|
|
||||||||||
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unevaluated |
 Devil Doll
|
[series:2885#752] | ||||||
|
(Only episode 3 watched) Apparently an ecchi comedy first and foremost. Which is a pity because the characters might actually be likeable. But with no potential character development, not my kind of show.
Last updated Monday, April 28 2014. Created Monday, April 28 2014. | ||||||||
| Watch |
 Stretch
|
[series:2885#628] | ||||||
|
Watch+ (All episodes watched): Any show about the people behind the manga and anime business has an advantage when it comes my way, and this one looked like fun. Yuuki Aito is a perverted mangaka with a team of female assistants. The fact that he works on a sleazy, fanservice laden manga is sort of a self-parody. But the girls can handle him, and he's a nice guy at heart, so he's pretty harmless. You might say that this is sort of like the situation in Seitokai no Ichizon, where one guy wishes he had a harem, but the girls aren't so eager to take part. There are the usual flat-chested girl jokes and that stuff. This show wasn't LOL funny, but it was funny enough that, with the manga/anime background, I decided that I would gladly watch. The fact that the episodes are about half as long as usual might be a good thing since a viewer might tire of this before a full 23 minutes went by. There's one episode in which the mangaka guy finds the ratings of his strip slumping because he's been relying on pantsu too much at the expense of the characters. I wonder if the makers realized just how true that criticism is about comedy anime in general. I don't know, because the topic quickly shifts elsewhere, as if they had stumbled upon this point by accident and quickly ran away from it once they realized what had happened. If they had just gone a little farther, and made a little more fun of themselves (with halfway decent jokes), this show might have broken out of the pack and become genuinely exceptional. But for the most part it is just as guilty of taking the easy way out and refusing to stretch the envelope as is the average series. It is modestly amusing but nothing to write home about. One thing that bothered me was that one of the girls on the team is a largely brainless one who does not object to acts of sexual harassment. That threatens to mess up the series as a whole, since it is offensive and could easily cancel out a good deal of the legitimately funny jokes that this short has to offer. The more responsible girls protect this one from Aito. In general, I cannot say that this show makes much of an effort to develop particularly interesting characters. Besides the obligatory ditzy big-boobed girl for guys who are into that, there's also the obligatory childlike girl to please lolicons. On the other hand, the other two girls slowly grow modest personalities which makes them more likeable. There's the original assistant, who hopes to become a mangaka herself someday, but hasn't had much luck. There's the editor who has known Aito since childhood, and almost fell in love with him. She's domineering in a stereotypical way, but you can sympathize with her since she has to keep Aito in line. Aito himself doesn't seem to have much of a personality beyond his perversion, unfortunately. At least he is too polite/wimpy to try to force himself onto any of the girls. If a show cannot be LOL funny, does it take all that much effort to inject a little personality into the characters? What if the show had dared to make a little fun of perversion? And depicted Aito as a clueless guy who is losing whatever chance of romance he ever had due to his simple-minded perversion? And perhaps the girls realize this, and try to re-train him because they pity him. That, at a stroke, might have revolutionized the show. Endless possibilities leap to mind, but in reality it is what it is, and at least I don't actively dislike anyone in the cast. Mangaka- relies too much on fanservice and too little on good jokes (as usual). Few things would be better than an anime that was both naughty without being offensive and was genuinely funny as well; but that would take too much effort. Last updated Thursday, September 11 2014. Created Sunday, April 13 2014. | ||||||||
