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STORY 3
ART 7
SOUND 6
CHAR 5
ENJOY 5
OVERALL 5

This show is basically glorified male fantasy about saving teenage girls... that is if the teenage girl is so naive and out of touch that its hard to believe she didn't willingly get herself into predicaments. The plot starts off promising but doesn't end as well. The only likeable character in the end is Gotou.


... SPOILERS BELOW
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Sayu is a really dislikable character bc she doesn't ever try to do anything for herself besides seek validation from men. Yoshida isn't terrible but he also isn't remarkable and the way the story sets him up to be this hot commodity with women is laughable.

Sayu is a girl who can't stop pitying herself and renders her own self useless. Her brother was sympathetic to her situation with their mom and gave her adequate financial support and advice to leave home for a few weeks. He specifically told her to stay in a hotel yet she squandors her money and ends up sleeping with random men.

She started to ignore her brother's calls and tosses her phone when its out of battery. Even when Issei confronted Sayu at Yoshida's apartment, he was sympathetic to her still and gave her an extra week to prepare her return home. I really dont get why the story tried to imply he was in any way villainous when hes been supportive to Sayu. I get not wanting to go home but if she accepted her brothers support earlier on she wouldn't have resorted to sleeping with random men.

Even with her friends suicide all she should think was "oh my god she died bc of me, woe is me" When it was the bullies who killed her friend. Sayu is the typical person who gets themselves into shit and want others to dig her out of her own hole. I understand life gets hard but her troubles seem relatively manufactured compared to some more serious things that can happen to young people.

It became harder to sympathize with Sayu as the episodes dragged on, because she learned nothing about being overdependent. She still depends on Asami, Yoshida, et. al. to escape from her "troubled past". She could've gotten a job without the advice of Yoshida since she didnt need his help in applying. She also could've sought out females on the street instead of men.. It feels like a poor excuse on her end to say she didn't know better when her own brother told her from the start....

This series began with an interestin enough plot point but turns into some male fantasy of rescuing a hopeless empty brained teenage girl who he falls in love with. The powers of an average man in anime never fails huh.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

The character designs for the supporting casts and villains are miles better than for the main/recurring cast. Kirinmaru, Yawaragi, Konton and Lady Kyuki are my personal favorites.

Animation quality is pretty inconsistent and looks pretty rushed, but a lot of anime seems to be this way when currently airing. I also had a high expectation for the series OP/ED since InuYasha gave us a legendary soundtrack, but its been pretty lukewarm (season 1 ED was good).


SPOILER REVIEW:

One thing that has really annoyed me is how there seems to be no character development, only story progression [example below]. The fillers in this series do not really ... build up the main characters' likeability so much as to cameo older casts.

Episode 16 had a lot of potential to spotlight Moroha for her childish combat tactics as she had to go face-to-face in a fatal duel against her former trainer, Yawaragi. She was supposed to understand that she cannot recklessly depend on the rouge to win her battles, but instead hone her skills the old-fashioned way to become a good figher. Yawaragi is killed, and three episodes later Moroha whips out her rouge without one ounce of consideration of what Yawaragi was trying to instill in her with her last moments in life.

[Moroha utilizes a "rouge" that has been passed down from Lady Izayoi that allows her to transform into Beniyasha. Put simply, this swells her demon energy (since she is only 1/4th demon) and increases her skills in combat. The trade-off is that she has less control over her instincts much like InuYasha in the past.]

I am only 18 episodes in, and Im only keeping up with this series out of my love and dedication to Rumiko Takahashi's legacy but I find this whole series to be a dull experience.