Adaptations of harem based eroge have increased in frequency lately, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka (hereby referred to as "Akasaka") is an example of one that has possibly been butchered due to some factors (using the seiyuu from the PS2 adaptations, the ending). Directed by Keitarou Motonaga, notorious for directing other harem anime (School Days, Onii-chan no Koto) and Katanagatari (a big surprise) Akasaka proves that it is a product of many trite, anime/eroge cliches that were mixed in a blender of sorts with hints of fanservice added as some sort of seasoning. Ah yes, the eroge itself was produced by feng around 1 year before
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the anime adaptation as well.
Either way, I shall get on with the reviewing now. This is also my first review that isn't a joke so the probability of me making mistakes is pretty high.
Story: 3/10
The main plot (which gets shoved out of the way within only 2 episodes, wow) is the stereotypical "girl who has a bonus of being rich but she tries to make sure people don't know that ends up living with an ordinary high schooler who also turns out to be her fiancee, hilarity ensues" one that is quite common amongst anime and eroge. The little differences are that the main heroine, Yuuhi Katagiri, turns out to be a tsundere (plus the "ojou" role is relegated to Karen Ayanokouji, someone who is only an add on heroine for the PS2 adaptation) and the Rie Kugimiya type too. The protagonist, Junichi Nagase, also probably fell for her at the beginning and as the series goes on he does build up his relationship with Yuuhi but it ultimately goes to waste in the end, for reasons that are possibly obvious and are what kind of add to the notoriety of the Akasaka adaptation. (Oops, spoiler.)
When I mentioned in brackets that the plot does get shoved out of the way within only 2 episodes, it really does. The first 2 focus on Yuuhi meeting Junichi and making herself out to be a tsundere (since Junichi impulsively steals her first kiss, oh Junichi look at what you've done you indecisive harem protagonist) and Yuuhi getting to know Junichi's little sister, Minato. We learn about how Yuuhi is a sheltered rich girl in the second, but then we end up watching the cast's harem shenanigans afterwards until the last few
episodes.
Oh yes, the classmates also decide to constantly remind Yuuhi and Junichi of the first kiss, to their dismay, and the dismay of the viewer since it gets irritating after the first few times. Episodes 3-10 are ultimately filler, even though some of them are dedicated to other not noteworthy cast members like the two childhood friends of Junichi, the main "ojou" (I think i'll say rich girl from now), the mysterious character whose motives aren't touched upon throughout the series, the school idol and student council president who is a trickster, the teacher who is childish and male and possibly others who will be described in the characters section. You could say they're there to develop the relationship but that could've been done without all these wasted minutes.
Actually, there were some things that were pretty cool (Junichi's parents, Nagomi's behaviour) but they were executed poorly and should've been relegated to a different series altogether. Here they were seen as unnecessary and plot holes that are never given any more thought.
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Art: 5/10
The animation in Akasaka wasn't the worst, but it wasn't the best either. The animators possibly slacked off while working on the figures, as their faces were consistently off model at times (except for the last episode) when they were moving around and what not. The backgrounds were your standard fare for anime, not being really special in particular (although compared to others I haven't watched much so I might not be right in this area). The character designs were pretty fancy, mostly with the hairdos. The faces are cute, with the boy's faces making themselves look like they could qualify as successful crossdressers. Even though they weren't bad, they weren't entirely unique (Yuuhi's and Mitsuki's hairdos are pretty similar and if it weren't for Mitsuki's hat and different face they could've been mistakened for each other) the somewhat different faces and colours of the hairdos were the only ways you could differentiate the others. Watching Akasaka with the designs felt like watching someone playthrough a dating sim with animated scenes all around.
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Sound: 5/10
There's not much to say about the sound and music and whatnot, since the themes themselves were pretty forgettable and your standard J-pop fare. On the other hand, you can see that they used an all star seiyuu cast as replacements that would be used for the anime. With Rie Kugimiya (Yuuhi, of course), Aya Hirano (Minato), Wataru Hatano (Junichi), Akira Ishida (Fuyuhiko), Marina Inoue (Tsukasa)... anyone who wasn't a really minor character practically was voiced by a well-known seiyuu. (Aya is an exception as she was voiced by Kaori Fukuhara, and the Nagase mother since she was voiced by Atsuko Tanaka.) Sadly, their talent was put to waste and ended up being considered kind of annoying, especially Rie Kugimiya's tsundere spouting nonsense as Yuuhi. Some of the voices can get on the nerves of people, namely Minato's and Fuyuhiko's, maybe to mimic the original seiyuu? Who knows.
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Character: 2/10
Ah, the part where you could easily frown at how badly they were handled. The characters in Akasaka were walking cliches, only having maybe one or two traits to separate them from the norm. The anime does try to make them look important and not flat; actually, that only goes for Junichi, but they fail.
I'll be describing each of them, well at least from what I gathered from watching the anime.
Junichi Nagase: Stereotypical harem protagonist who is living with an often praised little sister! Has two childhood friends, Fuyuhiko and Tsukasa, who like to trouble him a lot! Just like the student council president, Mitsuki Shiina, who uses him as some sort of lap dog of sorts since he's free! He also comes with the added traits of being somewhat idiotic when it comes to handling a tsundere, being untidy, really childish and having a back story that mainly gets focused on it during the last 2 episodes. Junichi comes off as manly and the only sane man in the first episode but he is then shown as a harem protagonist with a swimsuit fetish afterwards.
He is also snarky but that's because he gets treated like shit a lot by his friends. He goes through minor character development that maybe shouldn't qualify as character development. At the end he's revealed to have Chuuni syndrome (eternal manchild syndrome), something never mentioned anywhere else. It comes off as a weak excuse to add weak character development that you would only notice by him stating what happened. Indecisive as hell.
Yuuhi Katagiri: Token tsundere heroine who gets the bonus of being voiced by Rie Kugimiya and is also short and flatchested compared to the others. Also a rich girl who gets engaged to Junichi but shows her tsun side when he unexpectedly steals her first kiss and ends up using his first kiss too. Compared to other tsunderes, Yuuhi isn't as likable. She isn't as bad as, say, Naru from Love Hina or Louise from Zero no Tsukaima but she comes off as an incredibly shallow one who blames Junichi for most things. She also can't cook when she isn't being supervised and requires master chef Minato to help her. She seems to be knowledgeable about flowers and types of tea and teacups due to her upbringing as a rich girl too.
Minato Nagase: Disgustingly sweet little sister demi-heroine who is possibly related to Junichi. Practically perfect, since she's great at household chores and is used to living in the jungle, she gets praised a lot by the other characters. Minato could be considered a Mary Sue because of her really friendly nature and plus she gets a good amount of attention in the episodes from the writing staff and the characters. Minato seems to be a bit of a brocon, as she knows a lot of things about Junichi to an extent that can be considered stalker behaviour if it weren't for the fact that she's his sister. She's the perfect girl of the dating sim in a little sister persona, but we actually never get told whether she does well academically. She's also in the tennis club.
Tsukasa Kiryuu: Childhood friend character who is one of the haremettes but you only get mild hints with a noticeable one in her spotlight episode, Tsukasa is a lively girl who is often seen with Fuyuhiko (as they apparently have the same personalities with some differences) who is in the Newspaper Club. Because she's in the newspaper club, this means that she's automatically a gossip. At times it is shown that she cares more about Junichi and the others, even moreso than Fuyuhiko. Apparently she wanted to be a seiyuu when she was younger because of a magical girl anime she watched with Junichi, and this is what her episode is all about.
Fuyuhiko Nishino: "Bromantic foil" character who surprisingly doesn't show much interest in persuing the girls. Practically has Tsukasa's character traits except he's an otaku of sorts who has the ability to talk to Junichi when he's going through brain revelations. He's shown at the end to be a decisive character who helps Junichi go through character development, so he's possibly genre savvy without constantly pointing it out. Also the vice president of the student council, but that's only seen twice.
Mitsuki Shiina: Student council president and school idol Amitie with an accent, Mitsuki is a trickster of sorts who isn't very good at keeping secrets (or is just a pest). Enjoys using Junichi as a lapdog and likes him but it's very easy to assume that she doesn't. There's not much to say about her, what a shame. Also a haremette.
Nagomi Shiraishi: ~Mysterious~ girl who acts like a dandere. Hinted to be an alien since she talks to some sort of unknown entity who wanted her to observe Junichi or something. A poorly executed character who is there to fulfill the fantasies of those who think that Yuuhi's breasts are too big, and she's also got a sister called Yutori. Also a haremette.
Karen Ayanokouji: Rich girl character who tries too hard when it comes to pleasing people. Gracefully hot blooded and (assuming these jokes were hers) can't tell jokes. Competitive with people who are well-liked or something, wasn't on the best terms with Yuuhi at the beginning but they eventually become sleepover buddies or something. Also a haremette.
Mikoto Tachibana: Senpai character who hangs around Mitsuki. Plays tennis too? I dunno, she's fanservice space with little screen time. Also a haremette.
Seijirou Sugishita: Playful teacher who's possibly gay for Junichi and gets into a only mentioned once rivalry with Fuyuhiko for the homo subtext with the protagonist space. He's a genderbent version of the unreliable teacher, and he also helps Junichi go through character development. He's poor.
Aya Nijou: Secretary and Treasurer of the student council. Shown to be blunt and considerably normal amongst the standards in this series. Not a haremette!
Nagase parents: Adventurous! Also, the mother is practically Fujiko Mine except nicer.
So there you have it. Cliche, cliche and cliche.
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Enjoyment: 4/10
Yes, despite all of the flaws I pointed out needlessly in this review, I didn't really mind watching it. Sure it's bland and cliched, but there were not many really really horrible bits aside from the ending. Also, it averted some of the cliches that it used too (no hot spring peeking) so it wasn't entirely facepalm worthy? I don't really have much to say for this part, surprisingly enough. All the characters are unlikeable though.
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Overall, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is an anime that achieves nothing in trying to be spectacular within its genre and was practically made to be fapping material (or what I said at the beginning). Others might like it, but I can say that it didn't tickle my fancy. I'm sure the original vn was hopefully better, and that the anime was just fucked up like most of eroge adaptations, so maybe this was just promotional material instead? The ending being like that so the angry people can just play the vn and experience the so-called true ending? Maybe.
Dec 23, 2011
Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka
(Anime)
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Adaptations of harem based eroge have increased in frequency lately, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka (hereby referred to as "Akasaka") is an example of one that has possibly been butchered due to some factors (using the seiyuu from the PS2 adaptations, the ending). Directed by Keitarou Motonaga, notorious for directing other harem anime (School Days, Onii-chan no Koto) and Katanagatari (a big surprise) Akasaka proves that it is a product of many trite, anime/eroge cliches that were mixed in a blender of sorts with hints of fanservice added as some sort of seasoning. Ah yes, the eroge itself was produced by feng around 1 year before
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