There’s a certain pattern that some 13-episode series follow. It’s mostly apparent in Kemonozume. The first X episodes of the series rather goof off with random side-quests, funny fillers, etc. And then at one episode, a huge twist comes and the anime suddenly turns serious, starts working towards its major climax, and the overall atmosphere suddenly feels much tenser. Generally, I don’t like these, as they’re just way too forced and directed. Makai Senki Disgaea is one of the few series which actually did such a twist right up till now. And I’m glad to see that Niea Under 7 can be added to this small list.
This series starts out as a comedy-series. We’ve got this poor cram school student (Mayuko) who has a very annoying alien living in her closet. The fact that the two of them are almost polar opposites makes sure that the two of them keep bickering against each other whenever they meet. This provides some pretty funny and hilarious situations. But that’s not the thing that made me interested in this anime.
The best thing of this series really is Mayuko’s situation. Not only is she a cram school student, she also is incredibly poor, she can’t rely on her parents, she’s shy, and she has to work very hard. Her worries about her situation definitely made this show worth watching. The addition of comedy turned this into a very enjoyable watch. A huge focus is money-struggles. None of the characters appearing in this anime is a huge money-maker, and you can see that even at the places Mayuko works part-time at. This means that whenever a roof gets distroyed, it doesn’t magically fix itself in the next shot, like in most anime. No, here, this roof spends most of its time in the anime being broken, until it finally gets the chance to be fixed.
The style of the character art also is one you won’t see in the anime appearing currently anymore. It’s a pity, since I like the style and it’s by no means low-budget. It’s definitely a sign that anime is changing.
Still, there are a few bad points about NieA Under 7. It did a very good job in not taking any risks by not forcing too many conveniently-timed plot-twists, but because of this, it doesn’t take all the chances that are presented to it. It could have been more. Mayuko could have been better developed. We could have seen more of her struggles, though this anime decided to keep things simple.]]>
NieA Under 7 Review – 76/100
I personally loved NieA_7! Great kinda-slice-of-life show. 😉 Hope some more people give the show a chance after your review!
Keep up the good job on old show reviews (like Figure17 and this)!
This anime is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s characters are crap, NieA is so annoying because all she does is whinge and whine, and is totally useless, it’s so BORING and not entertaining at all and the ending sucks. It doesn’t explain why the spaceship disappeared, or why it was there in the first place, the creators have no imagination whatsoever and are obviously quite incompetant. A terrible anime.
Thanks for the good writeup. It in truth was a entertainment account it. Look complicated to far added agreeable from you! By the way, how could we keep in touch?