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The show starts off introducing us to two of the main characters, Kaede and Shinobu. Both quickly won me over as cute and likeable characters, and thus began the fun ride, or so I thought.

The moment Onsokumaru appears, he immediately came across as an annoying character, the kind who might be okay to a point for comic relief and to provide some antics for the more likeable characters to play off of. Unfortunately it wasn't just a little; he was in nearly every scene, and possibly got more total screen time than either of the above mentioned girls. That such an annoying character was a ... non-stop presence pretty much ruined this anime series for me.

Kaede, Shinobu, and the third main girl Miyabi could have made for a cute, funny and entertaining show, with the support of other characters such as Kaede's mom and dad, rival clan leader Izumi, and others. I could have given the show a 6 or 7 rating if only Onsokumaru had been relegated to a less frequent supporting character, or even left out entirely. That the girls were so likeable is why I didn't give it an even lower rating.

Three years after writing this review, I rewatched the show and wrote a blog about it, which may be viewed at https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=876976 (comments welcome). The blog goes into a lot more detail but in summary, I completed all 12 episodes (not 5; MAL won't allow me edit that field), my assessment of episodes 1-5 was about the same as described here but I found episodes 6-12 more enjoyable, and I have revised my MAL rating upward from 3 to 6.

The rest of this review below is my original unedited review from 2019.

The description of this anime had me a little skeptical whether I'd be able ... to enjoy it, but the above average score and the numerous comments about how cute it was convinced me to give it a try. Two episodes in, I was finding it very discomforting, even cringy, leaving me doubting whether to continue watching. Where is this story headed? There was still plenty of room at that point for the main characters and their relationship to develop in a way that would make it a worthwhile journey. But my efforts to get a feel for what lie ahead suggested that it was largely more of the same. Still, for whatever reason, I watched some more. Episode 3 was actually somewhat enjoyable. The fourth was a return to the unpleasantness of the first two. And then came episode 5.

What's the problem? Without mincing any words, I cannot help but see Takagi as a horrible person for the way she bullies Nishikata. No matter how cute she is, treating another person like that isn't cute or funny, it's just mean. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango, and quite frankly Nishikata is an idiot in how he handles her treatment. Too often he tries overthinking things when he could just end it by saying 'I don't care', 'No thanks', or by ignoring her and walking away if possible. But every time he falls into her trap, even when he knows it's a trap and could easily avoid it.

Is it teasing or bullying? My take on it is that teasing means keeping it within the bounds of the parties' sense of humor, limiting it to stuff they'd be able to laugh about after the fact. I don't see Takagi exercising any such restraint. She has little sense of when enough's enough. Furthermore, her actions have tangible consequences for Nishikata, such as getting extra cleaning duty as punishment, or failing a math test, and when things like that are the result, it's over the line from teasing into bullying. Some have compared their antics to Road Runner and Coyote, but that comparison fails when you consider that Coyote is usually the perpetrator, the one who starts it, and that's generally not the case for Nishikata. As a general rule, bullying scenes are uncomfortable for me to watch, even when the bully is the antagonist and the victim is the protagonist. That they're trying to unapologetically make it out to be cute and funny just makes it worse.

In other respects, the show gets better marks. The OP and ED animations are impressive and well done, and I enjoyed the setting and give the background artists high marks. The scenes that feature the three girls, Mina, Sanae, and Yukari, were enjoyable in a CGDCT kind of way. In a lot other anime I might complain that they're filler that only takes time away from the main story, but in this case they're welcome relief from it. Character design is average. Takagi is actually very cute, but then so are the characters in Happy Tree Friends. On the balance, I'll give the show a 3/10 rating.

Full disclosure: I couldn't finish the series. I tend to be a 'completist' and with over 250 anime completed at this writing I had never dropped one before. The closest I've come before was a few that had me pondering whether watching something else would be a better use of my time. But with this one, after the math test scene in episode 5 it was too painful to go on. The streak is broken as "Teasing Master Takagi-san" becomes my first ever drop, as well as only the second to score below a 4. Now I hear there's going to be a second season, which makes me think about how many other shows I would like to see get another season that probably never will. One thing that might make me decide to resume watching is if Takagi does a turnabout ala Shouya Ishida in season 2, but I'm not holding my breath.

I wasn't sure what to expect coming into this anime, described as being about a 10-year-od teaching a class of middle school girls, tagged as harem and ecchi. On the whole, I found it to be easy to watch and enjoy without it getting too heavy with the drama. The story was well done and at times delightful.

I especially loved the characters and how they developed over the course of the show. Negi is portrayed well in terms of the balance between having to be the teacher and authority figure in the classroom, and being a boy younger than the class he teaches. Asuna is ... flawed yet likeable as the lead female character, and Chomo is amusing as the comic relief ermine. Something that especially impressed me is that all 31 of the girls in Negi's class had faces and names, and most of them had a significant supporting role in at least one or two episodes of the series. By contrast, most series in a setting like this would focus on no more than about 8 or so characters while the rest become nameless background characters, whereas this one does a surprisingly good job of making the whole class look real without distracting too much from the primary characters.

The music is kind of odd-sounding at times, yet oddly fitting. The art generally very good, though not particularly exemplary or stylistically notable.

Let me also address that ecchi tag. There are a few instances of characters in their undergarments, or even portraying them nude in such places as public baths, but they generally have a sort of youthful innocence about them. There is little if any of the sexual innuendo or eroticism commonly seen in ecchi portraying characters a few years older. What relationships develop between characters are reasonably in keeping with the ages of the characters - middle school crushes and such.

The final story arc has some heavier drama in it than the rest of the series up to that point, and I felt uncertain going into the last couple of episodes. Let it suffice to say that the final episode has a couple of surprises that some might say are over the top but I thought they worked well and were a pleasant turn of events to see. It ended well and left me liking it more than I expected to, or thought I would even a few episodes in.

A couple of days ago I binged through "Bunny Girl Senpai" and thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn't until I came to this page that I saw the discussions about it being similar to "Bakemonogatari", up to and including accusations of blatant plagiarism. As luck would have it, "Bakemonogatari" was near the top of my PTW list, so I decided to watch it and see for myself how similar they were.

The two series have some notable similarities. Both have a male lead who thorough a series of 2 to 3 episode story arcs aids a series of female characters who have been experiencing a variety of ... supernatural/paranormal phenomena that are messing up their lives. In both cases, the male is something of an outcast who has been through something similar himself who can't help wanting to aid these girls with their struggles. Also in both, he gets into a romantic relationship with the first girl, who then proves to be understanding and supportive when he comes to the aid of other girls.

Beyond that, however, there are huge differences between the two. The art style and atmosphere is the most glaring difference; "Bunny Girl Senpai" is set in a realistic (albeit animated) world, whereas "Bakemonogatari" has a much more arthouse/impressionistic feel to it, often dark but at times whimsical and farcical. "Bunny Girl Senpai" stays pretty much in the realm of emotional drama whereas "Bakemonogatari" ventures much closer to horror territory, with some scenes portraying blood and graphic violence. The nature of the supernatural/paranormal phenomena differs between the two. "Bakemonogatari" has themes of vampirism, and the phenomena are portrayed as demonic curses of some sort, whereas there's nothing of the sort in "Bunny Girl Senpai", where some are tied to concepts of a more scientific nature, such as Schrödinger's Cat or Laplace's Demon. It also bears mentioning that the use of supernatural/paranormal phenomena as story elements are not unique to these two series. They are also central themes in other series such as "Kokoro Connect" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", and feature less prominently in other stories such as the series "Clannad" or the film "Your Name".

In summary, while "Bunny Girl Senpai" and "Bakemonogatari" have some notable similarities, they have enough differences to preclude any claims of copying. To say they are alike would be like claiming that chefs on the Food Network show "Chopped" made the same dish just because their dishes included the same four mystery basket ingredients.

Since this is supposed to be a review of "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai", I suppose it behooves me to actually review it. I came into the series thinking it was a quirky romantic comedy, which isn't very accurate, but I soon found the show enjoyable enough for what it was. The characters introduced in the first story arc were engaging and likable, making me want to see how that situation played out. There were a couple of moments, especially one in episode 3, that were so over the top that I briefly toyed with dropping the series, but I'm glad I didn't, as the characters and situations explored in later episodes proved to be just as engaging as those we meet early on. The art and visuals were well done, as was the audio and the musical score. All in all, it's a well done and highly enjoyable series. It covers the first five volumes of the associated light novels; I shall be looking forward to the forthcoming film that covers the next two volumes of the series.

By the way, I also recommend "Bakemonogatari".

The premise of the series sounded interesting. Maika is having trouble finding a job because of her scary appearance, until she meets up with Dino (often referred to as simply Manager) who thinks her scary appearance is a perfect fit for the role of sadist in his theme cafe. Already working at the cafe are Mafuyu (the "little sister"), Kaho (the "tsundere") and chef Akizuki. Three other characters are introduced over the course of the series, Miu ("big sister"), Hideri ("idol"), and Owner, a corgi (possibly a tip of the hat to "Cowboy Bebop").

I wanted to like the series more than I did, but by ... the end of the series what could have been awesome felt mediocre. Too many of the episodes relied on misunderstanding, and the nosebleed trope was overused. Meanwhile some of the more interesting aspects of characters went unexplored, such as Maika's interest in international travel (though it's sort of featured in the end title sequence). There could have been more cafe operations showing the servers playing their roles with customers. Some of the characters aren't developed to any appreciable degree.

There were, however, some positives. One of the more enjoyable episodes centers around the relationship between Kaho and Mafuyu. Despite the issues discussed above, the series was on the whole amusing and enjoyable to watch. By the end of the season it felt like they had just gotten done introducing all the characters and laid the groundwork for future episodes. As most of my complaints were of the unrealized potential variety, it will be interesting to see what they can do with it in the future should they decide to extend the series into one or more additional seasons.

This is perhaps not so much a review as an effort to point out that I found the plot summaries and synopses, both here on MAL and on other sources, to be misleading in one respect. Even the description on the DVD/Blu-Ray case is guilty. The problem here is that these sources implied that the body-swapping phenomenon is a pervading theme throughout the series, which isn't really the case.

The story revolves around the five students who form the Student Cultural Society, and the mysterious entity Heartseed. That much is accurate. Heartseed subjects the five of them to various phenomena that either place them in difficult ... situations that they have to figure out how to deal with, or forcibly exposes thoughts and emotions to others in the group (and sometimes outsiders) that people normally rely on being able to keep to themselves. The first such phenomenon is the aforementioned body-swapping, which represents the first story arc and runs for five episodes, but then never happens again. The remaining eight episodes have two more story arcs, each involving a different phenomenon they have to figure out how to deal with, and a fourth is addressed in the four-episode OVA, "Kokoro Connect: Michi Random", but no more body swapping (at least in the anime; I can't speak for the additional volumes in the light novel series these are based on).

Since I'm here, some actual review content. Technically and artistically, the series is above average. The English voice acting was all well done. The series is very much a personal, emotional drama, so judge for yourself whether that's to your taste. There were times when I thought the characters' behavior and emotions went over the top and got overly melodramatic, but on the whole it's hard to imagine how well I'd handle the situations they were in, especially considering at least some of the StuCS members came in with emotional baggage and past experiences that added complexity. Finally, there were a couple of significant story elements that were never adequately resolved.

Despite my mis-impression about the body swapping, I don't think a problem with the summary descriptions should be counted against the anime itself. I was hooked on the characters enough to be drawn along for the rest of the ride. Definitely recommended.

Some ten years ago while browsing the video shelves at Best Buy, this story caught my eye, but I never had a chance to watch it until this past week. It's cheesy spy thriller stuff with lots of bad shooting and B-movie plots and characters, with tons of gratuitous panty shots. Set your expectations accordingly. It's not exactly deep or complicated, and certainly not what I'd call one of the best or a favorite, but it's the kind of guilty pleasure I might watch again.

Najica Hiiragi is the main character, ostensibly working for a perfume company while her real job is to go on missions ... as a field agent. Her first mission is to rescue a girl, who turns out to be a humaritt, an artificially created humanoid with super-human abilities but limited in their ability to think freely or experience emotions. That humaritt girl, named Lila, gets assigned to be Najica's partner. Their relationship is problematic at first but develops over the course of the series. Most of the remaining episodes include among their objectives retrieving (and sometimes identifying) another humaritt. Toward the end of the series there are further revelations about the nature of humaritts that may have implications for Najica and Lila.

The music reminded me of police shows from the 1970s. Besides the many sometimes comically contrived panty shots, there were a few instances of bare butts and bare breasts (nothing sexual). The violence was frequent but not especially graphic. One thing I found annoying was when the male characters, especially Gento, frequently called Najica 'baby', 'sweetheart', and other similar terms. That aside, there wasn't any profanity that I recall. In summary, if what I've said so far hasn't turned you off you might find this a fun and amusing anime series.