|
|
||||||||||
| Episode Details | |
|---|---|
| Ibuk, Hina, Ui, Senk, Toud, Kuri, Tsum, Mado | |
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watch | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
 Devil Doll
|
[series:2424#752] |
|
[Score: 72% = maximum "Watch+"; similar ecchi comedy: Girls Bravo; similar scenario without ecchi: Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo] More pantsu shots, bouncing breasts and erotic jokes than romance through the first half but the arcs gear into each other seamlessly, giving the show a feeling of development, albeit only a slow one. And during the last third the harem story takes over, replacing much of the fan-service by real competition; in the end you get what you asked for: A standard harem comedy with neither fantasy nor sci-fi, and no big drama either but an ending that worked quite well. Generic OP song, horrible ED song, so Music gets the lowest grade; Animation has little chance to shine, Art isn't that great either with those high-schoolers looking way too young like in so many anime. Story can't be more than average with so many unnecessary ingredients. So the Characters would have to save the day for this show; unfortunately I happen to dislike the winning girl but the two losers in tears and the girl who was wrongly assumed to be Kazuma's wife-to-be all showed an interesting performance, so watching them was worth the time for me.
Last updated Friday, September 02 2011. Created Monday, July 11 2011. | ||||||||
| Watch |
 Stretch
|
[series:2424#628] | ||||||
|
(All episodes watched): I had very low expectations going into this show. The familiar character designs, with their brightly colored hairdos, reminded me of a number of so-so shows; shows that were never spectacularly good, but generally could be relied on to deliver a little silliness and humor. The stereotypical awkward situations--tripping and falling on a girl, seeing her panties, being seen in the nude--made me roll my eyes. I have seen these never-in-a-million-years things happen time after time, yet somehow I can't help laughing. I'm partly laughing with the show and partly at it. It's as if the makers decided that they would simply pile these cheap tricks on, and somehow their volume and the apparently complete disdain for "quality" makes the show a parody of itself--whether that was intended or not is anybody's guess. Surely Hoshizora will be no more than a 'Watch', but going in I was ready to write it off as an 'Avoid'. Sometimes low expectations work to our advantage. Watching a second episode helped crystalize my opinion of Hoshizora: a generic, dating simulation sort of show which makes little effort to be deep or realistic, has numerous thinly developed characters, yet manages to be fairly funny, isn't overtly perverted, and thereby leaves me feeling that this is something harmless which I need not feel ashamed of myself for enjoying. The girls do not flock to the main male protagonist as they would in many harem series, which makes the story fairly believable. The chibi charicatures of the cast at the station break seemed to personify the attitude which the show as a whole was taking--cute, simple, and sort of fun. For some reason I liked episode nine, in which the purple-haired girl (I can't remember her name) suddenly finds herself homeless and moves in with Kazuma. It almost seemed like an episode of a different series, since it caused my interest to perk up all of a sudden. Perhaps that was because it was a change from the usual cheap anime comedy formula of sport festivals/trips to the beach/hot springs, etc. A new theme seems to develop from this point--the show gets more serious and deals with the romantic feelings of different girls in Kazuma's harem, one girl per episode. I hadn't thought that the girl in episode ten was an important enough character to warrant something like this, but that's what happens. These new type episodes are hardly brilliant ('We met as children and promised that we would always be friends!'), but they seem more interesting than the formulaic episodes from earlier in the series. With time it becomes clear that the losers in the struggle for Kazuma’s heart are bowing out. In a way, I’m pleased that this harem series has a distinct winner (guess who!) since that doesn’t happen very often, and the makers would usually rather leave us in a shallow fantasy land of girls, girls, and more girls instead of there being a serious commitment. On the other hand, the way things worked out wasn’t hard to predict. In a simplistic show like this, you know that if the makers bother to tell you that a misunderstanding of certain scrolls might take place, they undoubtably will. Still, the climax had a touch of being touching, and things seem to have worked out for the best. I’m sure that before long I will have forgotten the title of this series, but Hoshizora was worth a watch. One more attempt to describe this show: Cute characters amid a simple, somewhat idealized life in a small town, and a likewise simple plot. Hoshizora employs familiar themes--like the 'let's go to the beach!' episode--rather than attempting original ones. It does get a little serious towards the end, however. It was pretty clear from the beginning that this would not be anything more than a Watch quality show; it sets it's sights low, and therefore seldom misses its modest targets. Last updated Thursday, September 22 2011. Created Friday, April 29 2011. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| Official website | http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/hoshikaka/ |
| Japanese | |
