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I'm so intrigued by the existence of this thing, because it feels like anything about it has been wiped off the internet, at least in an official sense. With an OVA that's only 5 minutes and only 2 speaking characters, I was baffled to see cast members for the other characters on multiple sites, even logged on the waybackmachine. I wish I was fluent in Japanese so I could scrounge for details, like was it cancelled? The 5 minutes I did see were cute and had a chill vibe. Was it because it was a male crossdressing anime and 2010 just wasn’t ready for it ... yet? There were talks of a DVD being sold, even what looked to be one on yahoo auctions. Is it just that 5 minute PV, or is it a proper OVA/OVA series? If so, is it just lost media? There's supposedly 2 chapters of a manga that are a prelude to it that I also can't find. I'm so perplexed by everything I come across.

5 stars for the brief entertainment of wondering what the hell was going on with this thing.

Maybe it's because I’ve been slogging through a lot of bad anime recently (most of which have higher scores than this show, for some reason), but I think people are way too hard on Eiyū Kyoushitsu. There's a lot to like about this show that I feel goes under appreciated. [DISCLAIMER: I have not read the manga or light novel; This is based off of the anime alone]

For starters, I really like the character designs (for the most part). My only main gripe in that department is Cu, because she's obviously pandering to "that" kind of audience. None of them are a feat of design, ... but they're all cohesive and nice to look at. It's also a personal bias because I love silly little cloaks, gloves, and hoods.

The backgrounds (outside of the battle arena) are also much more detailed than other anime of this ilk. As an artist, I know how labor intensive scenery can be, and this show does a good job of putting detail into the little things, like the trim on a wall, design of a pillar, or wear and tear on a wall of bricks. It was very nice to see.

As for the characters, they're fun to be around, or at least the core cast of Blade, Arnest, Cu, and Sophie are. The main 4 have the most defined personalities, Blade especially, which is a huge shock to me. I'm so used to power fantasy protagonists being blank slates, but Blade is dense, kind, and caring in a believable and consistent way. I also love that his relationship with Cu is strictly that of parent and child, no strings attached. The fan service is also handled a bit differently in this show in that most of the time the girls being sexualized just do not give a shit. There may be an offhand moment or two where they're embarrassed, but it feels more voyeuristic than exploitative. I would much rather characters at the hands of sexualization be into it or not care, instead of having their dignity stripped away, figuratively and literally, against their will to cater to people's power fetishes. It's not the most mature handling of sex in anime, it's still rather juvenile, but it's leagues better than other stuff I’ve watched.

As much as I enjoy this show, the middle batch of episodes are a HUGE SLOG as each one feels like a vehicle to introduce yet another girl into the harem that sticks around for no reason. All these characters could’ve been very compelling if they had the time dedicated to them, and I think that's where everyone gets pissed off. They expected a plot driven fantasy, but instead got a slice of life comedy. These characters may be fun, but they aren’t enough for the drag of the middle episodes. It's bad when you can cut episodes and characters entirely and not lose anything. That's really the biggest negative. Eiyū Kyoushitsu got a couple genuine laughs out of me, but it's way too reliant on tropes to grow into itself.

Give it a watch if you want some popcorn, but skip it if you want substance.

I can tell why this show has few reviews. I picked it on a whim because I thought the poster was charming, but unfortunately this show is just a whole lot of nothing. A couple of character designs and backgrounds are nice, but everyone in the show is as flat as a board, with a singular personality trait defining them for nearly the entire run. Now, this wouldn’t be much of an issue if the mysteries were engaging, but they're just as shallow as the rest of the writing, taking the place of filler, detracting time from the things that actually matter to the plot ... and characters. There's legit no reason to watch this anime, which pains me to say because I REALLY tried to like it.

There's a lot of questions surrounding Mayuki: Why does he live in a western styled mansion in Japan? Why is white haired Hatsune Miku after him? Why does he go galaxy brain when he drinks tea sometimes? Where are his parents? Why does his butler turn the maid and the older sister of a friend into battle automatons (or as the show calls them, Aya)? Why is every single girl mildly close to his age in love with him? Well, I can safely say, that there will be basically nothing surrounding the answers to these questions until episode 14. None of the initial, smaller mysteries add anything to the overarching plot, which is asinine for a 26 episode show. Mayuki and Seiran are easily the most interesting characters by default, but it's hard to keep that interest if almost every episode is spent spinning the wheels and getting nowhere. The core of the show's plot also has basically nothing to do with Mayuki's school friends or the detectives, so once you find that out, it feels like your time has been wasted with all of the focus that's been put on them. The ideas presented later on when things FINALLY get going are extremely interesting, but they're bogged down by too many faces and not enough to do.

When you have a mystery show, either you need engaging characters, thought out mysteries, or both. (in the best case scenario) This show has neither. If a character is introduced in the episode, and they aren’t the victim, chances are they're the perpetrator, and they're being mind controlled by the villain. It's hard to even consider what happens mysteries because they're either so obvious, something that audience can't possibly solve, or the show bends over backwards to get the mystery to work. (for example: a firefighter making an ice ladder just to impale a guy on a radio tower because the guy found out the firefighter was stealing things from buildings HE set on fire.) A good ⅔ of this anime could be cut and nothing would be lost. Honestly, I don't even know why it's a mystery show when the actual mysteries to be solved are nothing but filler level writing.

Another wasted opportunity is the setting. I'm a big fan of overgrown, dilapidated buildings, so it takes real effort to not make them interesting to me. If the setting was replaced with any other anime that takes place in vaguely futuristic Japan, there wouldn’t be anything missing. It hardly explores the main core of its environment, that being Tokyo becoming ruined in the wake of a natural disaster (caused by something story related at least), and what that potentially did to the entire country. It's like everything about this show was on a dart board and was chosen at random, nothing is cohesive or thematically resonant.

Sad waste of intrigue...

They went ham on the harmonica.




I would’ve just posted that, MAL said there needs to be more information so :/ Poor animation, flat characters, an OST consisting mostly of a lone harmonica. (not gonna lie, that's kind of charming, but it's also grading for episodes that're 40 minutes long.) Just kind of a whole lot of nothing; I can't blame anyone on production since they probably had a shoestring budget. I didn't know anything going into it; Just stumbled upon this by chance while perusing MAL. If you want to see poorly animated sex scenes, and things just kind of happening, then give it a ... watch, but there's probably something more engaging you could be spending your time on.

A lighthearted romp to pass the time that got a few laughs out of me. Each character had their own little quirks that endeared me to them, despite the fact they aren't the most complex or unique out there. Everyone has a fun dynamic with each other dripping in the essence of its 4-koma origins. Hideri, Kaho, Kōyō, and Mafuyu were the characters I had the most fun watching, especially the snappy banter between Mafuyu and Kōyō. They're similar in vibe, but bring their own fun traits to the table. (pun intended) Basically, I liked them all, with the exception of Dino, but I’ll get ... to him later.

The production quality is fairly consistent, and the art is soft and serviceable. I like some of the tracks of the OST, as they make for calming background noise while doing things around the house. Though nothing is stand-out-amazing, the tracks are very soothing to listen to on their own, and compliment their scenes pretty well. For once, I was okay with the generic background art, as it puts the focus squarely on the characters and their wacky antics. This is a comedy show, first and foremost.

Even though I thought the cast was charming, and they kept me engaged, I still couldn’t enjoy myself sometimes because of the worst character, Dino, and the fact that the rest of the cast cheers him on. He isn’t the most boring character, he even has his own charm, but the thing that made him basically unbearable to me was the fact that this 26 year old man has a crush on a 16 year old, and everyone else condones it and is actively rooting for him by the end. As someone who is his age, I can't even fathom having a crush on someone that young, and the age gap in emphasized by her looking so young and tiny compared to him. He's quite literally a pedophile, and Mafuyu and Kōyō routinely threaten to call the police on him/beat him up, which makes them aware of its inappropriate nature; It's even more confusing as to why they're suddenly chill with it in the last episodes. I understand it's a gag show, and things shouldn’t be taken seriously, but the adults around Maika constantly allowing this grown man to creep around her puts a bad taste in my mouth. The sad thing is, I like dynamics similar to that of Dino and Maika, but the 10 year age gap is so distracting, and sours everything for me since the show can't make up its mind as to whether or not it's messed up. If it didn't draw attention to it, I'd be able to tolerate it more, and just kind of ignore it. I don't derive humor from watching an infantile 26 year old (unsuccessfully) hit on a dense 16 year old. I would much prefer spending time with the other members of the cast.

There is a second implied relationship in the series with Kaho and Kōyō that isn’t as creepy?? but it's still suspect. (Kaho is 17 and Kōyō is 21.) Mafuyu is by default my favorite since she doesn’t have inappropriate relationships with the kids, and actively stops them from partaking in anything sexual, at least at work. But she gradually becomes more passive about the creep shit, so the note I ended on with her was meh.

One of the most painful slogs I’ve ever had to sit through. The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 is because there's a canonically bisexual character (and even then it's sort of played as a joke).

This show does not know what it wants to be. The first few episodes + the last one are structured like a gag anime, and in the middle there is serious stuff happening with death and gore. I've seen series do this well, however, this show lacks something those shows have: Developed characters. The characters in this anime have a lot of potential. Dementia wizard, frugal ... fairy, badass knight lady, and some handyman. But that potential is completely squandered.

Saitou has little to no personality like the rest of isekai nice guys, and everyone just kind of flocks to him even though he's as emotionally complex as a piece of cardboard. A modern handyman in a fantasy setting is unique, and it makes sense why others would be interested in his prowess. But there is no substance in terms of personality or emotional depth that would keep those people around.

Raelza's defining trait other than being a knight is that she's in love with Saitou, and, not to be 'that guy', but I'm tired of women in anime being defined by the men around them. Without Saitou or Morelock, Raelza is nothing. The fact that she's physically strong doesn't mean anything if she's constantly being saved, or completely emotionally reliant, on the men in her life. It would've been awesome to see her hobbies or opinions on anything else happening within the world, perhaps even developing her friendship with Lafapan, and talking about something that isn’t the guys in the party.

Lafapan and Morelock are the closest to actual, developed characters in this show. Lafapan has an actual personality that doesn’t revolve around another character, and is instead informed by the fact that she's a fairy and the backbone of the team when it comes to healing. She isn’t the deepest character, but she's a hell of a lot more interesting than Raelza or Saitou.

Morelock, on the other hand, has a lot of intriguing concepts surrounding him, but the trait that makes him unique also holds him back, as it's hard to connect with a character that is constantly resetting and emotionally stagnant. It would’ve been better if his memory issues were actually treated with some gravity when the situations were serious instead of constantly being a joke. As someone who struggles with short term memory due to a variety of factors, it would’ve been validating for him to at least reflect once in a while on his condition, or have the others (namely Raelza) actually be affected by it. Having someone you care about be subject to the deterioration of their memory is harrowing, and it makes no sense for Raelza specifically to treat him a joke or a burden 99% of the time.

The amount of side characters that the show tries to get you to care about is ridiculous, as the viewer doesn’t spend an adequate amount of time with any of them to give a shit. Specifically, there's a plotline in the middle involve a fairy, ninja, and a witch, and we're just expecting to care that the witch is dying because she and the ninja fell in love after her kissed her one time instead of killing her. Like, okay??? There's NOTHING to them outside of that. Their plot had essentially zero bearing on the main cast. The only side character I liked, besides the bisexual guy, is the Power Wizard because he's hilarious, and he's used like once and then never again.

If it wasn’t for the fact I'm trying to finish more anime instead of dropping them after 2 episodes, I would’ve dropped this one a second time.

So, this is my second attempt at watching this show, and I can safely say that it doesn’t put focus where it needs to be. I have no complaints when it comes to art direction or music; They range from serviceable to great, and there is hardly ever any dips in quality in those departments. My real grievances come from the writing. It comes off as 'baby's introduction to racism'.

The main character is a mixed bag. I can understand her wanting to see the good in everyone, however, her being shocked at literally every revelation of the government trying to wipe out the people of ... 86 is so grating. "What do you mean the goal of the Spearhead squad is to kill the most resilient 86, and that's why they don't send replacements? D:" YEAH, NO SHIT SHERLOCK. It's almost as if the government putting the 86 in concentration camps, sending them to war, and telling the public the juggernauts are unmanned wants them dead! Wow! It would be one thing if she was completely ignorant to the maliciousness of the system, after all, propaganda is a powerful thing, but from the get go she is aware that the government treats the 86 as subhuman, so why is she continually shocked by their treatment? Also, for someone this stupid and rebellious, how did she become the youngest major in the history of the military? I DO NOT understand how a regime this controlling of the narrative would allow her to even get this far.

When it comes to the actual 86 themselves, not nearly enough focus is put on them being people. Ironically, the story is so much more focused on Lena that the actual oppressed people are accessories to her narrative, and as a result, when they die it is like nothing happened. Hell, some of them with more screen time just get killed off screen, like Haruto. The only ones with a modicum of depth are Shin and Theo. I say this because outside of them, the other members of Spearhead are nearly indistinguishable from one another aside from basic traits. It's hard to make and explore complex characters with a roster this packed, but it has been done before. (I like to point to Bokurano, as the characters have unique dynamics with each other, even if their designs and personalities can be basic.) By treating the many members of Spearhead as canon fodder, the narrative comes off as something that has it's heart in the right place, but is ignorant that it's perpetuating the same favoritism as the government it's criticizing. If you switched around members or their personalities, there wouldn’t be much, if any, change.

Anyway, everything else I have are nitpicks. These are my main gripes and they ruin what could’ve been an engaging watch for me.