo msngs conventions (which Vampire Knight, of all things, broke, lol).
On the other hand, you are right, though I’d still count it since she’s surrounded by them, but that’s just a matter of definitions.
Really, I thought that the Kyo/Yuki/Tohru triangle roughly started coming undone, or started coming to an end, right around the end of volume eight, this is when Tohru goes after Kyo when he is in his monster form and around the beginning of volume nine, when the Student Council members start becoming far more important and the ship teasing for Yuki and Machi really begins. That is fairly early on for a series that has 23 volumes and which had some chapters that were not even devoted to a Kyo/Tohru/Yuki triangle at all.
After that, the focus ends up becoming less on Kyo/Tohru/Yuki and more on these individual characters growing and making their way towards romantic relationships (Kyo/Tohru, Yuki/Machi).
As for the other characters, most of them were men, but Tohru also interacted quite often with female characters as well, such as: Uo, Hanajima, Kisa, Kagura, Rin, and etc.
These characters (male and female) would meet Tohru, she would have a positive influence on them, and then we would watch them grow and change, though often on their own and Tohru was not always present when these things happened.
And then, yes, I guess it would come down to your definition of a harem series. For me, that constitutes a series in which the main focus is placed on a bunch of females (or in the case of a reverse harem, a bunch of males) trying to get in a guys pants (or get together with a girl).
Since only two of the guys in Fruits Basket actually wanted to be with Tohru romantically, and Yuki states fairly early on that he sees her in a more motherly light, I definitely wouldn’t consider Fruits Basket a harem. It also focuses a lot on simply developing characters in various ways and through various circumstances.
So, when I think harem, or reverse harem, Fruits Basket never pops into my mind. Ever.
>Yumeiro Patissiere
>reverse harem
WOAH HERE. What did I miss? Kashino was Ichigo’s one and only love interest, save for Johnny in that stupid sequel. (Hanabusa too lame to be considered.)
Escaflowne and Skip Beat aren’t reverse harems, they have love triangles, that’s all! The best reverse harem out there must be Saiunkoku Monogatari, closely followed by Ouran High School Host Club. Btw, have you ever watched Ouran, psgels?
I don’t think psgels really liked Ouran High School Host Club that much otherwise he probably would’ve mentioned it off the top of his head, which is a shame, IMHO. I think Ouran leaves almost all those other reverse harems in the dust. Haruhi Fujioka is so refreshing, and she’s not afraid to call the students at Ouran High rich bastards! Of all things! She’s probably the least pretentious girl in anime since Tohru maybe? Tamaki Suou is a genius and a genteel fella, yet he’s never held a hammer before in his life? What…
He has a major crush on Haruhi, and yet is only able to see Haruhi less than 2% of the day? That’s just hilarious and sad at the same time! It makes me laugh and cry so hard!
I think I’ll always be overwhelmingly positive about OuranHSHC, since the show perfectly captures what love was like for me during high school when I was surrounded by a harem of guys at school (Yes, I was actually surrounded by a harem of guys believe it or not, and it felt very much like being Haruhi surrounded by the host club.)
*Ahem* However, I agree a good reverse harem is rare, and a brilliant one is even rarer if not almost non-existant.
Well, I’m sure Hana Yori Dango would fit as a very good if not brilliant reverse harem.
Err, would Ristorante Paradiso count, haha?
Hana Yori Dango is awesome, how could I forget! I think psgels would enjoy it, since he was a shoujo fan and it’s good shoujo we’re talking about.
I’m thinking this anime is more oriented to people that has played the game.
About “One of the characters tried to do a somersault and instead randomly slowly floats into the air for three seconds”, people who has played the game will think this is actually normal since that character is a half demon crow.
I wonder if this anime will end with a reverse harem like Utapri, Utapri game and the game that this anime based on actually don’t have a harem route.
The group doing the Ozuma opening is actually Korean and they even sang an Engrish version of the opening for the Crunchyroll/ViKi streams of the show. So it is dull K-Rock.
I’ve never seen any of the Matsumoto Leiji series, nor have I seen any of Ryousuke Takahashi’s work. With that said, I really enjoyed this efficient, fast-paced, adventurous romp. In my mind, the character design is “retro” or “throwback”, much like Cobra the Animation a couple years back. I didn’t watch this with a sharp analytical eye; I just enjoyed the ride.
Still, I couldn’t stop making comparisons to Nausicaa, which is the oldest anime I’ve ever watched. Post-apocalyptic desert world, check; huge mysterious creatures roaming said world, check; a remote and placid land, check; a cold-hearted interloping military, check; a princess on the run, check; and a strong young lead (male in this case) who loves the freedom of the sands (rather than the skies) and is intrigued by said creatures.
As Nausicaa is one of my favorite works of anime, despite its flaws, the idea of an anime – even a brief, six-episode one – that shares so many of its thematic and aesthetic qualities definitely appeals to me, and the pilot has made me excited about what’s to come. It exuded an old-school look and feel that really drew me in.