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I'm writing this review from the perspective that i'm 21 years old and just watched this for the first time ever. So pardon me for not having the childhood nostalgia factor most people seem to have with this series.

At first I wasn't too impressed. I actually started watching this a few years ago with a friend but we stopped at episode 7, and later on I've come to realize that it was the absolute worst episode to stop watching the series, for you've just only watched the compulsory introduction for the whole situation.

Story:

Basically the series starts with a young dog, called Gin being raised as ... a bear-hunting dog by this harsh grandfather in an equally harsh mountain-area hich seems to have an eternal snowstorm. Of course there's also this ultra-dense young boy character, Daisuke, who really reminds me of Ash Ketchum from Pokemon and Pazu from Miyazaki's Laputa - Castle in the Sky. After the introductionary episodes the series really changes, as the human characters fade into the background and all of the dogs start suddenly speaking. After this, the series is all about dogs trying to gather a large army to defeat the most infamous bear of the mountains, Akakabuto. And from this on, the series starts to get interesting. Bottom line: Watch the whole series. If you plan on dropping it, please watch more than seven episodes before you quit. You wont regret.

Art:

80's. That's all I can say. This is one of those old animes where the style's quite aged, but it really fits the series. In terms of production, I had some complaints about certain small scenes repeating, like bears falling to the ground after being defeated or the exact same dogs getting squashed under a bear's giant foot over and over again. Also, theres lots of blood. Blood and gore!! If Elfen Lied wasn't enough for you, watch this! It's actually fun how this series was released in four VHS-tapes in Finland ages ago as a children's series. I can't possibly imagine the amount of cutting needed: It's like trying to change the Saw-series to a kid's movie by only cutting certain scenes.

Sound:

Well.. really sounds like this music we call by the name "Iskelmä" in Finland. The opening and other tunes with vocals are quite cliche and embarrassing. In addition, there is this generic epic soundtrack going on with an added commentator. Not actually poor, but nothing special. However the OP sure is memorable, if nothing else. Ha!

Character:

Interesting. This starts as an anime with obvious main characters, such as Gin, the Grandfather Takeda and Daisuke. But later on as the series really starts rolling, the characters are all mainly different leaders of dog armies. All of the dog characters which actually have personality are very likeable. Especially Moss, Ben and the Kai brothers are all very great characters. They all posess a different kind of leadership and it's nice to watch how they act in different situations. Gin is your typical young and strong dog with lot's of passion and a pure heart. And Riki is this super-epic mysterious father-figure. The bears are all quite so-and-so. All they really do is growl and act very aggressively.

Enjoyment:

I certainly enjoyed the series and I think it's definately worth watching. However there are some annoying things and flaws in this anime. I don't know how to say this clearly but sometimes the series is just so overly epic and remiscent of this Japanese soldier's morale that it gets annoying: Everyone is always ready to die for their comrades and most of these heroic suicides could be avoided easily. Also a bit annoying is the fact that there always seems to be this new dog who is the strongest of all and when there's hundreds of dog's in the army, it gets hard to tell, who exactly is the best of them all. It's kinda like Pokemon: Every movie introduces this new best-of-the-best-of-the-best Pokemon-god. Also, why do Ben and his dog's always have to fight the new dog-leaders to near-death before they get them to join the army? And why can't they just kill the god damn bear? Why don't they just blast him to oblivion with a grenade launcher instead of this traditional rifle-hunting with a dog-accompanion? And do you really need like hundreds and hundreds of dogs to kill one f*****g bear, and where do all of these dogs suddenly disappear in the ending scene? Huh?

Overall:

I'd recommend watching this. It has it's flaws but overall Ginga Nagareboshi Gin is a good series and I think it deserves it's place as a classic. If you like dogs, epic moments, bad music, blood & gore, and watching hordes of dog's get crushed under an oversized bear, this is definately the series for you!

Ahh.. The life of an Otaku. Apart from NHK Ni Youkoso, this must be the best Otaku-related anime out there. So yes, Genshiken is basically an anime, which tells the story of a group of different otakus. These people share a few things in common, including a passion for anime & manga, a perverted mind and a school club called Genshiken, which stands for "The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture".

Story:

Basically this anime has no ultimate plot or story. It mainly tells about the daily events, adventures and struggles in an otaku's life. There are arcs which last for a few episodes, but ... all in all this is a pure slice-of-life anime. What's good about this is that it makes Genshiken a very relaxing anime and it's easy to just lay back and enjoy watching the characters enjoying their lives.

Sound:

The sounds and music are best described as good but forgettable. The tunes are fairly "upbeat" and your typical jolly slice of life -styled sounds. What I remember was the OP, which was quite a nice song actually. But all in all, this anime doesn't try to be very artistic in a sense, and so there's not much to say about this part. The voice acting is enjoyable to listen and the sound effects are nice.

Characters:

Now this is where Genshiken shines!

Almost all of the characters are great and have lots of personality. The protagonist, Sasahara, is a yet-to-be-a-true-otaku character at the beginning and it's fun watching him turn into a full-time anime-geek with his new club friends. Madarame is also a very symphatetic and strong character. Tanaka-san and Kugayama-san have their places too. I also liked the character of Kousaka, the otaku-but-handsome guy, who has even managed to get a girlfriend. However, this gf's is the one character I didn't enjoy. I understand the point of having Kasukabe-san in the series, she really brings a lot of action and always needed drama into the otherwise relaxing and conflictless life the other club members enjoy. However, sometimes I really hoped that I could just watch and enjoy the otaku-life without having this character around showing her hate towards otakuism. Some scenes, like the one where Kasukabe-san accidentally breaks Tanaka-san's new Plamo, are quite frustrating to watch and they raise strong feelings. Of course that might be because I myself am too much of an otaku!

Oh yeah, and Ohno-san is somehow just plain adorable!

Enjoyment:

As much as I enjoyed watching Genshiken, I much prefer the second season. I think the balance between the characters in the second season is much better than in the original. I loved watching the guys attend ComiFes and it made me want to attend Comiket too! This activity really has a far greater role in the second season, which is a very strong point. Also, the new characters get of course more face-rime, which is nice!
I highly recommend watching this anime, and if you liked it, you'll definately like the second season (don't forget the great OVA's)! And if you had the same problems with, for example Kasukabe-san, then the sequel's like made for you!

First of all, I'll try not to swear too much. So, is'nt it always a sign of quality if an anime makes you have strong feelings about it? I think good animes are the ones that make you relate and be truly interested in the characters, loving some of them, hating some others, and Ichigo 100% certainly succeeds in these things.

Okay, I have seen many echhi/harem animes and they all have their similarities, but never has the protagonist been even nearly as retarded as in Ichigo 100%. Usually ecchi boys have these problems like not being able to decide between girls, or thinking about sex ... and female parts for 99% of their time only to freak out if a girl gets close to them. They also tend to posess only one argument in a conversation, which is to repeat the girls name over and over: "Ni-ni-nishino-san?". Junpei-kun from Ichigo takes these problems to a whole different level.

The main thing that annoys me in the setting is that all the three girls are shown as truly equal, and you really can't tell which one Junpei likes the most, as his opinions seem to change in split-second mode. In most of the other harem animes I've seen, you can tell the favourite girl of the protagonist even though he can't decide between her and a few others, but in Ichigo 100%, there really is'nt a main girl. Everybody can tell that in Rosario+Vampire, Moka-san is the one Tsukune likes, and the other ones are not nearly as important. But in Ichigo 100%, Junpei's favourite girl seems to always be the one he is not with at the moment.

This leads to a situation where Junpei spends time with all the girls equally and hurts all of their feelings. For example, he first spends some great fan service -time with Kitaouji thinking only about Toujou. Then, leaving Kitaouji behind he meets Toujou only to begin thinking about Nishino, and of course hurting Toujou in the process. And all the time the viewer is wondering: "What the **** is wrong with this guy?".

When Junpei finally ends up saying: "I love you, but I love others too!" and when he cried to his friend saying "I'm so unpopular", I was already carrying my laptop to the nearest industrial shredder. There was about a million situations where I was just staring at the screen of my laptop shouting "Answer her, you f****** retard!", shaking my whole computer in despair or watching with my eyes closed not being able to understand what he does to these girls.

Okay, I've focused way too much on Junpei and his problems, but that's really the main thing I got from this anime. It's like the script writers have intentionally created a character, who you'd only want to beat up if you'd see him. Keitaro from Love Hina is a really good guy, Yukinari from Girls Bravo is okay, but Junpei really is someone I only wanted to hate.

But well, this really is a decent anime. Really. The animation is quite good, most of the characters are cute, especially Toujou, and I like the school club setting, although it's pretty used nowadays. The ending theme is also quite nice. Eurodance and strawberries, what more can you ask?

Overall, if you like to watch harem-anime thinking "I'd be way better a boyfriend for her, her and her", this one's definately for you! If you hate watching popular retards making girls cry, stay far far away from Ichigo 100% ^^

Whoa, maybe this genre is not for me :D