Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys

I asked myself if this anime really deserves 10/10 before posting it, but the fact is I thoroughly enjoyed it - being an Otome fan, this anime has hit all the right buttons:
1. Main female character has a lovable personality and not annoyingly immature or stupid
2. Amazing voice acting by star-studded seiyuus
3. Doki doki (heart pounding) moments e.g. Kabe-don
4. Beautiful art style of all main characters e.g. Ikemen types for Otome fans to swoon over
5. Humour = hilarious at some parts
My only disappointment is that each episode is only 8 mins, but it's common for Developers to introduce Otome game with a short anime. I ... can only hope the psvita game ever gets translated into English so that I can buy it. All in all, if you are an Otome fan, this anime is for you!

I expected something unique with a strong, bold main heroine. Did the series meet my expectations? Well, not really. Did I enjoy it? In a way.

Story: 6/10

I liked the main idea for the plot yet the execution of it could be better. It felt like we were given some random chunks of the plotline without deeper investigation to them like the blood relations between Hikaru and Hinako or Hinako's "brother" from the orphanage. There were many themes with lots of potential that just went to waste.

Art: 4/10

The artstyle itself was ok - not bat yet not outstanding. Still my problem with it is that ... there were just too many poorly drawn frames. And that tendency just progressed along with the show's forwardness. Maybe I'm just more demanding because I'm an artist but when I saw the characters' profiles drawn with the newby's skills I was just...AAARGGHH. Thankfully, there were no derpy faces (Sailor Moon Crystal, anyone?) yet still you can tell drawings were rushed.

Sound: 3/10

When it comes to sound the first thing I think of is music. But the thing there is I can''t remember any music from the show. Seriously, either the background music were just really poor or there was no background music at all because I can't remember any specyfic sound. So in the music spectrum I give 0/10. The voice acting was pretty decent, though. I'd rate it 6 or 7/10.

Characters: 5/10

I really wanted some more character development. The characters were pretty well constructed and everyone had a unique personality but we didn't get much time to know them better. They were like those people in your classes you don't really talk to - you know they have a personality but you can't really tell much about them since you know only the general informations about them.

Enjoyment: 7/10

It wasn a show good for a relax and pretty funny at times (studying together scene - priceless). I does not require much from the receiver to understand what is going on on the screen but fighting scenes were disapointing. They were simply too short. I did not expect from a shoujo anime to has Drangon Ball's level of battles but finishing a pro fighter with just 3 punches seems a bit too quick, don't you think?

Overall: 5/10

Mediocre. You can watch and have some fun but I wouldn't consider this position as a "must-see".

In short: Entertaining, but don’t expect too much out of it nor attempt to try thinking too much about it.

Let me get this out of the way first: from an Entertainment point of view, it would probably get an 8, really. It’s lighthearted, it’s fun and if you don’t think too much about it, it’s really a must-watch for reverse harems/otome fans. I don’t think it’d be a waste of your time anyway, since it’s so short. What are you waiting for?
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But since this aspect is what counts the least for me, let me get to the juice.

From an overall perspective, I seriously ... don’t know if I am just starting to grow out of these reverse harem animes, but from when UtaPri proved to be so marketable, I have the impression it just triggered the path towards “standard-ness” and just generally fear of risk. I used to be a big defender of fanservice animes directed to a straight girls audience in the past because of how little there even were: I liked Hanasakeru Seishonen, I liked Amnesia (despite the general complaints), I liked Arcana Famiglia and I even liked UtaPri for being so cutely cringy and aware of itself. But do you know what these reverse harems had in common? Potential and a great deal of passion. That’s something that I feel less and less the more the genre is starting to become more mainstream in recent days and Girl beats Boys is a very good example.

Story

Well, one thing is certain; this anime is a great advertisement for its otome game counterpart. I love otome games so there’s that, but on the other hand, saying it’s like an “advertisement” is not exactly a compliment when it comes to a show.

The main issue with it is that it’s unsure of what its point is. Is it commenting on gender stereotypes? Is it enforcing gender stereotypes? The dialogues were ambiguous enough to manage to lean towards both and none. Then, is it about the heroine discovering love by beating guys up in an all-male school to get to be the boss of the entire said-school for her twin brother? Eeeehhh….Yes, but not as much as it is about her discovering the power of bromance and yet still managing to treat it superficially when she just went through all these poster-perfect guys, defeated them and collected them to her bro-team because that’s totally what guys do after being defeated in battle, am I right? 8D

.... Am I to understand the male gender is like pokemons then? O-o Let me try that the next time I find myself in an all-male school and try, for reasons, to just defeat all dungeon bosses and get to the top of the castle to save the prince only to discover he is in a different castle---wait what? Wrong story? My bad, it gets tough to figure out at one point.
Ehm, Mirakochu, I CHOOSE YOU!

If you somehow get around the “point”, the next issue is about the short-lived conflicts. It’s really hard to care when everything just gets settled in what is like 5 seconds and I wouldn’t blame that on the lack of screening time seeing how there are shows that manage to convey more and better in less time (unless the otome game is just that bad...).
For example, what I’d take out are those instances when the characters seem to be narrating to somebody at times, but it’s never revealed who they’re actually talking to. Are they talking to me? Because if so there’s a very weird unnecessary disconnect there; the narrating could have perfectly been integrated in the show or just have more of that small, little, “show don’t tell” technique. It appears to me that the reverse harem industry thinks we’re stupid or something if they don’t just tell us everything, but I guess that’s an issue of nowadays media as a whole.

Lastly, they aren’t even consistent with the little plot there is. It’s just offending to have one scene be recognized as acknowledgement and a hinted silent nod from one of the guys, only for the next episode to deny it by dumbing up said-involved-character. How are people possibly that stupid, I ask? (I'd have given it a 5 for managing to be so fun, if it weren't for this )

And by the way of Characters…

I probably wouldn’t have been so salty at this anime if the characters at least showed some potential, but unfortunately they’re the standard-est of stereotypes. They are supposed to have some sort of character arc in each episode, but besides Mirako, shortened as “idol guy”, where they tried to do something with his cynical attitude (but ultimately failing because “by the power of bromance” ), the others don’t really go beyond “that cool guy who was an orphan” or “that short guy with a big family”. It’s particularly worrying when nobody really sticks up in your mind, if not for superficial biased reasons. I’m really questioning if they can be called “characters” at this point.

And now let’s finally talk about the heroine. Fortunately, I think we are starting to get over the bland self-insert heroine who’s main traits are being clumsy and furiously blushing everytime a person of the opposite gender pokes her. And thanks God for that, but at the same time, she doesn’t have enough character to do main heroines justice either. She knows martial arts, she’s nice and she always felt lonely, but that’s basically how you can resume her entire character. Unfortunately, with the add of the “badass” trait, you don’t automatically make a “strong female protagonist”. I’ll stop being a b*tch and at least give it props for trying though.

Animation

Well, that is also quite standard switching to hilariously bad looking during the fighting scenes, but hey. Standard is not bad, I’m sure they did what they could with that. The color palette is quite bright and colorful with a switch of darker tones during the school scenes, probably to emphasize the overall competitive aura of it.

Sound

I honestly really liked the opening song, also the fact that they didn’t lose time with it and decided to throw in some scenes of what was currently going on in the episode which worked great with the song. They did a good job there.

In conclusion, only check it out if you want to see something bright and fun. Really.