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Just another extremely bland, generic shoujo romance. The main character is a sweet, ditzy girl whose boyfriend, who she barely has a relationship with, breaks up with her. She's super hurt about it, but then she meets a cool, detached guy with zero social skills. The two leads are the laziest rom-com tropes come to life. The girl flails mindlessly, the guy is a piece of stone. They get closer over time because the plot demands them to, despite the male lead basically being a sociopath. The female lead is, of course, in love with him because he's hot and, under his icy exterior, he ... can be sort of kind at times. It's all bullshit. If you're easily entertained by low-effort shoujo crap, you might like this.

This has spoilers. A better name for Hetakoi would be "The Adventures of Dipshit and Dipshit." It starts out well enough. Komai Shizuka seems like a fairly sharp, forthright guy and he falls in love with Ruka, his senior in Tabisen, a hot springs club he joins. The first 20 chapters focus on the two of them getting to know each other and getting to the point where they're about to date. What follows is the most frustrating, excruciating collection of padding that I think I've ever seen. Roughly 30 chapters go by filled with all the typical padding elements. Fake-out love interests that exist ... just to waste time. Idiotic misunderstandings that could have been overcome by the slightest bit of communication. A moronic sideplot between two completely unimportant characters.

After chapter 20, everything could have been easily worked out had the leads just taken two minutes to talk to each other. A single question here or there would have been enough. Instead, they turn into gigantic, useless idiots that decide that whatever thing they're imagining is probably reality. It's all designed to pad out the wait until they finally get together because, what a shock, they briefly communicate effectively and the author decided to remove all the idiotic roadblocks that kept them apart. And then, in the end, we get to see a tiny bit of their relationship for three bonus chapters and then that's it. After stringing us along for over 30 chapters with lazy bullshit padding, we don't even get to spend any real time with them as a couple.

If you like contrived, frustrating Shoujo romances that focus on misdirection and padding, then you might like Hetakoi. But if you're even moderately intelligent and don't want to see two lobotomy patients making eyes at each other and doing fuck-all volume-after-volume, do yourself a favor and stay far away.

When an anime serves as a prequel for an Android-based RPG you've never heard of, chances are good that one shouldn't go into this series expecting much more than a four-hour commercial for the game it's advertising. Throughout the entire run of Zettai Bouei Leviathan, the show never really tries to be more than it is, which is a mediocre piece of fluff that just happens to have a fantastic voice cast.

Zettai Bouei Leviathan tells the story of a trio of dragon-girls on a planet named Aquafall that is occupied by dragon-people. At least, some of them are dragon-people, as we see non-dragon denizens milling ... about over the course of the show. One day, Aquafall starts getting pelted with meteorites that contain insects known as Lucasites who start invading the planet for an unspecified reason. In order to put up some resistance, the fairy Syrop goes on a journey to establish a team to defend Aquafall from these insect invaders, but, instead, she just ends up relaxing for a while with the first three girls she comes across and calls it a day. Once she infroms the girls that their planet is in grave danger, they all rebuke her, so she decides to stick around and convince them to join her team. That's right. The world is in grave danger and in her quest to form a team to save it, she asks the first three people she finds to assist her. Strangely enough. nstead of going and finding teammates who are actually interested in saving the world or who even have the skills required to do so, she decides that these three are her only options and spends an inordinate amount of time pestering them.

Granted, the story is mostly non-existent, but to be fair, If you decide to watch this, you're probably not here for the story. For the majority of the show's run-time, the characters just sort of hang around and do nothing, with the occasional cgi bug battle thrown in. However, for the most part they just go to the beach, eat, or visit a hot springs. Additionally, this anime acts as a prequel to the game, so the plot doesn't even really kick in during the show. In other words, if you want a story, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

As far as the characters go, they unfortunately don't fare much better. The cast mostly consists of the four main characters; Leviathan, a timid water-user, Bahamut, a selfish fire-user, Jormungandr, an adventure-loving warrior girl with an ax, and Syrop, a useless fairy that isn't good for anything other than food jokes. There's very little depth to the characters, who are best described as vague, color-coded archetypes. Although there is a bit of character development here and there, there isn't enough of it to make the audience care about any of them.

That isn't to say that the characters are particularly unlikeable, but their mannerisms and interactions can certainly be quite grating at times. Leviathan is obsessed with finding her brother, Bahamut has daddy-issues, and Jormungandr comes from a loving two-father family (which is something I've never seen in an anime before.) Syrop on the other hand is just annoying. We never learn anything about her and her comic relief moments are all so interchangeable that it's a wonder they exist at all. Bahamut is also extremely whiny and selfish, so she tends to grate on the nerves as well. On the other hand, Leviathan and Jormungandr are mostly non-offensive, so at least the major cast members aren't all annoyances.

Interestingly enough, Zettai Bouei Leviathan comes courtesy of Gonzo; the once powerful studio that famously imploded, only to slowly start building itself back up without any of its real talent on board. The lack of vision in the staff is visible throughout many aspects of the production. That is to say, Zettai Bouei Leviathan is extremely bland and generic to look at. The character designs are bland and extremely basic and the background art is the same type of typical fantasy fare that you can find anywhere else. There was absolutely no creativity expended on the characters, nor the world that they inhabit. That's not to say that they're badly drawn or anything, but everything is simply as cookie cutter as can be. Significant portions of the show take place in such interesting settings as Generic Fantasy Town and Generic Desert. All in all, the art isn't interesting to look at, which extends to action sequences and enemies. All of the Lucasites and dragons are rendered in CGI and while they don't look terrible, their appearance shares the same weaknesses as the rest of the art. They're completely non-threatening looking and, once again, extremely generic. The animation is much the same; it gets the job done while doing the bare minimum.

The girls also have transformation sequences, but these are boring as well. Each one just shows the characters wearing scale underwear (because they're dragons, or something) at which point they put on magic outfits and grow wings on their sides and heads. The fights are also very uninteresting to look at. When it comes to attack variety, the characters leave much to desire. Leviathan conjures water-tentacles to grab her foes, or throws water projectiles while Bahamut either throws fireballs or uses a stream of flame, while all Jormungandr does is hit stuff with one heavy swing of her ax. The battle scenes are few and far between, so they're not THAT redundant, but they do come across as rather lazy.

Then we have the voices. Despite how mediocre every other aspect of the show is, Zettai Bouei Leviathan has a fantastic voice cast made up of Saori Hayama (Ayase in OreImo), Eri Kitamura (Saya in Blood+), Ayana Taketatsu (Kirino in OreImo), and Kana Hanazawa (everything ever.) These talented actresses all do the best they can with the material, which, although it isn't much, helps to muster at least some enthusiasm for the series. They do sound a little bored, though, especially Saori, which is hard to fault her for, considering the monotone nature of her character. Still, the voice acting is the sole bright spot in the series. Why they got a star-studded voice cast and left them to languish with such mediocre material is beyond me, but if there's any reason to watch the show, it's them. On the other hand, the music is completely forgettable and not even worth mentioning.

All things considered, Zettai Bouei Leviathan isn't terrible. There's nothing particularly offensive about the show, but it is extremely boring most of the time. It mostly plays like an extremely long advertisement for the game and it feels like it only exists to spread the word and fill air time. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone, but I wouldn't moan and groan about it either. There isn't much to like, but at the same time, there's not much to hate either. If you just want a bland, fantasy show with a great voice cast and cute characters, you could certainly do worse than Zettai Bouei Leviathan, but there are much better shows to spend your time on.

When I first read about Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman I was excited at the thought of a new show based on the works of Lupin the Third creator, Monkey Punch. Then I saw that it was based off of a Pachinko game and my expectations immediately soured. By reading a synopsis one might even think that this show would be a Lupin ripoff, what with the main character Roman also being a descendent of a known thief, however, that doesn't turn out to be the case either.

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman tells the story of a man named Roman who goes by Manjiro in order to ... hide his identity while working as a helper in 19th century Kyoto. Yes, that's his occupation. He helps people. As you can probably guess, this leaves both he and his sister struggling to make a living. By night, however, Roman behaves like Robin Hood and steals from the wealthy to give it to the poor (and never taking any money for himself, despite him also being very poor.) He also has a magic suit that turns him into a sentai hero and a team that aids him, made up of his sister, a priestess, a perverted old man and a German who makes zombies. If that sounds like a big jumble, well, it is. To make things more confusing, though, the story isn't even remotely concerned with him being a thief outside of the first few episodes, as the story tries it's hand at questionable political intrigue headed up by a laughable main villain.

That being said, the story does actually get more interesting later on, which somewhat makes up for the inconsistent comedy of the first few episodes. There are even some fairly decent dramatic moments every now and again. All in all, the story is a very mixed bag, with a final episode that is completely out of place because of the clumsily used anachronisms on display. Still, there's more going on plot-wise than it would appear, although the standalone episodes can grate a bit.

As far as the art goes, it isn't really anything special. The characters all have that distinctive Monkey Punch style, but they aren't particularly good-looking. It's obvious that the show's art was done on a small budget as it looks more like a year-round Toei show than a thirteen episode series probably should. It's not offensively bad-looking or anything, it's all just bland outside of the character designs. Still, the animation isn't terrible and the show is artistically consistent at the very least. Worth special mention, however, is Roman's sister's dog. This dog is drawn in a way that seems like the responsible artists weren't entirely sure what dogs actually looked like. Its eyes are too human and it doesn't appear to have teeth, nor does it move like a dog, which is quite creepy.

Sound-wise the show fairs much better. The cast is headed up by vets like Nakai Kazuya and Kitamura Eri, who bring both Roman and his sister Koharu to life effectively. Also worth mentioning is Uchida Maaya, who does an excellent job as the courtesan Okuni. The rest of the cast is also very good, with a lot of strong performances across the board, although some Engrish singing that pops up later in the series sounds strange to say the least. The music isn't particularly memorable, either, but it gets the job done adequately enough.

The character's themselves aren't particularly impressive, either. Roman is your standard hero who always wants to help and/or save every one simply because he's a friend of justice, although he does have a surprising (considering the nature of the show) bit of character development. His sister Koharu spends most of her screen-time complaining to her brother because of his lack of income and gambling, so she doesn't really do much. There's a priestess named Kanade who helps Roman out, although she doesn't really have much too her. She's mostly there to act like a ninja and get ogled by an old genre stand-by; the perverted old man. The old man, Gennai, can mostly be described as "stock", as he acts kooky and constantly stares at Koharu and Kanade. He also builds various machines, vehicles, and robots, because this is anime and it needs robots for some reason. The last member of Roman's team is a German scientist named Dr. Hans who makes zombies who also help the team out. He seems to be there simply for a weird factor and he speaks Japanese very strangely because he's foreign. The main cast is rounded out by a mysterious law enforcement agent named Magoichi, and the courtesan Okuni, who gets the most character development. She also seems a lot like a famous comic book character, whom you'll immediately think of as there are some extreme similarities between the two. Overall, the character's aren't terrible, but they aren't particularly likeable either, although at the same time, they don't grate.

Despite the shows shortcomings, it's pretty watchable. You won't ever be on the edge of your seat or anything, but there are definitely worse shows to watch. I'd say that the best way to sum the show up would be, "light, yet forgettable." The show lacks a consistent tone, jumping from comedy, to drama, to action, to confusing alternate history. The climax is also pretty bewilderingly stupid, along with the main bad guy's motivation making literally no sense whatsoever. If you really like shows set in pre-Industrialized Japan with a lot of anachronistic technology, you might get some enjoyment out of Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman, but your time is probably better spent elsewhere, unless you really want to hear Nakai Kazuya do something other than a tough guy or Uchida Maaya showing her impressive range.