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The title is a cute hook, which fails to deliver, because the protagonist doesn't actually pick up girls in a dungeon.

I didn't expect a whole lot from this, and I wasn't disappointed -- there wasn't much to it. If I were a lot younger, I might have liked it, but now I need my stories to have more depth.

Story (5/10): Here's your generic RPG story. It has enticing aspects, like the gods from various pantheons have descended to this vaguely medieval fantasy land and formed guilds, so-called "familias" to further their specific interests. Since I love mythology, that idea made the anime tempting, ... but alas it doesn't do much with this. Yeah, Hephaestus is a great weapons smith (and a girl), but Loki (also a girl) mostly throws drunken parties. Hestia, Greek keeper of the heart, home, and domesticity, who is our protagonist's patron goddess doesn't show anything much of her roots, and neither do the other gods. And why does Hephaestus have an eye patch? He was lame, not half-blind in Greek myth. Hestia, surprisingly, doesn't even have a proper familia, our protagonist Bell is her first and only follower.

Adventurers who seek divine blessings trawl the dungeon in search of magic stones and dropped items that can be acquired by fighting monsters. There's a system for gaining stats, skills, and levels, but the gods don't actually seem to be running this. The gods also have no say over the dungeon and are in fact not allowed to enter it. Maybe the dungeon is running things; it does seem to be sentient at times. Not a bad story by any means, but it has no depth; it feels duct taped together.

Character (4/10): Bell feels largely like the insert character for a harem anime, which this one sort of is; he's naive and dense, but well-meaning and a nice guy. There isn't much in-depth development -- sure, he starts out as a bit of a coward and overcomes that, and we even see him work with Aiz to become a better fighter, and he powers u a lot faster than is apparently normal -- but somehow I never felt a single thing that brought me closer to caring about his fate. I didn't root for him (or against him), not to gain more power nor to win his fights nor to hook up with one of the girls who compete for his favours.

Hestia is not quite the big-boobed airhead she seems to be at first; she's actually a hard worker and tries her damndest to give Bell whatever she can so his adventuring can be successful. He doesn't even notice how hard she works, he's that dense. She sees the two of them as a romantic couple, he doesn't.

Liliruca becomes Bell's "supporter", and I like what they've done with the standard, disposable NPC hireling whom everyone treats like dirt -- they gave her a backstory, and she gets an actual character arc complete with redemption. If only she hadn't started out being a callous bitch who left Bell to die, I could have warmed up to her.

There are other characters here, but you know, I am already tired writing about this. Pretty much every character arc is tossed away anyway after giving us some backstory to whet our appetites.

The thing that keeps this from being a true harem is that Bell's admiration is basically directed at only one person, Aiz Wallenstein, the Sword Princess, champion of adventurers and so far out of his league it isn't even funny. Aiz is also completely stoic, even when Bell falls into her breasts.

Art (6/10): Character design is ok, a bit simple, nothing fantastic, but most are easy to tell apart. Too much big boobage for my taste. Background art is nice, but again, with few exceptions (the 18th dungeon floor), not special. The animation is where this show shines -- some of the best action scenes with excellent choreography I've seen in a while.

Sound (5/10): OP and ED standard. I liked the BGM quite a bit. I might try and find the soundtrack so I can say something more substantial about it. Voice talent is fine, nothing stands out for me.

Enjoyment (5/10): Lukewarm, flat sodapop. All the ingredients were here for making this a really good story, with lots of injokes for RPGamers, an interesting premise with enough variation from standard RPGs to potentially make this superb. And yet I didn't feel a thing. I didn't root for anyone. I wasn't at the edge of my seat in the fighting scenes, even though they were so well done. The entire thing felt paper thin -- something I could have enjoyed as a preteen but not now.

2:45 min into episode one: the first instance of tentacle sex.

And this isn't hentai. This is a cooking anime. I laughed out loud, but not in a good way. This wasn't what I was watching Shokugeki no Souma for. I was watching it because it is highly rated, and because it has a couple of my favorite seiyuu. The first episode was mostly cringe-worthy, and I nearly dropped it. But I tend to give anime more than one episode if it is highly rated, and I managed to get through the whole thing. So, does it deserve ... this high rating?

Not in my opinion. It is undoubtedly due to the high incidence of ecchi, so if ecchi is your thing, you can take the rating as guidance; you will get your fill here. If ecchi is not your thing, this show can still be enjoyable, but you have to make allowance for the surfeit of ecchi in form of foodgasms any time anyone eats anything, which gets repetitive and annoying. The show tries half-heartedly to provide a little male nudity as well, but that's nothing compared to the amount of boobage present. I personally am not a fan of huge boobs, and here nearly all women have oversized udders, and it's a little gross how much they push themselves into the forefront of most scenes, not just the dedicated ecchi ones.

Story (4/10): Quite simple -- Yukihira Souma has helped his father in the diner since he was small, and has become quite the competent cook. One day his father packs up his duffle bag and heads out into the world without so much as a preparatory warning, and sends Souma off to Tootsuki Academy, an elite finishing school for chefs where only the top 10% graduate. Souma, coming from a humble diner doesn't quite fit with the elite student body, but that doesn't faze him, because he is very confident in his skills. These skills will be tested a lot, since the school specializes in "shokugeki" -- cooking battles with the competitors staking something of value on the outcome.

This is basically a standard shounen battle anime, except the battles are fought over food, and knives are used to attack ingredients, not opponents. Extra tension is added via especially high stakes -- many battles are used to weed out students, who're kicked out of school. Goodbye, you are the weakest link.

Anyone looking for romance here, there is none. Oh, there are harem possibilities, and no doubt many will ship various girls with Souma, and even some guys, but there is no hint of him actually being interested romantically in anyone; he is aromantic and asexual; his mind is on cooking and cooking alone. It's actually kind of refreshing.

Art (7/10): Lovely, lovely food. Characters are easy to tell apart (at least those who matter; the others are undistinguished, and you can pretty much tell who to pay attention to by that alone). Animation is alright, nothing outstanding, but it doesn't really need to be any better because the art is so good that you don't really notice how often it doesn't move. The 3DCG doesn't blend very well, but it's not really horrible either.

Sound (6/19): I liked the first OP and Ed, not so much the second. BGM is well done. Voice talent is appropriate, occasionally over the top as is typical for shounen.

Character (5/10): This is where the show fails the most. Souma is quite a pleasant protagonist for a shounen show; he's merely justifiedly confident instead of a conceited brat, he does not take offense even at outright provocation (this is played very well for humour because he defuses most situations that would normally end in a fight). He's even nice to some of his competitors. I like him a lot better than the usual shounen protag, whom I tend to find annoying. But Souma has minimal character development. He is this way from the very start, and while he grows as a chef, his character seems set. He's probably a bit too perfect, he doesn't have to really struggle either, not in comparison to some of his fellow students.

The character that undergoes the most growth is Tadokoro Megumi who comes from humble beginnings and is even more of a fish out of water at prestigious Tootsuki than Souma because she completely lacks any confidence at the start. She makes the most progress during the show.

All the other characters, while clearly outlined, are not particularly interesting, and experience limited growth; usually by confrontation with Souma whom they want to beat (and for the girls, whom they are attracted to), and who learn one or another lesson by losing.

Enjoyment (7/10): The show grew on me. I mostly enjoyed the food, and the explanations about it -- you won't learn cooking from this show, but your love of food might increase, and you will definitely learn some things about food preparation you didn't know before. It helped that I liked Souma. I could have done without the ecchi which detracted from the show for me, but I enjoyed the food enough to watch the second season. Oh yeah, point deduction for ending in the middle of an arc; I feel for the people who actually watched this as broadcasted. Since I am binging after the 2nd season finished airing, I can go straight into that.

Total (29÷5): 6

This is the worst anime I have ever watched. Not because it's technically bad; art and animation are fine, voice talent and music are fine, no that's not the problem. The problem is that the story is purely manipulative dreck.

HERE BE MASSIVE SPOILERS.

I found this story offensive. I have nothing against harems per se, and I am ok with Grisaia giving its harem girls somewhat difficult pasts for the feels. But this one, Yuuji's route, is just ham-fisted schlock. Whoever wrote this piece of tripe must have had the directive of "invent a really tragic past for Yuuji" and decided that ... throwing the kitchen sink of possible trauma was the right way to go. I am sorry, but manipulated feels are worthless. They are worse than worthless, they are trivializing actual trauma. As somebody who actually had an abusive childhood, I resent this crap with a passion.

Yuuji is physically and emotionally abused by his father, molested and emotionally twisted by his genius sister (whom I had previously rather liked, but now despise), abandoned by his mother (after she was raped by his father, who became the first person Yuuji killed), whom he then found dangling from the rafters, taken in by a pedophile who crossdressed him while sexually assaulting him, nearly raped by a pal of this paragon (whom he also killed, while in his underwear -- good for Yuuji, trained as a terrorist where the last bit of human feeling was beaten out of him with the final help of some girl who treats him nicely ... until she is supposed to kill him (or he her) as a graduation exercise. I have the feeling more is coming after the CIA finds him.

No, seriously, pure, unadulterated schlock. I don't believe for a second that Yuuji could come out of that as the laconic, yet caring protagonist of Grisaia. I am now gonna go bleach my brain.

I did not know the source material beforehand, which was pretty obviously a Visual Novel. I watched this because I am binging on Sakurai Takahiro anime. ;)

Story (6/10): The story is semi-episodic, with each girl's route being its own arc, and them all tying together at Mihama Academy, an "ordinary" school with only 6 students and one principal/teacher. Naturally Kazami Yuuji, our male protagonist rescues/helps the girls in turn. Kazami is not an ordinary student, even though that's what he wants to be, but he's clearly had some form of black ops background, because he can kick some serious ass, ... and has connections to an agency that comes to his aid when he needs it. The girls are also not what they seem at first glance, each of them has a complex back story that brought them to Mihama Academy. The set of stories isn't the most realistic, with the exception of Amane, who was the sole survivor of a bus accident in the mountains, but they're all compelling enough. It'd have been better if more episodes had been allotted to all of the non-Amane stories, since they don't get a whole lot of time; the anime feels very compressed. The ending seems tacked on, as if it doesn't actually belong there.

Art (5/10): The girls all look unique enough, but Kazami's design is very generic. Overall this isn't particularly impressive, though I've certainly seen much worse.

Sound (6/10): Sakurai is as always breathing a whole lot of life into his character. All the girls' VAs are decent, but nobody stands out; none of my favourite female seiyuu are in this anime. The BGM is not bad, though maybe a bit repetitive. OP and ED are fine.

Character (6/10): Contrary to the usual bland harem protagonist, Kazami Yuuji is actually brimming with personality, which was a pleasant surprise (otherwise Sakurai would have been wasted on the role, but seiyuu don't appear to have the choice that film actors do in regard to which roles they take on).

The only character I didn't care for at all is Amane. I don't like her big-boobed self throwing herself at Kazami, especially when it later becomes clear exactly why she's doing it -- but it feels to me very much out of place. She should have come clean before propositioning him. And what she should come clean about -- I actually agree with her. It was not entirely her fault, because it was a harrowing situation, but she was a wimpy, whiny, stupid girl, and somebody else paid the price for that. Maybe I should have more empathy, but I just don't. If we're talking life or death, pull yourself the fuck together already. Did I mention she should have come clean instead of trying to seduce Kazami from the start. You betcha. This is so not my ship.

Enjoyment (7/10): Overall I enjoyed this more than I usually enjoy harem anime, because the stories were more substantial and because Kazami is such an unusual protagonist. He isn't the blushing, easily embarrassed guy who can't handle women -- he treats them all very matter of factly most of the time, though he is also kind when they end up crying. I enjoyed his dialogue the most, and he had some unconventional ways of rescuing the damsels in distress.

I could have done without the fan service. Especially the panty shots were at times misplaced into the most dramatic scenes -- if somebody is running for their life, and it's not a comedic moment, I don't want to see a bloody panty shot; it rips me right out of the story. I don't mind fan service if it's done in terms of the story; here it was just stupid.

I started watching this because I am on a binge watching anime with Sakurai Takahiro in a leading role. I know the Odagiri Hotaru, mangaka (though have not read the manga on which this anime is based), so I was expecting bishounen central, and lots of bromance, and that's what I got. There's even a story, but alas, for 24 episodes, not enough of it, and especially not enough progress.

I've got another 6 episodes to go, and I won't store this review until I am done, but at the moment I am just SO FED UP with the central character Yuki, who is ... the ultimate Mary Sue because everybody just loooooves him, even people who start out disliking him. He has this tragic back story, which unfortunately he doesn't remember a bit of, he's part of a star-crossed pair of lovers (he was female in his past life), which unfortunately he doesn't remember, his former lover Luka (tall, dark, handsome, laconic, and mysterious) protects him at any cost, with frequent declarations of "I will always be by your side", and "I will never betray you", and Yuki shows about as much interest in that as he shows in the temperature of his tea. Instead he goes on and on about Kanata, his childhood friend, and that sort of turns into a fiasco. This isn't even a proper love triangle, because Yuki is densely oblivious of Luka's feelings, and one can't rightly say that he is in love with Kanata either; he's got all the passion of a desiccated kumquat. Speaking of fiasco, Yuki is a walking one. He knows he is in danger and everyone is doing their best to protect him, and he's always very polite and apologetic about it -- and then he goes off on his own without a care that this will put others in greater danger. He is supposed to be their "god of light", but he is really spectacularly selfish underneath his supposed altruism.

I hate him. It's not gonna happen, but I hope he dies. Too bad that if he dies he'll probably just get reincarnated anyway, so what's the use. ...Episode 22 -- I am ready to do the killing myself, I swear. Yuki is such a twit. ...Episode 24 -- ok, they managed to make me stop wanting to kill him after all. ;)

Story (5/10): Some epic war for good and evil which has been raging for millennia. There's not really any rhyme or reason for it, and at this point we don't really know why this happens. The last battle was the one in which Yuki tragically died in Luka's arms, or something like that, and we're about to have another one. The good guys are Zweilt Guardians who fight in pairs, the bad guys are demons who come in 3 different strength flavours, mid-villains, opasts, and general class opasts (oh, yeah, the usual proclivity of mangaka to just throw random, ill-fitting Western names around; their version of weeabooism, is always good for a laugh). The top bad guy is the demon king. Clan Giou are the caretakers of the Zweilts, and the clan leader reincarnates them. Most of the time during the anime there are random skirmishes between Zweilts and demons, the rest of the time is spent on introducing us to the various good guys and their back stories. Odagiri is a BL (Boys Love) mangaka, but don't expect anything here but plausible deniability in the form of bromance, so people who don't like The Gay can watch it without being grossed out -- there is a lot of bromance though; pretty much every male/male Zweilt partnership and just about any other guy who can partner up. I think there is one het couple here, and they're brother and sister -- very close brother and sister, uh huh.

My main dissatisfaction is that this is all disjointed piecemeal, never a truly cohesive work. We don't find out enough about why Luka and Yuki are such a great love, and so I really don't care other than feel sorry for Luka that Yuki is such a drip in this reincarnation.

Art (7/10): Odagiri's manga art is very arabesquey and delicate, and much of it is lost in the transfer to anime, but the boys are all pretty, and the backgrounds are lush. There's some badly integrated 3D, and some really nice special FX in the battle scenes.

Sound (7/10): This anime has an astonishing star cast, so many awesome seiyuu, but somehow, while the work is competent, there are places where the dialogue kinda drags. The BGM is quite good, lots of orchestral passages; I also like the OP, but the EDs leave me cold.

Character (6/10): There are a lot of characters here, and they all have at least some story, which is better than most anime. Not a lot of growth, but some. Overall it might have benefitted from fewer, but deeper characters. I wish I had liked Yuki better, since so much centres on him, but I simply do not share the Japanese adoration for "pure" and "innocent" characters; I liked Yuki best when he actually did something to support the team instead of putting them in danger.

I definitely feel short-changed about the most interesting characters, the ones that had aspects of good and evil within themselves, most notably Reiga. I guess I'll have to read the manga, even though that seems on long-term hiatus, so there is not much hope.

Enjoyment (6/10): I wasn't bored for the most part because all the different character introductions kept me interested even when nothing much was happening. This won't even make it close to my top anime, but my time wasn't entirely wasted.

This anime has a premise that's bound to elicit "only in Japan" snickers -- our main characters bond through the exchange of drool.

While that is about as unrealistic as can be, and there are other aspects of the anime that are extremely unusual for a romantic slice of life high school scenario, when it comes to the relationship between Tsubaki and Urabe, the main characters, it's refreshingly different from most high school romances, and probably closer to real teenage feelings than most.

Story (6/10): The premise is kind of ridiculous (though I wonder just how ridiculous it is in Japan where drool appears to have ... a special, favoured place in the erotic vocabulary), the story itself is not bad at all for its type -- we don't have a dumb harem here where the guy can't make up his mind, nor do we have endless episodes of "will they, won't they get together"; no, the girl is the aggressor, these two start dating right away, and while their progress is very slow, it's definitely progress, and I love the expectedness of Urabe whenever Tsubaki does something very much expected. The show is marked as "ecchi", but while there is definitely a certain amount of fan service, it's actually well-embedded in the story, and doesn't consist of ye olde "oops I fell and you saw my panties" excuses, and girls grabbing each other's boobs. I usually avoid ecchi (I'm not interested in 2D girls teasing excitable male otaku without an actual sex life), but here it didn't bother me.

Art (5/10): The show has a very nostalgic look, with an old-school art style that dates back to the 1990s. I didn't like that style much then, and I don't like it now, but one's got to appreciate how well it evokes that period. It does wonders with Urabe's expressions when the long bangs part. The animation is ok; there's more background animation than usual. There are some surreal dream sequences in 3D that look at the same time disjointed and interesting, and I've rewound and rewatched quite a bit because there's much to see; alas as the series progresses, those disappear. Every bit of drool glistens and sparkles like treasure.

Sound (6/10): I love the voice of Urabe, and unfortunately, that's the only thing the voice actress has done. Shame; it's a very distinctive voice, blessedly not cutesy high-pitched, and she does an outstanding job. The other voice talent is average. The BGM is quirky, evoking a carnival at times, and on occasion being outright creepy, OP and ED are pleasant but forgettable.

Character (6/10): Urabe is a new transfer student in Tsubaki's class, she's taciturn, antisocial and not shy about telling people off, her eyes are covered by her bangs, she sleeps every available moment, and she has spurts of astonishing honesty with Tsubaki. She has loads of character, and is indeed mysterious -- there seems to be a supernatural element to her, but nothing ever becomes clear. She has a bunch of UFO paraphernalia which could be hinting that she is an alien, but by the end I thought maybe it's just a metaphor for her being weird, alien among her peers. She can also transmit feelings and even actual injuries through her drool, and can receive feelings through other people's drool, and probably that is a metaphor as well -- it's a PG-rated way to stand for X-rated fluid exchanges. How did she acquire her amazing prowess with scissors? Nobody knows. Mysterious girlfriend, indeed (I presume the X stands for her scissors).

Tsubaki on the other hand is an open book: he's the usual dense, naive, but naturally horny teenage boy without personality. He can't say no to anyone, but on occasion Urabe gets him to actually be honest with her, and he shows some vestiges of a spine. He is exchangeable with every other clueless git teenage boy in every other romcom.

Oka is Tsubaki's friend Ueno's girlfriend, and she stakes an unusually strong interest in Urabe, managing to get her to stop sleeping and have lunch with her, getting in on the drool action, and egging Urabe on when it comes to sexual matters. She's the only person who knows Urabe and Tsubaki are a couple (by the end there is only one other person). I feel a vague dislike for Oka; probably because I like Urabe so much in part because she forges her own path, and Oka is trying to make her more "normal". That's typical Japanese though; the force to conform is always strong.

Enjoyment (5/10): I would have enjoyed this a lot more had it not been for the copious drool, which was just gross. I don't find drool erotic to begin with, and the drool here was a much more viscous fluid, reminiscent of honey -- and if I could have convinced myself it was honey it would have been fine. But the word "drool" in combination with the texture just looked slimy to me, and I found myself actually gagging at times, and had to look away. I am deducting 2 points because it was just so damn frequent.

Total: 28 for 5 categories, rounding up to 6.

Orange is the taste of sweet, sour, and sorrowful. Orange is the colour of sunset and of sunrise, of endings and new beginnings.

There was a time when I almost hated this anime because Naho was such a limp, wilted flower with a density rivaling Osmium. Then I decided to forgive her for being a shy, introverted, 16-year old girl who grew up in Japan, walked always a step behind people, being happy when they were happy, and who never wanted to be a bother to anyone. A girl who's getting instructions from herself at 26, but while it's easy to decide in retrospect ... what you should have done, it's not easy to act on that knowledge if you're not actually 26. I would have never acted like Naho did, but then I am not her. And who knows what differences, what repercussions a Naho who's not 16-year-old Naho would have brought.

Story (9/10): This was the most original shoujo story I watched in ages. This is not actually a science fiction story. It has an sfnal element -- the letters the 26 year old friends send to their 16 years old selves -- don't get all excited; there's an "explanation" but it's technobabble. Don't get hung up on how the letters arrived. That's not what the story is about. It's also not really a romance, though there is a very strong romantic element present, and plenty of people will argue the benefits of one ship over another -- and completely miss the actual story. It's really a story about the power of love -- not just or even primarily romantic love, but the love that drives the entire story, that causes Kakeru's friends to not forget him, and to not forgive themselves for failing to save him. Love can be transformative. Love can be selfish. In Buddhism we are supposed to grow beyond our selfish attachments to the material world, and embrace something purer. Erasing regrets is a selfish desire because it's mostly about personal feelings of guilt, but what these friends ultimately do is selfless -- they will never know whether it worked, sending the letters back to save Kakeru. They will never be able to speak to him again, never be able to apologize, never be able to tell him that he is not alone, that he is loved. If it works at all, it will happen in a parallel world, and they will gain nothing from it. It's a powerful message of hope winning over fear and resignation, and I am probably showing my age by finding it a lot more powerful than the usual teen romance.

The message is underlined brilliantly in the last episode. Kakeru needs to take that step himself, hope over fear and resignation. Love can be transformative.

Beyond that it's an interesting thought experiment -- is it enough if you just change the action about which you harbour a regret? Once you change anything, what side effects might that have? Once the timeline diverges from your foreknowledge, what guides you towards other changes? Is it right to change something if it might rob other people of an important moment, or worse, their happy future?

And lastly, it's actually quite good in showing depression, how it can distort the lens through which you view the world and others, and how excruciatingly painful it can become, so painful that the act of living itself becomes an unbearable burden. Considering Japan is on the ass-end of acknowledging depression and doing anything about it, that's pretty darn good.

Art (7/10): The art and animation was very good at the start, but later on some episodes really suffered from either time or budget crunch.

Sound (7/10): I liked both OP and ED, and the BGM felt very fitting. I've heard better voice acting in my life, but it didn't detract from the story.

Character (7/10): Oh Naho, Naho, Naho. I did want to strangle her many times. I'd like to think that if I knew somebody's life was on the line, I could be more proactive instead of running from my own feelings, but as I said above, I am very much not somebody like Naho, and I already wasn't like her at 16, despite shyness and introversion and abject embarrassment at talking to people in whom I had an interest (not even romantic). She does come through when encouraged by others, and she grows into somebody who can tell her husband the truth, without even as much as blushing, so I forgive her.

I bled with Kakeru. I know we don't get a lot of character here beyond his depression, but that's enough for me to empathize with him. Yeah, I know what that feels likes. Yeah, other people hardly even register when the pain takes over. Yeah, every step is painful sometimes.

And wow, Suwa. Here's the embodiment of selfless love among the characters. What a great guy. I don't usually even like the extraverted, popular soccer captain sort of guys much, but there isn't anything about this guy that's not likable.

In fact they're all likable (except for Ueda the bullying bitch). We don't learn enough for my taste about Takako, Asuza, and Hagita (the latter has some prime wisdom to dispense), but there is only so much time in 13 episodes.

Enjoyment (10/10). I can't even remember the last shoujo anime that has found me this engrossed, and thinking about the issues. Orange has flaws, definitely, but I don't even care to talk about them right now.

This anime started strong. with a story that interested me, but after some episodic encounters lost itself.

Story: This is an interesting set-up, with an average girl being thrust into the position of a god. Now, a Shinto god isn't necessarily as big a deal as that might sound like; Nanami is just responsible for the small area of the Mikage Shrine, but it's still a pretty big responsibility for somebody who doesn't feel she amounts to much. And there was much potential here for Nanami to work hard so she grows into her role and finds a new home, but I felt ... the anime failed to show that. Instead of Nanami learning things, Tomoe mostly keeps her out of it, and handles everything himself, and since she isn't happy being kept in the dark, she impulsively does what she wants at the worst possible moments. Of course she is a plucky little heroine, so she pulls off some unbelievable feats at times, but it all seems quite random to me. The theme of the show seems to revolve around "home" and what that means, but it soon starts bumping into the inevitable shoujo romance, because Tomoe is a hot tsundere with a tragic past. I am not at all convinced by the romance, those two have to my mind zero chemistry and nothing much in common. Instead of Nanami getting to know the lay of the land, as it seemed in the initial episodes, we start wasting time at her school, where she sometimes goes and sometimes doesn't, with Tomoe in school drag or not, with another of her small harem and Tomoe glaring at each other... it was kind of dragging on at that point. I also don't get what all the interference by camp-gay boy and Mikage is about; they are simultaneously challenging/helping Nanami to grow I guess, but it too is random. Nothing in the story seems very well thought through.

Art (4/10): Nothing much to write home about. I especially didn't care for Nanami's design. All the boys are of course meant to be hot, and do at least have clearly distinguished designs. The animation is fairly minimal.

Sound (5/10): The more traditional Japanese BGM fit the story well. I didn't care for the OP, but the ED was interesting. Some of the voice talent didn't seem to fit its roles very well, and in general nobody stood out for me. I found the narrator annoying.

Character (4/10): Nanami started out with potential, but I found her development much too uneven. Tomoe really had the best development, though not everything made sense either -- for somebody who once couldn't bear to be touched by a human, he is awfully free with touching random women, and that is of course played for jealousy on Nanami's side; but it feels like such an artificial thing. Other character development is too abrupt to feel natural, and so Mizuki and Karuma just become harem characters instead of decent characters on their own merit.

Enjoyment (5/10): I enjoyed the first few episodes, but then that fell off. I don't care about the romance at all because Nanami is such an undeveloped personality that I don't see what Tomoe would ever see in her (other than that she is obviously related to his first true love, so maybe he sees some echo there). Yukiji was clearly meant to be a Yamato Nadeshiko, because what else could get a youkai to reject his old ways, but I don't see Nanami in the same light.

I really enjoyed this anime for the first half, and then it started to grow a bit stalet, but retained some humourous momentum. I was expecting a romantic comedy, but that's not really what I got. What I got was a comedy of shoujo romance manga writing.

Story (3/10): Ostensibly the plot is about Sakura Chiyo, a bright and cheerful 16 year old, who has a mad crush on her tall, dark, and laconic classmate Nozaki Umetarou. When she gets herself to confess her love to him, she hems and haws and stutters so much that he mistakes her for a fan, and ... thinks she is asking for his autograph -- since he has a second life as a shoujo mangaka. When she tries to tell him she wants to be closer to him, he invites her to his home -- but his intent is to rope her into being his assistant. And this is what all the "romance" in the show looks like: some situation develops that makes Sakura hope for a specific romantic outcome as in shoujo manga, but Nozaki will inevitably turn it into something completely different, related to writing shoujo manga instead.

In reality there isn't really a plot at all, or even slice of life, but this anime originates with a 4-koma (panel) manga, and so it's a whole bunch of consecutive gags, some of them running. And it does parody shoujo manga to some degree, but spends more time on a parody of the life of a shoujo mangaka, and the way it parodies shoujo manga is quite superficial, and mostly consists of swapping genders.

Somewhat ironically, this parody of formulaic manga is as one-dimensional as that which it parodies.

I am rating the story very low, which might not be fair to 4-koma, but if one isn't prepared for this, as many people in the West are not because they don't often know of the manga before the anime, the expectation will be that with this particular opening, it'll become a romance. It is, in fact, classified as a romance on MAL, and the synopsis is equally misleading -- it's not a romance. At all. Nothing romantic ever develops. And one-sided, unrequited adoration that's played for gags is not romantic, it's just -- possibly -- funny.

Art (8/10): Top notch. It's beautifully detailed, and extremely well done even in comedic moments; the anime does not simply relegate its funny moments to chibi and SD as is common, but it does a lot of visually physical comedy -- somebody embarrassed doesn't just get red in the face, but might instead roll into an accelerating ball that gets smaller and smaller until it hides in a corner. It's brilliant. The characters are all well distinguished and easily recognizable. The animation is very good; fluid and smooth. If only all anime had such good art, I'd be a very happy camper.

Sound (7/10): The OP and ED are peppy, the BGM is very well adapted to the show. None of the voice actors really stand out for me (none of my favourites here either), and I find it hard to judge comedy anyway, but they all fit their characters well and don't overact in general.

Character (4/10): The main characters are well established as a type, but they're one trick ponies, and they don't develop. Nozaki is completely oblivious; Sakura expects romantic moments, which will be dashed by a completely prosaic response; Mikoshiba can't properly relate to strangers, expresses some extravagant braggadocio and gets horribly embarrassed by it; Seo is rude, aggressive and oblivious but sings like an angel; Kashima is the "prince" of the school, flirts with other girls and admires her senpai Hori, who beats her up (I don't really know why); Wakamatsu can't stand Seo but loves the voice of the Glee Club's "Lorelei", which unbeknownst to him is Seo...

Enjoyment (7/10): The show employs for the most part a form of manzai, traditional Japanese stand-up comedy with a straight man (tsukkomi) and a funny man (boke), where the jokes revolve around mutual misunderstandings, double-talk, and other verbal gags, and I generally enjoy what little I have seen of that translated (my Japanese is not good enough to get it in the original; it's generally too fast). The anime was funny for most of the episodes during which new characters were introduced, but when that stopped, the humour started to feel more and more like they were flogging a dead horse. There was also some extent of explaining the jokes; I am not dense, I got it the first time. But there were some really hilarious bits, and I laughed out loud at times, something that's not actually common for me with anime comedies, which I usually find more painful than funny.

There were also are a few aspects about the characters I liked: Sakura is not ruled by her romantic aspirations, and she doesn't degrade constantly into the manners she displayed during her confession; she actually has it pretty well together most of the time -- she manages to work with and talk with Nozaki like a normal friend/assistant, with short exceptions when she has one of those romance-inducing moments. She's also the only one undergoing some minimal character development, because she comes to accept how Nozaki really is instead of how she wishes he were. And while Nozaki isn't much of a friend, but uses everything and everyone as grist for his mill, he isn't the sexually harassing type either, so that's a relief. In fact the show is blissfully free of sexual innuendo and fan service.

Coda: Clearly needed moar tanuki. ;)

I shall admit to only watching this because I am on a Sakurai Takahiro binge; otherwise this wouldn't have attracted me because I wasn't really in a shoujo mood (I rarely am in a shoujo mood).

But it actually turned out more enjoyable than expected, despite the fairly ridiculous premise, and the inherently distasteful idea of some guy making a girl his "dog" and trampling all over her feelings with impunity. But hey it's anime, and ridiculous behaviour is pretty much the norm.

Story (5/10): Erika wants to desperately fit in with people in her new high school class, make friends, and create those special ... youthful memories, but by the time she gets her courage up, most people have grouped up already, and she is stuck with two girls who're pretentious as all get-out and talk about nothing but their elite boyfriends. And so Erika lies through her teeth about HER boyfriend. She really would like to have one, she wants to experience romance, and she has very specific ideas what that means -- very stereotypical ideas. It's all about appearances with Erika.

When her new "friends" become suspicious because she doesn't even have a picture of her boyfriend, in momentary panic she takes a picture of a real hottie on the street, whom she then passes off as her boyfriend. Unfortunately for her, that person turns out Sata Kyouya, who goes to the same school, and one of her hoity-toity friends recognizes him. Kyouya is known as a "prince" for his good looks and his amiable if distant personality; all the girls squee over him.

Erika freaks out, afraid she will be found out as the liar that she is and ridiculed and outcast -- pretty much the worst thing that could happen to her. But because Kyouya has such a sterling reputation, she decides to talk to him, fesses up, and begs him to pretend to be her boyfriend. He smiles at her and agrees.

And that's the last moment of peace Erika will have for a while. Because she isn't the only liar -- underneath his princely public behaviour Kyouya is a bitter loner who despises everything Erika wishes for. And he has a condition for pretending to be her boyfriend: she has to become his "dog", do everything he demands when he demands it. You'd kind of expect a little demonic behaviour from a character with red eyes, right?

I am not as offended as other people by the dog thing, and by his treatment of Erika. It provides a wakeup call for her in every which way -- not everything that glitters is gold, the cost of a big lie might not be worth it, it's exhausting to keep up appearances. Kouya is quite mean to her, even though he also drops a lot of comments that make her think, and he is unexpectedly nice when other people mess with her.

So of course she falls in love. She is still much more in love with the idea of a boyfriend than she is with Kouya, and it's pretty clear he knows that even if she doesn't. What develops is not uninteresting; I like how Erika and Kyouya manage to cobble an actual relationship together while coming from such divergent viewpoints.

Art (7 of 10): It's quite pretty; the characters are easy to tell apart, the very-very-shoujo backgrounds are lovely if you like that sort of thing, and the animation is decent. Erika has a very expressive face, and Kyouya is hot.

Sound (5/10): The OP has an interesting singer, the ED left me cold, the BGM is sort of just there. AS reviously mentioned, I am a Sakurai Takahiro fanboy; the man can do no wrong. Itou Kanae does a good job with Erika, Kayano Ai gives a very appropriately laconic performance for Erika's real friend Sanda Ayumi, the rest of the cast is decent but nobody stands out for me.

Character (6/10): I like Kyouya a lot. Sorry, haters -- I fully understand why you hate him, and I agree he acts like a jerk, but frankly, the jerk behaviour only really bothers me when he hurts Erika in regard to her love for him. That is cruel. The rest is... he is actually helping her, though he is not a nice task master. Why did he even agree to the pretense? He didn't have to; he could have let her hang out to dry; her being his "dog" isn't actually benefiting him a whole lot. He despises what she tries to do and still he helps her. And he is a jerk while doing it because he is as flawed as she is. He lies to himself about not having abandonment issues, and he has a negative view of romance because he has seen it fail spectacularly, and destroy his family. He's pretty much a tsundere because his kindness is at odds with the hard armour he has built around himself to not end up like his parents.

No, there is no Stockholm Syndrome here; Erika can quit this game at any time; he has no real power over her at all -- and she does indeed do that eventually, when he goes too far. Good on her. I also appreciate that there is no sexual misconduct here, no sexual pressure -- the tasks he sets her as his "dog" are not demeaning in that sense. I found that a welcome relief from the constant sexual harassment so prevalent in anime.

I like Erika too, even though I feel about her aspirations much the same as Kyouya does. But aside from the lying and the yearning for a romance that would ultimately be empty, she's a good kid, even a little naive (how could anyone not see through Kamiya?). She has empathy, and I can see her grow up to be a much less superficial person than she starts out as.

I like Sanda, Hibiya, and Kusakabe. They're just prop characters, and in a longer anime I would have liked to see more of them. In general I felt the anime was too short; I would have liked there to have been more time for things to develop; this could have been a much more solid story.

Enjoyment (7/10): I quite enjoyed it. It'll never be among my favourite anime, but I thought it was above average in depth, and it was sufficiently different for me to not be bored; though it became more typical in the last third.