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After being shoved fanservice in your face during the "0st" Episode of Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata, you might wonder if this Harem RomCom is worth a shot at all. Saekano for short does offer a lot of humor that rises from unusual situations, but will that already make for a good stay?

Saekano's plot isn't outstanding, but makes enough room for the characters and interesting events. Protagonist Tomoya finds his personal "heroine" and is suddenly motivated to create the best dating sim in the world and needs the help of two very unusally behaving ladies, Eriri and Utaha. This is where the show gets its amusement ... from: Many references to "otaku culture" clichés related to exactly those characters. Furthermore, this gets amplified by Katou, the heroine, who has a very uninteresting, close to stealthy personality and joins the conversation now and then.
Here, it's also rather interesting how the show talks about the Japanese "Doujin Scene" rather often - it makes for a bit more refreshing talk.

Even in 12 episodes, Saekano manages to let some characters develop quite a bit. The personalities might be a bit plain at first, but that is part of the reason why the show is as enjoyable as it is. The biggest problem the show has, is the way the events unfold. While Eriri and Utaha are interesting at first, they get too much screen time in relation to their in-existent development. Their behaviour doesn't really change, as one would expect for a short stay of 12 episodes like Sakaeno, whereas Katou's and Tomoya's personalities are way more interesting in that aspect. Their actions and reasons are the ones we get a real insight on. Balancing out the different girls' screentime might have been a mistake, because the time focused on Eriri and Utaha seems to have no real purpose other than comedy (and unfortuantely fanservice). Nevertheless, the time Katou and Tomoya get was definitely more interesting, and the show was funny and amusing at any point whatsoever.

As with any harem show, while never realistic, everything feels quite natural, except for the fanservice. Maybe it's because I have gotten used to it, but I believe the quantity wasn't unbearable. With the maint aspect being the dialogue, I am sure one can ignore it while watching. Not to mention the whole serious is far from keeping the image "Episode 0" might give you.

Now, with those aspects of the setting and plot, what's left is Art and Sound. While not outstanding either, Saekano does succeed in supporting it's Comedy with both these things. The art was up-to-date, nice to look at and even if there were already better anime in that aspect, Aniplex did a good job. Sometimes the artstyle shifted a little bit, closely resembling the Monogatari-seriesi, which made it a bit more interesting but was not much of an enrichment.
The soundtrack was only decent, too. It never posed a problem, but it didn't impress me, either. It always gives off the right atmosphere, but is overshadowed by the good voice acting. Specifically Katou always said things the way you would imagine. Towards the end, this changes a bit for the better, because of plot reasons, one might say.

Overall, Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata was a quite likable show. It didn't bring an entirely new story, but it was a Harem RomCom with little mistakes and a likable cast. The way the show makes fun of "otaku" and Doujin culture is also rather enjoyable.
If you can get over fanservice and be amused by characters that do indeed stay a bit shallow, then this will be a nice stay for you.
I personally look forward to hearing of a second season, myself.