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| Episode Details | |
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| 999A, 999B, 1893 | |
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:1944#1552] |
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I went into this series assuming it was some sort of dating sim spinoff until I researched it and found out that it was based on a shounen manga series. Apparently, Hatsukoi Limited depicts the developing love lives of several girls in middle school and high school, the quality of each tending to vary depending on the characters involved and the storytelling. While there are some stories I could care for like Nao Chikura's, a good chunk of them left me feeling rather indifferent either due to the shallow characterization of the characters in question or the title's habit of treating the love situations of the girls from a male perspective that involves occasional bits of focus on fan service with boob and panty shots. While the visuals to the series are nothing extraordinary considering the show's on an obvious limited budget with its minimal detail on backgrounds and character designs, the female designs are drawn to be as pleasing on the eyes as possible in spite of the service shots they are used for. Still, Hatsukoi Limited is rather forgettable fare for a romance anime for me as the low-key style of its storytelling and use of fan service in portraying the romantic ordeals of much of its female cast limit any likelihood of me watching this again.
Last updated Wednesday, April 08 2015. Created Wednesday, April 08 2015. | ||||||||
| Rent | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
 Devil Doll
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[series:1944#752] |
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[Score: 80% = "Rent+"; other recommended non-fantasy episodic high-school romances: Boys Be, Kimikiss Pure Rouge] A School Rumble scenario with Kawashita Mizuki's kawaii character design, the latter being a must-watch for me. The five lead girls are a mixed bag: The youngest two (Ayumi & Koyoi) are freaks, the more mature two (Rika & Kei, plus high-schooler Yamamoto who reminds me of the Ane-Doki manga by the same artist) are good, and the blue-haired one (Nao) is a non-event until episode 9. Each of the first four episodes has comedy and slapstick violence (with bruises and band-aids), plus the weird bra-con imouto; the music isn't my style as well. I didn't expect a lot at this stage but refused to give up. And with episode 5, at Christmas time (i. e. the beginning of the second of four manga volumes), the series makes a turnaround. Gone is the slapstick violence, and the series begins to live up to its name, making the first love experiences of the more mature amongst these middle school girls its focus. Enomoto Kei, the uppish blond queen whose motto is "looks are everything", is beginning to question her attitude; Dobashi Rika, the "uncute" sports ace (and my favorite character of this story), has progressed further than her friends are aware of. This is where my ratings began to go up, and the way how several characters began to learn about the whole "relation graph" by exchanging information was very helpful for the story development (ultimately leading several arcs together to a joint finale). The girls' journey is nonsense though in terms of success probability, destroying the last chance of this series to get into "Buy" territory. Still, the ending was nice, we get a decent hit/miss ratio for feelings being responded, and several main characters have grown significantly throughout the story. So all in all, this show rose beyond the School Rumble level and got closer to its more mature variant Boys Be which it beats animation-wise but not in terms of music and characters. There are just too many characters here to do each of them full justice. - - - - This anime is a very close adaption of the manga, skipping only two of 32 chapters and keeping the order of events intact (with only minor deviations most of which improved the flow of the story, such as the chocolate bomb kappa and the boar race instead of GPS) so there's little additional information in the manga except for Enomoto Yuu's story (Kei's older sister). Last updated Tuesday, September 28 2010. Created Monday, August 30 2010. | ||||||||
| Buy | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
 Dreamer
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[series:1944#2279] |
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Somehow I really ended up enjoying this one. I'm not a big fan of these types of anime but I found it pretty darn interesting. Art, Animation & Character Designs Artwork and animation is pretty standard... not outstanding but good enough. The character designs were also good but somehow, I found all our main characters jus uber cute and lovable. Music The OP was a nice alternative-pop piece that actually sounded pretty good. I'm typically not into pop but it had a touch of alternative so it sounded pretty okay. The rest of the soundtrack is nothing special. Series and Episode Story There's really no plot here. Instead, what you have is a bunch of "almost" unreleated episodes that really stand on their own. And these episodes are pretty darn good. There's plenty of humor and just silly slapstic moments. The episode stories themselves are pretty mild, but even then somehow, it still draws you in and keeps you interested. Overall, I really enjoyed this plain but flavorful series. Worth a buy for no other reason but a really enjoyable series overall. Last updated Saturday, December 05 2009. Created Saturday, December 05 2009. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Forbin
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[series:1944#1573] | ||||||
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Analysis : 12 Episodes Watched BUY-
 EikenWhen the series starts you think that Ayumi is the main character, that's wrong, the main character is really Enomoto and Kuseda. (Hence the reason she is in the middle). She is the most developed of all the characters as her love grows throughout the show. JC Staff did an excellent job, I thought I would be bored with Chikura's story but it was nice. And the ending was very very good and in fact better than the manga. Things I did like:
Last updated Monday, June 29 2009. Created Wednesday, April 15 2009. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Stretch
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[series:1944#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): I was beginning to worry that there wouldn't be any school romance series this season, but here we are. The character designs reminded me of Ichigo 100%, and sure enough my suspicions are confirmed by the synopsis. The usual jabber among schoolgirls about confessions of love seemed generic, but an exaggerated and humorous SD scene raised my hopes. In fact, Hatsukoi Limited is looking pretty good; it had me laugh-out-louding several times. An unexpected twist at the halfway point confirmed that this show has some definite originality to it. The stereotypical stand-still-and-be-beaten scene of a tough guy being blackmailed had me groaning, but then there came an unexpected touch of humor to it. I'm glad to see that comedy will play a significant part in this show. Apparently the spotlight will shift to a different girl (a number of which have yet to be introduced) with each episode. I can't help noticing that episode four likes to show girls with everything above the waist cropped off, as if this is the only half of their bodies which the viewer would be interested in. But all-in-all Hats Ltd (as I abbreviate it) seems a fairly amusing and entertaining show, as the cast scramble to match up with the right boyfriend or girlfriend, and misunderstandings abound. I liked episode eleven, in which three of the boys go on a poorly planned "soul searching" journey, forcing the girls to come looking for them. The series as a whole wrapped up well with this two-parter story. It's not often that a high school romance series leaves me with such a smile on my face. My favorite line: "I'm already facing the Demon King!" --Koyoi Last updated Monday, July 20 2009. Created Tuesday, April 14 2009. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:1944#967] | ||||||
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Having watched five episodes, so far - I can only share that this series is GREAT!! If you are looking for a light-hearted & fluffy romantic comedy, then this series is it. (And the animation is being done by JC Staff!!)
This is purely a high school romance soap opera!!! My first take (based on the manga) is that this is a madcap version of one of Shakespeare's romantic comedies with misplaced and crossed loves. Each chapter focuses on a different character, telling their story of whom they are interested in and of their friendships. But at the core of the story is a circle of five middle school friends around whom spins most of the events. The cute little middle school student, Ayumi-chan finds herself confessed to by ZAITSU Misao, a large intimating high school student with an afro. Later she finds out that Misao has a cute little brother named Mamoru in the same school and grade as she and she falls for him. But Mamoru is secretly in love with YAMAMOTO Misaki, his childhood friend and next door neighbor - someone who is two years older than he. When Ayumi's older brother, Yuuji finds that his sister is interested in ZAITSU, he automatically thinks that the older brother and not the younger one which causes some confusion. The afro-haired Misao is friends with Misaki who is only interested in Yuuji, the older brother of the girl that he is interested in, but remember that Mamoru is interested in her. And then there is Koyoi who has a big-brother-complex, while Nao is completely clueless, and Yuu is the girl who is good friends with all of the boys and interested in none of them. .... and I think that you get the picture.... Last updated Monday, May 11 2009. Created Sunday, August 31 2008. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| English Language Wikipedia Entry | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsukoi_Limited |
| Japanese TV Series Web Site | http://www.j-hatsukoi.com/ |
