Monochrome Factor

The story revolves around high school student Akira Nikaido, a typical slacker living a normal life. That is, until he meets the mysterious Shirogane, a man who suddenly appears and tells him that they have a destiny together. When Akira hears this, he is shocked and doesn't believe a word of it. Aya, a friend of Akira, forgets something in the school one night, and asks Akira to help her and go find it. He agrees, and while there, he gets attacked by a shadow monster. Shirogane convinces him that the balance between the human world and the shadow world has been distorted and that Akira must become a "shin"- a creature of the shadow world- in order to help restore the balance. The anime has shonen-ai themes which are completely absent from the manga.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Shirogane Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Nikaidou, Akira Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Asamura, Kengo Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Kujou, Haruka Main

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Suzuno, Aya Main

Asano, Masumi Japanese

Kou Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Nanaya Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Homurabi Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Wagatsuma, Shuuichi Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Asamura, Mayu Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Abe, Shoujirou Producer

Oosawa, Nobuhiro Producer

Iizuka, Toshio Producer

Kou, Yuu Director

Reviews

Dec 27, 2021

theyandereking

Recommended

Bestie I love this anime. I cannot explain why. It is not great writing, objectively, not a spectacular anime. Still rated it a 9 because of how much I love it and enjoy watching it, and rewatching it, and rewatching it to show it to others. I could not rate it a 10 and keep my dignity but I wanted to.
It has that classic nostalgic feel of a slightly campy, cheesy, and cringey shonen-ai that wasn't Quite Brave Enough to actually canonize the main relationship in the anime. (There are kisses though! And the two main characters are insanely cute and funny when they interact!) ... The main draw is NOT the romance though. It is, as far as I can identify, 3 things. 1. The gender envy I feel for Shirogane. 2. The comedy. 3. Surprisingly the plot??? Look. It has a simple outline right from the start. There are some plot holes. It's not the *best* writing. But. It really went hard on the character development and how it interacted with the plot specifically. AND it tied into the big twist (that I actually did not see coming btw even though I was Suspicious TM it wasn't too soon before the actual reveal, well, I thought it was Suspicious at first, and then the character development actually CHANGED MY MIND AND LULLED ME INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY, and then it made me cry.) Mega found family trope. The best (slight spoilers skip this sentence) redemption arc I've ever seen in anime. Reliably gave me Overwhelming Feelings. Now, this may be because it was exactly the content I needed at the particular points in my life that I watched this (when I was terrified of being unlovable and irredeemable) but like Wow That Is Some Effective Storytelling. The characters and their relationships are really what makes it though. And now I'm realizing I barely even talked about the comedy which is what initially hooked me on this series. It's funny. Like an endorphin flood.
I am 20 by the way and not an overexcited 12 year old, which is what I realize I sounded like in this review. I just really love this terrible anime, okay? Please watch it, it is my precious comfort media I want to hug it like a stuffed animal and scold it for making me cry.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 30, 2021

Sesshomaru

Mixed Feelings

Monochrome Factor sends a group of teenagers into battle between beings of light (Rei) and beings of shadow (Shin). The anime shares this basis of action and supernatural elements with the manga. Unfortunately, the adaptation differs considerably in many ways from the manga by Sorano, Kaili.

Story: Poor pacing, too focused on comedy and the plot is often unnecessarily stretched (4/10)
The student Akira loves to get through his school day relaxed. But fate already has other plans for him. The fact that his classmate Aya teases him with lectures and uses him as a bodyguard for a night-time visit to the school is rather harmless. However, ... with the arrival of Shirogane-sama, his life suddenly becomes more turbulent. The balance between light and shadow seems to be out of whack. The lower beings from the shadow realm (Kokuchi) increasingly threaten the people. So a small group gathers around the two protagonists and takes on the fight against the shadows. Unfortunately, the deviations from the original are not very beneficial for the anime. The first episodes are exciting and even the ending can be called satisfactory. But the entire middle section, roughly 16-17 episodes, is quite boring due to predictability, and even some good and subtle jokes and comedy can't mitigate that. The plot and the anime as a whole lacks a good balance. The comedy almost comes across as self-deprecating due to its preponderance and the plot only manages to build up tension as a counterpoint at the beginning and towards the end. The manga is passably average and for fans perhaps a little more. The anime adaptation, on the other hand, is simply badly written, as it takes over and even reinforces negative aspects of the manga, especially plot holes. In addition, a lot of time is wasted on superfluous things and as a result the characters' portrayals suffer. As is so often the case, the end is a matter of opinion. There are arguments that call it both appropriate and unsatisfactory. However, the latter tends to prevail in the context of the overall impression.

Characters: Good at first, but lacking background & substance given the number of episodes (4/10).
The cast is more extensive than in the original. Since the story was changed, something had to be added. The characters are typical of the genre and basically not bad, but the villains in particular lack the depth one might expect from 24 episodes.
Nikaido Akira:
Actually a gifted teenager but he prefers to relax on what he thinks is a boring day at school. Therefore, he takes every opportunity to play hooky and avoids getting involved in anything whenever possible. His cool "it's none of my business" mentality, however, is severely disrupted when a mysterious man enters his life.
Shirogane-sama:
Cool character somewhat mysterious, eloquent and likeable. The little exchanges with Akira, when Shirogane-sama teases the young man eloquently, refreshingly direct and yet charming, are an entertaining and successful part of the comedy. Since it stays with allusions, it is basically too little to classify as "yaoi" or "shounen-ai", it remains more funny than serious. However, this part of the comedy is sure to put off many viewers.
Suzuno Aya:
She is the head of the school disciplinary committee and tends to use a kendo sword to emphasise her sense of justice. She is believable with the katana, but her character portrayal and development suffers because her role is overloaded with comedy elements.
Asamura Kengo:
Kengo's story has been revised. In the manga, he had a background and a twist that made him interesting. In the anime, however, he's sadly degraded to the usual comedy goof.
Wagatsuma Shūichi (Master):
The "Still Bar" (or "Aging Bar" for the manga readers) is the realm of the Master. Shūichi is the bartender and a very pleasant character (appearance and behaviour are very reminiscent of Sasakura Ryuu from the anime Bartender). He is friendly, helpful and his special abilities make him the healer of the small group. Unfortunately, his background is poorly sketched in the adaptation, so the manga is preferable in this regard as well.
Kujō Haruka:
Haruka was added for the realisation of the anime adaptation. His character is not a complete disappointment and fits well into the changed plot. Regardless, anyone familiar with the manga is right to wonder why the story was changed and this character added.
Nanaya:
Not the most colourful Shin, but not bad at all as a villain!
LuLu:
Cute but a bit colourless.
Homurabi:
A villain with style, unfortunately with too little screen time.

Visuals: Art is okay, the animation is not, so overall not good enough to improve the rating (6/10)
The drawing style of mangaka Sorano Kaili was well adopted by Suga Shigeyuki in the character design of the anime. However, due to the changes in the plot, some visual changes have been made. An example of this is the character design of Shirogane. His appearance and especially the facial features have been made slimmer and more feminine through various accents. This added beauty and attractiveness, also combined with the character's behaviour, certainly appeals to a larger female audience, but causes resentment like "shounen-ai or yaoi" among other parts of the fan base. The overall design of the characters is good and nice to look at, although I personally prefer the design in the manga.
However, the animation by Studio A.C.G.T does not impress me. The animation is not bad in principle, the colour palette and the light and shadow effects are good for an anime from 2008, but several aspects lower the overall rating. On the one hand, the blurring as a frequently used technique is disturbing, especially in the action sequences. On the other hand, the constant super-deformation is distracting because it is simply used too often. Personally, I found the fights somewhat monotonous overall.

Sound: BGM & OP are good, but the EDs are not, so overall only average (5/10)
The background music was composed by Abo Takeshi and is well adapted to the plot. Unfortunately, this is precisely why the music is hardly perceived positively and therefore cannot improve the overall rating despite a good performance.
The OP "Metamorphosis" by the indie metal band Asriel is a cool musical arrangement, the first bars calm and then continue with great rock sound and the beautiful voice of KOKOMI. This track was the breakthrough for the band, consisting of composer Kurose Keisuke and singer KOKOMI. The track is accompanied by a decent animation, matching the music! Unfortunately, the only bright spot.
"Awake - my everything" by the seiyū Ono Daisuke & Kamiya Hiroshi is used as ED in episodes 1-12 and 24. The animation is well done in black and white, but the sound is just too "easy listening music" and doesn't impress me at all.
The second ED in episodes 13 to 23 is "Kakusei - Light and Dark", sung by the other two Seiyū Suwabe Junichi & Konishi Katsuyuki and is overall no better than the first ED.
As always, I would like to conclude the sound section by talking a little about the seiyū, especially the second row. Among the male voice actors, I noticed Okiayu, Ryoutarou, who voices Homurabi. He has a great versatile voice, which he has already shown impressively in many anime. As an example, the role of Akio Furukawa in the anime Clannad immediately comes to mind.
Among the female dubbing actors, I particularly enjoyed the voice of the charakter Aya Suzuno, who is spoken by Asano Masumi. She has a clear and direct pronunciation that suits the role well, and yet you don't miss the feminine charm. All in all, a very good performance.

The anime has its moments, but the many plot holes lead to confusion. Furthermore, the content shown is simply dragged out too much by a multitude of fillers and superfluous chibi comedy. If you are looking for good or at least passable entertainment, you will surely be disappointed by this anime. Nevertheless, if you like the idea and the character design, I would recommend the manga, which is not excellent but better than the anime.

As always, thanks for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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May 23, 2020

soursoda

Not Recommended

I was baited into watching this as it was tagged with 'Shounen Ai' which is really nothing to do with this entire show other than a few outdated shallow jokes about guys being intimate.

The show goes nowhere and feels like the worst filler arc of your least favourite show.

All the characters are bad stereotypes, theres no depth or growth.

I feel like anyone giving this show above a 4 out of 10 either watched it when they didn't know any better and have nostalgia glasses on when they left the review score or rewatched it or they just genuinely have awful taste.

There isn't ... really much to say other than I honestly cannot recommend to anyone.

This is a bad show.

Don't waste your time with this show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Monochrome Factor Episode 24 Discussion noteDhero - Apr 13, 2009	37 replies	by Dawizz »» Sep 6, 2023 1:47 AM
	Poll: Monochrome Factor Episode 18 Discussion cyruz - Jan 28, 2009	6 replies	by Dawizz »» Sep 1, 2023 5:57 PM
	Poll: Monochrome Factor Episode 15 Discussion cyruz - Dec 26, 2008	7 replies	by Dawizz »» Aug 30, 2023 12:39 AM
	Poll: Monochrome Factor Episode 16 Discussion LoveCute - Jan 2, 2009	7 replies	by Dawizz »» Aug 30, 2023 12:26 AM
	Poll: Monochrome Factor Episode 6 Discussion cyruz - Jun 6, 2008	10 replies	by Dawizz »» Aug 24, 2023 12:05 AM