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| Episode Details | |
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| 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 | |
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 7 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 7 |
 Xenoknight
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[series:1007#2967] |
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Whats with this? Please tell me this is not just some stupid silly-funny anime. It is really stupid how the events start off. I'm turned off already but I have to see if it will get better. It's still stupid as hell. Such potential story wasted - if only it was a little more serious!!! Well now at least he is single again, giving the story a chance to proceed. Its still slap-stick and I laugh here and there but no positives to mention except an ok intro/end music plus solid animation and design. Well well well, its about time. Episode 4 is the REAL start of this anime. Though the slap-stick is still unavoidable, the story jumped several hundred points in one episode. Needless to say that its interesting now as 3 girls are more or less ready to fight for the main lead, one of which is an old flame. (if you can even call what they had a flame) Slap-stick everywhere is really tough to deal with but the story is right where it should be and things are heating up for the main lead. Where the teacher came from and why she is so open about everything (if you know what I mean - LOL) is still undetermined but she does help force the girls into the right situations, at least for the audiences' fan-service elements and for the main lead. (^ ^) Things get even more heated for the main lead when he determines that all three of his "problems" all really like him. In an effort to avoid hurting anyone he seeks guidance from his very "adept" friend Ookusa-kun and concludes how to deal with the situation. Though its a temporary fix, it does buy him some time to better sort through his own feelings. That friend of his is so perceptive its scary and it brings with it the question why can't he find a girl worthy of his prowess and sensitivity? I hate when sub characters out shine the main lead!!! I wonder if there is an anime where a mature guy like Ookusa-kun is the main lead and have equally sharp girls fight for him. Now that would be an insane harem story. Alas, we're talking about Japanese writers here so that will forever be a dream story. (V V) Ep. 7 had me confused at the end (and that is nearly impossible to do if I do say so myself). Due to the ridiculous stupidity and slap-stick ?humor? at the start of the series, I really didn't pay attention well and I couldn't remember why the main lead asked Tsukasa out in the first place. After the episode, I had to go back and find out how this "one sided" relationship came to be in the first place and as I figured, it wasn't his real intention to be with her. I didn't like her at all anyway so it was even harder to see him react the way he did at the end of the episode. Speaking of episodes - Its Christmas time and the main lead needs a job to pay for presents for his friends. He ends up working with Satsuki and the usual fan-service/humor adventure follows. She is my favorite girl for stepping up to the plate with true feelings (though it took a while to crack that titanium shell of hers, it was worth it) while the rest of the gilrs are all shy and crap. Yui becomes a competitor for the main lead as well, after I told myself that they are like 3 years apart or so, but doesn't stay too long as she had to go back home. He scores points with the other girls (as if they need any more evidence to like him) due to his crying after he was worried when he finally finds Yui covered in snow. Episode 9 set many things into motion with this Valentine's day special. First of all, the ridiculous slap-stick is reduced to a crawl (THANK GOD) and now its nothing but solid storyline. If the start of the series wasn't so strong in the humor department, the whole series would have been better off. Second, my girl Satsuki crossed the line with the main lead and suffers a huge deduction in points giving the super shy yet beautiful Aya the advantage she needed to finally close the gap and steal first place in the main lead's heart. She was first to begin with so I don't mind watching her win over my choice. Lastly, I would like know just how will the writers end this little game without throwing Yui and Tsukasa away. They get little time and the story now has two main fighters. They continue to fade away as our main girls get stronger. I swear - watch both the fading girls do something drastic in a last ditch effort to be noticed by the main lead or cripple the lead girls somehow. I know something will have to give as the story now could go in a mulitude of directions. They better not screw this up!!!!!!! The trial of personality is put to the test as the main lead and Toujou finally go on a date. After a little distraction from the teacher, they make the movie showing and laugh and cry during the same parts. Though later they run out of things to talk about and it gets a little awkward but Toujou brings up the movie and they hit it off again. He does find out who really gave him those chocolates and lies to keep it a secret from Satsuki. That might come back to haunt him. Why does Tsukara keep making him feel guilty? He needs to leave that mess alone a focus on the real issues. What the hell is he planning?! He turned down both girls on his birthday!!!! What an idiot! Did he plan to being single forever or something because this was definitely the way to do it. Luckily he came to his senses after hurting his own place in the girl’s hearts. That BAKA!!! LOL Anyway that new girl is going to cause problems. She might be the one to deal the main lead that critical blow I mentioned earlier, but this only one episode left how will it turn out? They can’t finish this mess in one episode!! All those OVAs are going to finish it I guess. I wish they at least would take one girl out of the equation before the TV series ends. Give us some type of closure DAMMIT!!! As I predicted, they end the series as if there were more episodes! They put everything they have left into the OVAs and left the actual TV series out to dry. That makes the series as a whole unfinished in my eyes and will suffer accordingly. They couldn’t finish any part of the story at all. No closure, No favorite choice, or girl elimination. Everything is still open (though I should be happy at the continuation attempt as I still wish for other MASTERPIECE titles that should have continued) and still up in the air. They should’ve spaced it out better and gave us a 24 episode series (I know that’s pushing it) or something instead of this unfinished version. They even could’ve used more ridiculous slap-stick to fill in any room they can’t fill with story and it would’ve been ok with me. Whatever... Incomplete story while still good = watch and not the deserved Buy but oh well. I got some OVAs to hunt down so if you’ll excuse me... See you there! Check out my award list to see some of the best anime titles in the world! Never forget Xenosaga. Last updated Saturday, December 19 2009. Created Wednesday, September 03 2008. | ||||||||
| Rent | 8 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 9 |
 Devil Doll
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[series:1007#752] |
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[Score: 74%]
Let's just listen to Ookusa-kun's summary of Junpei's situation in episode 6:
I like this "dating game style" setting. (The "south" girl is a childhood friend and one year their junior; the windrose directions are the first kanji of their corresponding family names, and the boy's name "manaka" translates to "middle".) I expected it to be more ecchi and more silly, but I'm relieved to see that it's still this side of the border for my tolerance level in both aspects. (Yes, panty shots galore and some strange proportions of female bodies, but nothing really offensive - and the Yui scenes are innocent enough to me.) This must actually be my first "real" harem anime - as I would count neither Love Hina nor Ai Yori Aoshi into this category. Three girls (the little brat doesn't count, really) going after the one boy (who can't chose one out of them for a whole year's time), each of them acting reasonably according to their motives and natures - and each of them mistaking another of the girls for Junpei's steady (without Junpei encouraging this idea!)... that's quite entertaining. Somehow like Video Girl Ai with real competition, so to say. And as for why they all like this insensible guy of all people, Tsukasa gave the appropriate answer in episode 3: "There isn't a reason behind falling in love, really." I like the blonde girl's attitude, her early sacrifice and her decision in episode 7; I've been rooting for her throughout the show (and this was a good decision, as siding with her makes the show more of a rollercoaster than simply watching it). The art is okay - all girls look cute in their own way (albeit a little too similar save for their hair style and colors); no notable animation flaws (which is sure a plus), and "deformed" faces aren't overused. The soundtrack is cheerful pop stuff mostly but has atmospheric tracks as well when appropriate; the OP song "Shine of Voice" is jazzy J-pop with trumpets as lead instruments, the almost hysterical ED techno-pop song "Ike Ike" (featuring SD versions of all the girls, and dancing strawberries...) is dragging you along even if you're not into this type of music. The characters are not without clichés but act consistently for most of the series (see below) so that you know what to expect from each of them; even the additional character introduced no sooner than in episode 10 was a valuable addition to the show. The episode development only suffers from certain embarrassing scenes that I had to endure. But the last third of the series disappointed me and made me downgrade Characters as well as Series Story. Obviously the story is driven forward by the "balance of power" situation, and for 8 episodes this works reasonably well. But from the Valentine's Day episode on there are more and more situations when the IMHO logical/reasonable reaction of one character would have broken the balance - and the more of these scenes were written in a way to keep the balance in effect (one character lying at one point, another asking the wrong question, a third one forgetting a crucial information due to a random event etc.), the more forced the whole idea appeared to me. In the end we get no completion of any character development at all, and no convincing story resolution; the episodes for themselves are still nice, but Junpei is just a huge disappointment in the end. So all in all it's only a low "Rent" for me, nearly a "Watch". There's still more good than bad about this series, but I think they failed to get their job done. The OVA 1 sequel continues right after the final TV episode, so you'll at least learn how Junpei's movie will be shot... If you want a lot more story and character development, plus more drama, then read the Ichigo 100% manga of which the TV series covers about the first half only. The manga will show you the complete three highschool years of the bunch, including all three movies they make, and the job decisions of all relevant characters, plus a dramatic climax as for which girl Manaka finally choses. In this aspect the manga is much closer to Kimagure Orange Road (TV), and had the complete manga story been covered in the anime I would most likely give it a "Buy" rating. Last updated Sunday, December 25 2005. Created Thursday, July 28 2005. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Forbin
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[series:1007#1573] | ||||||
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Drama : Low / Med Comedy : Med Action : None SciFi : None Ecchi : Med 11 Episodes Watched Hmmm....a panty anime that isn't about panties (Well except for #7). As this is a comedy, I immediately got it to see what's it about. A boy who meets a girl, falls in love, and asks another girl out on a date before finding out his other friend is the alter ego of the girl he fell in love with. Hmm....Sounds like your typical boy meets harem plot. Don't know if this will really hold my interest. The girls AND the boys are drawn alike just like  Final Approach, remove the hair and the only person you could probably figure out is the girl with the ichigo (Strawberry) panties. /bleh.Well after watching 4 episodes and meeting the 4th and final girl Satsuki (Who looks a lot like Chiharu from  Boys Be) It's getting very interesting. Satsuki is the main reason that it got marked up to a rent, before that, the other 3 girls weren't enough to hold the anime up. So now we have clueless boy, and 4 very beautiful girls from various points in his life, all converging together and all determined to 'have' him. Hehe.Edit : Little did I know why I liked Satsuki's voice so much. She is none other than Nyuu/Lucy from  Elfen Lied! Hehe.
Not Bad Not Bad, Episode 7 begins the real drama. 8 Messes up the relationships and 9 restarts them. Hmm. Those 2 were good but nothing really went forward. Well except for the Aya relationship. You know it occurs to me that if Satsuki wasn't there, Tsukasa wouldn't have a chance with Manaka. Seems that Satsuki's basic job is keeping Aya away from him. Last updated Tuesday, June 21 2005. Created Thursday, April 21 2005. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:1007#967] | ||||||
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Having only watched the first episode, here is what I can share. While Manaka is a nice guy and quick to show a distinct certainty of his abilities, he is a bit of a dreamer, thinking of his personal goals of being a director or producer of Movies. His sees everything through the focus of a camera lense, and the image of a flying angel on the rooftop, against a romantic reddish setting sun with her floating skirt reviewing strawberry red panties has captured his cinematic fascination. Having been brave enough to approach and make a confession to the girl whom he thought was his angel, he quickly finds himself entangled with several other young ladies, each with whom he develops a special fondness and relationship. Can the demands of four attentive female classmates distract him from his personal goals of creating a high school film that will define his artistic future. And if he dares to make a choice, what will become of his friendship with the other three ladies who are now part of his close-knit high school movie production team? Last updated Sunday, August 01 2010. Created Monday, April 11 2005. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| Japanese Series Web Site | http://www.ichigo100.com |
| Japanese Series Web Site | http://avexmode.jp/animation/ichigo |
