Back to DangoDa1kazoku's Profile DangoDa1kazoku's Profile

To begin, this anime was premiered at AnimeExpo 2018 if this is in fact what I think it is, so despite the fact that I haven’t been able to add it to my watched list, this is a review for a show that was shown long before MAL said it first aired (and I’m still slightly upset that MAL wouldn’t let me say I completed it, but that’s not your problem)

While I normally review in the same boring style based on the categories of story, art, sound, character, enjoyment, and overall as per MAL recommendation, Shikioriori/flavors of youth (FoY; sorry but I will be abbreviating ... it to this for simplicity) follows 3 different stories, each about as long as a normal 25 minute episode. It will be tough, but try to follow my thoughts because I will be trying to review all 3 stories at the same time to make it easier to discuss each part.

Story:
Split into 3 parts, each has a different message about different parts of life. While it’s not a big issue, it didn’t seem as though there was any sort of connection between any of the 3 stories other than that they all were dealing with their own problems and drama.

The 1st story (6/10)
is about a kid who has very strong ties to his grandmother and to eating some kind of noodles or beef udon or something if I remember correctly. Either way, it had to deal with eating food and how he establishes connections and meaning in his life through eating this food throughout life as he grows up. By no means is this story bad, but it is incredibly boring. It seems kind of like it was going for a Sweetness and Lightning or Isekai Shokudou, attempting the homey vibe of food, but it didn’t have the same emotional buildup that resonated with me during those shows (particularly the former). It also felt iyashikei style, but as a full movie and only 1 part, it doesn’t work particularly well the way I can imagine Non Non biyori’s movie working, supplemented by cute and already acquainted characters and good comedy. Overall, it’s not bad for completion if you plan to watch it through, but not particularly amazing or interesting.

The Second Story (4/10)
Is about 2 sisters who I guess used to be pretty close, but have drifted apart over time by the look of the show. The older sister is a model and supports the younger one after some kind of family circumstances occur, while the younger sister falls into the cliche “I just want to support my sister” role. The model is getting older and outshined by younger stars, causing the dramatic internal struggle. What made this part so hard to watch was that the drama wasn’t all that great or emotionally investing and the characters weren’t likable enough to care about their drama. The whole story felt contrived. Somehow, the worst part about it is that it’s hard to skip because it’s right in the middle, but honestly it’s not worth watching.

The Third Story (9/10)
If you stayed this long through the boring and hard to watch stories, CoMix Wave treats you to a brilliant story that makes you wonder if they could all be this good if Shinkai took over all of them. As it stands, this studio is batting a .333 right now, failing with the first 2 but stunning with this one. Of course, people who endlessly complain about too much school anime won’t ever understand, but this part is about a man who is moving into a new apartment. When he is unpacking, certain things remind him of the past and we are shown flashbacks. It follows a group of 3 kids, he and his 2 best friends, when they were little. One friend is a rambunctious boy while the other is a clearly “embodiment of perfection” girl. With the gimmick of he and the girl exchanging cassette tapes, this is pretty straight as a teen school romance, but it is really well directed by contrast to the other 2 parts. For the first time, there is actual character growth, but more than that is that i managed to feel deeply emotionally connected to the characters and cared about their relationship. I know I didn’t explain it very well, but I highly recommend this specific part.

Art: 9/10
A universal strong point is always the art. Animated by Studio CoMix Wave (Normally the Shinkai studio) the art is consistently great, even based on my hazy memory and with poor seating at Anime Expo. Expect every part to have beautiful backgrounds with strong visuals. In particular:

The first story had extremely detailed food. Which is an important aspect of a story about food. It didn’t mean that the story was any deeper, but they made it look tastier but just as realistic as my instant noodles.

The second story still had strong visuals; it meant nothing but outfits and characters looked good I guess.

The third story somehow made me wonder who on their staff still owned a cassette tape to model, but somehow it was very realistic. This part had particularly good backgrounds which contributed greatly to immersion into the story’s town and giving me an idea of the kind of people of the town.

Sound: (8/10)
It was fine. Nothing seemed wrong, and if it was I probably blamed the poor sound quality of Anime Expo and the downside of not having speakers for all people in the room. I know I can’t say anything bad about it at least.

Character: (6/10)
It should not be surprising that my assessment of the characters line up with my assessment of the story. As a very straight dramatic film, the characters are far and away the most important aspect to creating the atmosphere of the story. All my sentiments line up exactly the same, with the first story’s MC being boring, the second story’s being almost unbearable to watch, and the third’s being super strong and making me care about their struggles, and end up rooting for them.

Enjoyment: (7/10)
I found myself well entertained and if watching the first 2 parts ranged from bad to boring, i still wouldn’t be upset watching them if it meant getting to something as good as the 3rd part.

Overall: (7/10)
All 3 had the universally important art and sound done well, and I felt as if the good part was multiple times better than the bad parts sucked, but not enough to overlook the fact that 2/3 of the anime was either boring or bad.

Take the time to develop your own opinions about these characters; I just wrote to release pent up frustration with MAL for not allowing me to mark as watched for a full month.

Well here 8 years removed, I doubt I’ll find anywhere near an attentive audience, but I felt compelled to write a review. And for the first time ever, I felt compelled to write an unfavorable review. Maybe it’s too edgy to write a poor review for a cult popular show like Maid-sama, but here I go.

As a side note, I understand that certain anime are tailored toward certain audiences, and I’m not a teenage girl. Even still, I sought this anime out with a positive mindset and with many pros, and instead left with many criticisms. Don’t watch High School DxD if you can’t ... handle Ecchi and don’t watch Eromanga Sensei if you dislike incest portrayed in anime. But if you come into a romance anime with a profile that is highly comprised of school romances, you bet I can tell the good from the bad.

I will now proceed to review by MyAnimeList’s listed order:

Story (4/10)
The story, well isn’t really. And that’s okay for something like this, but it needs to make up with other things, which I’ll get into later. Instead, going by premise, the main character is the student council president, feminist, poor, and works at a maid cafe. Hot, cool guy enters and romance ensues. I’ll include recommendations or alternatives at the end, I’m done with the story.

Art (5/10)
There is nothing inventive about the art. On a scale from Kanon (2002) to Kyoto Animation or Makoto Shinkai, this is like normal 2000s art. There was nothing special about anything to the art. Watching it for 26 episodes really made me realize why it’s either really important to have a good story to back up marginal art or make the anime really pretty. It wasn’t bad and I want to get this weird taste out of my mouth with some beautiful Kyoto animation, so I’ll just slap a 5 on there and move on.

Sound (7/10)
Hey, it’s the only thing I gave better than the overall score! Obviously based on averages this is saving the score a little bit, but why? It’s because I’m a weeb that’s far past help, and fanboy over voice actors. Kana Hanazawa is the leading voice actor for a reason. Aki Toyasaki is another popular voice actor that I just caught onto at the right time, which is fortunate for this anime. I thought it was strange how it reused voice actors for other roles (I counted Kana Hanazawa at least 3 Different characters and Aki Toyosaki at least 2 different characters) but I will always accept listening to Kana Hanazawa voice more. OP is ok, other sound is ok. Sound is probably good for a 5 and 2 extra for voice actors bias.

Characters (4/10)
I introduced Misaki and Usui in the story portion (because there isn’t a story to talk about) but that’s basically it. I didn’t feel any sort of character development from them passed what they were described as. In fact, I felt the side characters move more overall by the end than they did. Very generic, and while that’s passable, they continued to ruin it until there were only bad stereotypes left. The only thing good about these characters are their voice actors as mentioned above.

Enjoyment (3/10)
Can you guess what gave it a 3/10? I bet you probably could, if you actually read up until here. If you guessed, “enjoyment rose exponentially every time Kana Hanazawa or Aki Toyosaki spoke” then you would be correct! Of course, that doesn’t always save a series as I can get that same voice from listening to renai circulation on repeat for hours on end. I was so unentertained that while I was watching this in class, it almost inspired me to stop watching anime and pay attention to my AP Chemistry teacher talk about gasses and Avogadro’s hyptohesis. Then, they continued to drag me through this *expletive* for 26 episodes at snail’s pace. Trust me, I am ok with slow pacing and long 20+ episode series, but this torture was the first anime I actively disliked for a 20+ episode series.

Overall (5/10)
The best thing about this is surviving it. And the voice actors. I could have been watching cute girls doing cute things or maybe a romantic comedy, but this was about the worst thing that could happen to me. If you liked this series (I only judge silently) then I recommend “Special A” which is the same things about the female MC romance with Hot guy cool and good at everything saving the day, except not terrible. You can also try EVERY OTHER SHOUJO ANIME ABOUT A GIRL AND A HOT GUY like maybe “Kimi ni Todoke” or even better, “Inu x boku ss.” I know older romances like “welcome to the nhk” or “bakuman” can be good, but this one should be forgotten.

Tsuki ga Kirei, labeled as another school romance anime, didn't appear to be the standout of the season. Based on original work and plagued with production issues, it was considered to be the wild card of the season as no one knew what would happen. That said, this was easily the standout of the season for me and the anime that I would always look forward to most throughout the week. While nothing particularly special happens, it is within the simplicity of the show that shines.

The story: While not being elaborate or different, amazed me with how realistic and relatable the situations were. The two ... main characters with different things going on in their lives develop feelings for each other. Such a premise is so simple but this anime captures everything a middle-school student would feel. In middle school, you are still adjusting and learning to become more mature and adult-like. The awkwardness and nervousness they feel when they encounter new experiences such as love and relationships are displayed in a way that is relatable but not uncomfortable. The pacing is well done but plays out slowly, much like most other school romance anime.

The art: What looks nice is subjective to you. Instead I can only tell you what I thought of it. The 2.5D art style looked well done to me. The best and most easy comparison is to Makoto Shinkai's works, although not to that quality. Nonetheless, I found it nice to look at. There were some parts where I heard discussion about poor animation and the use of cgi, but I didn't catch it so I can't verify any weak points in the art or animation.

The sound: I found that all the voices fit well. All the emotions that needed to be captured through dialogue were conveyed and their feelings. Between the opening and ending, they fit with the overall tone. The real strength in sound were the insert tracks. Always timed well, fitting the tone and not being overbearing. Basically everything you'd want from your soundtrack.

The characters: Because of the simplistic story, a lot of pressure is put on the characters to feel and make the story work. Luckily, they all followed the story perfectly. The two main characters, as I've highlighted before, struggle with balancing new experiences in their daily life and it is clearly shown through actions, thoughts, dialogue and texts how they feel and the nervousness of new experiences. Chinatsu and Hira, the love obstacles of sorts, are both dealt with well. Without going into too much drama, their feelings are displayed and their actions match with what kids their age would do. Even though they are put in to disrupt the two's relationship, I sympathized with them while being happy that they failed to break apart Kotarou and Akane. The side characters are also worth a mention. Due to the immaturity and inexperience of Kotarou and Akane, the adults and older figures in their lives (more in Kotarou's life) play the role of mentor, giving advice and guiding the younger, less knowledgeable kids through new challenges.

Enjoyment: If it wasn't abundantly clear, I love this anime. The experiences were relatable and it is the runaway best anime of the season for me.
enjoyment factors (some may be repeated from above) could be:
+ cuteness, I found myself squealing whenever they did something couple or relationship-like
+ realism and relatability
+ uses good symbolism
+ likeable characters
+ good pacing
+ relationship that progresses throughout the story
+ soundtrack
+ art
+ drama progresses story, no pointless drama
- some episodes delayed due to production issues (you don't have to worry about that now!)
- If you don't like school romance anime
- If you didn't like any of the positives listed

Overall: I have said multiple times I think this is anime of the season, maybe anime of the year depending on what else we get in 2017. Even if you don't think it's as good as I say, I think that this anime is at least worth a try.