Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Hoshizora is one of those few animes that I've watched but haven't reviewed straight away. Not necessarily because it was bad but because it was dull and nothing caught my interest.

Like most men I enjoy watching harem animes because, even though I know a harem scenario would not happen to me in real life, I like to pretend that I'm the male lead in a harem anime. Virtually all straight men will tell you the same. One guy, dozens of girls, what more do you want?

Well, I'll have to disappoint you because Hoshizora is not exacly a harem anime, despite the tag telling ... us it is. Okey first then, the story - medicore at best. An extremely handsome guy called Kazuma with a brother who looks like his exact yet younger copy, decides to move into a small village. Once there a Japanese macaque grabs his brother's hat and runs off into the forest. Our heroic Kazuma runs after the monkey to retreive the hat. To our suprise he gets lost in the forest and doesn't know what to do. Miraciously, he happens to come across a good looking, pinked haired girl, around his age. Right. That's not all, read on. They start walking together and engage in a casual conversation, and then decide to cross a river(?). To cross it they have to jump on stones and the girl, predictably, makes it to the other side without a problem. The guy though, even though he's evidently stronger somehow manages to "trip" upon landing, pushes the girl over and... "accidentaly" kisses her. Apart from the fact that accidental kisses are cliche in anime, I've seen hudreds of them, the whole scene just seems so nauseatingly unbelievable, that you want to beat yourself on the head with a wrench until the memory of it goes away.

After that little incident, or shall I just say - the next day, the male lead is introduced to the town and the dozens of good looking girls that inhabit it. I thought that this was the moment where the story was going to take off. I couldn't have been more wrong. Literally nothing happens. In most animes, we'd have some sort of development involving other girls and the male lead but for the larger part of this series, Kazuma is fixated on just one girl - the one he accidentaly kissed. I mean yeah some girls like him, some more than others but there's no harem feeling to it. There's no passion, like in Yosuga No Sora. There's no drama, like in School Days. Girls don't fight over him, like in Nagasarete Airantou. The male lead is not forced to make any decisions whatsoever. It's just dull. I daresay even, that watching this anime is like watching the bold and the beautiful. Dull, boring... not interesting and it's going to be like that right to the very end.

I really wanted to give this anime a way lower rating, 4 or 5 perhaps but one good thing about this anime is the art. It's extremely good. I also watched the 1080p version which was, breathtaking. Yes, the art is definitely something the studio worked on and to see movie-grade graphics in a TV series is rare. Also the sounds were very authentic and the voice acting was good and it was thanks to a combination of those two that I was able to endure the horrendous story to the end.

With all that in mind and wanting to be fair, I added 2 extra points to the score and that bumped it up a bit. Summing things up, if you're looking for a harem anime with a decent story I guarantee you that you're not going to find anything remotely interesting in here. This is more of a vanilla romantic story involving two characters only. However, if you enjoy good voice acting and brilliant graphics, well give it a shot.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi; Is the very definition of average.

_The story follows a tried and true path that was taken by dozens of animations before and probably hundreds of manga. If you are ever surprised at one of the "arcs" it must be because you just started watching anime.

_It is enjoyable, in the exact same measure a bowl of corn flakes (or other plain cereal) is enjoyable. It's a product you know; you don't think about corn flakes, It does not fill you, nor does it provide any long term sustenance. It continues to exist for the sake of going through the motions in ... your routine.

About the characters:

__At first the relationship of the siblings appears to open for oportunities to question the status quo, (Yes there is some hints to an incestous relationship between brothers.) But hoshizora quickly realizes this, and changes to a classic Harem anime. And so that no one feels challenged it comes complete with the mandatory beach, confession and shopping date scenes.

_One thing to commend: At least the main character is not totaly oblivious and dense (thank Dog for the small miracles), at least he understands how his actions affect the other charachters.

The sound:
__Both in musical score and sound effects is nothing to write home about. The BMG tries to match the rural, mountain effect, ends up being dull and lackluster.
The Seiyuu's selected for the show are mostly new voices (or at least voices with few known parts). Some have experience mainly as support characters.

_Insert songs are enjoyable, but not something you will find yourself downloading (much less buying) soon.

Overall:
This series might have been a big hit 10 years ago, now it barely blips. This series will be seen and quickly forgoten by everyone except those for whom this is their first harem.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi is an enigma in my book. Normally, I do not like ecchi, harem fan service filled animes. Strangely enough, when I caught myself watching Hoshizora, I wondered, what the hell am I thinking? There's no way I'm going to like this.

Well, I decided to watch the whole thing through and gave it a shot...and to my surprise, it turned out to be a better anime than I thought. Does it have an interesting story? No, not really. It has sort of a sweet, adorable story but nothing that hasn't been done before. So what was so great about this anime?

Honestly, I ... thought the comedy and writing was terrific. There were so many moments where I bust out laughing that I can't count on both my hands...and trust me, its hard to get a good laugh out of me from anime. The race/festival episode itself was to die for. I don't think I've laughed so hard through an entire anime episode in my life. I think what this anime pulled off well was yes, it had ecchi moments, but it seemed like those ecchi moments were balanced out well with slap stick comedy, not entirely used for the point of fan service.

To me, this anime was a lot like Angel Beats...not in plot or characters, but rather, it was an anime with lots of flaws, but I couldn't help but enjoy it regardless. This is a difficult anime to review or recommend because I believe how you'll enjoy this anime really depends on your style of comedy. If you enjoy a dark, intriguing plot, definitely not the anime for you. Although, if you like to get a few laughs out of life humor with sex jokes and innuendo, you'll love this anime. Granted, I'm not usually one to find that sort of thing funny but I somehow managed to find this anime funny.

This anime is exactly what it says on the tin, although based on a gal game it’s surprisingly well behaved.

This show is one of those simple harem style anime, where you have that standard plot based around standard characters. Nothing exciting particularly happens but you do get that massive feel good sensation when the inevitable conclusion to the plot occurs. In regards to what’s bad about this anime it’s hard to say, because nothing really stands out, the whole anime is rather average so there aren't really any high expiations to start off with. It’s the kind of thing you would watch whilst waiting for ... the next episode of (in my immediate case) Shingeki no Kyojin to come out. It’s a bit of fun, but it’s nothing special.

I suppose the main problem with this anime is the characters and plot, because everything else is actually quite good. The plot is that basic “A handsome guy moves out the country side and suddenly Girls! Girls everywhere!” I mean seeing as the anime is based on a gal game you can’t really expect more, but I digress. Although the plot is basic and relatively boring you do find yourself getting attached to the characters somewhat. This is probably because the anime does a fantastic job of centering the large chunks of the episodes on the feelings of the girls involved. The same girls that happen to be going after the previously mentioned lucky b*****d that somehow managed to move in to “hot single girl central” oh Japan we love you. Aside from this, however, the characterization is lacking a tad also. The girls presented are the usual line up of fetish, the quiet one, the strong one etc… The anime had been made well enough for it to want more but it has been bent rigidly around the harem, gal game, genre resulting in some of the characters coming across as forced. I’m aware, by the way, that that’s kind of what it’s supposed to be but the anime, at points seems to want to be more than just a tacky standard harem anime, and it could have been.

Now regardless of the fact that there is no way this anime could even be compared with the giants like Gurren Lagann, or Cowboy Bebop, in terms of my personal enjoyment, and to some affect production quality, it’s done pretty good for itself. To this extent I mean the animation is actually pretty good, it’s not Guilty Crown blow your face off good, but it’s not bad. The music of the entire thing fits quite well too, so it makes you feel the right things at the right time. Overall I rather enjoyed this short little piece, it may be a standard one of a thousand anime that are all basically the same, but it’s a bit of fun you know?

On a final note because of the spectacular averageness this anime has managed to achieve it’s difficult to say much more about it, so I apologise for the short review. This anime is by no stretch of the imagination a really good anime, but neither is it really bad.

Premise: 5/10
The idea this anime is based around is incredibly mundane and has been done a thousand times before, but it manages to pull it off in its own way.

Plot Development: 6/10
The plot development is okay, but not brilliant. It’s slow going and you only start to feel that the anime is progressing in the final few episodes. But those final few are very entertaining indeed.

Animation: 7/10
The animation for this anime is surprisingly good considering its roots, however because of a lacking of any times where the animation could be put to the test there is no real proof of it’s worth.

Characters: 7/10
The characters in this anime is one of its strong points because it manages to fit in the usual line up of boring harem figures and then puts a slightly different spin them and even explores their personality allowing you to become somewhat attached to them at times.

Character Development: 6/10
The character development in this anime is surprisingly good, because the anime manages to start off with the staple line up of characters in the beginning and end up with a group of characters you’re emotionally attached to; having said that it’s incredibly slow going and only seems to work on one character at a time.

Fluidity: 7/10
This show flows quite well; there are no dodgy jumps in the story line, and you’re never really left feeling like you’ve missed something.

Music: 8/10
The music is very good but not very diverse. The correct thing always seems to be playing at the right time, setting the scene perfectly. But at times you feel like it’s the same few tracks being played over and over again.

Intro: 8/10
The intro for this anime is fantastically done and it possibly one of the best features of this anime. Everything from the music to the animation seems to fit very well and puts you in the perfect mood for watching the episode.

Outro: 6/10
The outro is quite disappointing compared to the intro because nothing really happens; it’s just a series of credits and pictures, having said that the music is upbeat and very nice to listen to.

Personal Enjoyment: 7.5/10
I enjoyed watching this anime rather a lot, and the ending is quite nice. I only wish it was a bit longer and had a more in-depth story-line seeing as it has a lot of potential.



Total: 6.8/10 (Fine)

Stuart Macdonald

(Note: This blog is not the main blog and origin of these posts, the main blog can be found at: http://theanimelistreview.blogspot.co.uk/)

To me, this is about as close to a perfect comedy/harem anime as you can get. It wasn't just a bunch of jumbled episodes dedicated solely to fan service, which I appreciate. Fan service is nice and all, but there is a thing called too much fan service, and many harem animes are guilty of it. Here, it's more, how should I put it... "fitting" "tasteful"? You get the point. Above that, there isn't some ambiguous ending. That's right, a harem lead that actually picks a girl at the end! He's not such an indecisive dunce as many ... other harem protagonists. Another thing I appreciated greatly was the fact that there was actually kissing in the show (and not just the first episode). In many harem AND straight up romance anime, a confession happens and the characters are never even see touching, or are showed holding hands at the most. It made it feel more real and gave more of an impact, especially with the beautiful art and scenery that comes along with the moment ;). My only qualm was Madoka's backstory. It's not a spoiler, because you learn it very early, but it seems like there was very little reason to have had Madoka and Kazuma meet when they were young. It makes sense to have it in; it very much helped Madoka develop feelings for Kazuma, but with the show only being 12 episodes, it feels like they didn't get a chance to fully explore it.

Overall, I enjoyed this show immensly and will definitely watch it again at some point. Would recommend to fans of romance!

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi. When I first started watching this anime I had very high hopes for it. Up until episode 5 I was actually thinking that it may have been good enough to be in my top five. But, as is usually the case with the harem genre, it fell flat of my expectations. Now that i've got all of my complaining out of the way, I would like to focus on the good points of this anime, which despite my complaints, were quite abundant.

Story:
A typical harem genre story: Boy who lives without his parents moves to a new city, ... where a large group of attractive females fall in love with him. However, Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi goes a little beyond that. The viewer is actually presented with a legitimate reason for Kazuma Hoshino (our protagonist) to have moved to his new home. On his first day he meets Ui Nakatsugawa in a most unusual way, and this is when the story truly begins. The story is not completely predictable, but you won't be utterly shocked by most of the events. There wasn't as much "romance" as I usually prefer in an anime like this, but there was enough to keep me interested.

Art:
This is where the anime truly excels. It may just be my personal preference, but the bright, colorful, and lively art style used in this anime is one of the best I have seen. Characters, as well as the environments, are represented quite well in this style. Every main character stands out from one another and their environment, but not so much so that they are the only thing you can focus on. The "sharpness" of the images makes it seem like your watching it in great quality every time, even if it isn't in HD.

Sound:
The opening and ending themes were quite fitting for the type of anime this is. The opening is light and enjoyable, with just a hint of seriousness. I actually found myself going back to listen to it a few times purely because I enjoyed it so much.

Character:
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi has a large list of character types including: A loli, a tsundere, an incredibly shy girl, and an airhead. These different character types actually work well to complement each other. My problem with the characters was the lack of development. Each character only had a few episodes in which to develop. Some characters don't even get a chance to be developed either. Also, at some points it seemed like some of the characters were forgotten and simply put in later episodes to let us know they are still there.

Enjoyment:
Despite my complaints, I actually enjoyed watching Hoshizora e kakaru Hashi. There was an episode or two I didn't care for, but for the most part I really had fun watching this anime. It doesn't need to get a 10/10 to be enjoyable.

Overall:
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi wasn;t the greatest thing I have ever seen, but it was actually pretty good. These are just my opinions though. This anime may end up being your favorite of all time. I recommend that you at least give it a chance.

i have to say, when i finished this anime, i didn't go rushing to find a season 2, or some kind of continuation of the story. not because i didn't like it. in fact, i LOVED it. i did not, however, want more, because, really, i didn't need more. the ending was perfect. it was everything i had hoped for, and more. this is possibly my first time finishing an anime and feeling genuinely fulfilled, rather then sad, or half glad that it was finally over. i still pine for the characters, as i always do when finishing a great anime, but at the ... same time, i'm happy with what i was left with. all round, this has to be one of my favorite anime of all time.

This will be a short review. In many ways this anime is average, but yet at the same time far superior to 99.999999% of all harem/romance/comedy series. Why?

Despite some shortcomings, the story actually progresses, the characters actually progress, the main male character isn't a complete Q#$%*#^ idiot, and....drumroll please........*spoiler*:

HE ACTUALLY PICKS SOMEONE BY THE END! That by itself, earns this series a 10 rating from me, because it actually tells a complete story, instead of most harem anime that are just trying to bait you into buying the manga. Either that or the writers are too cowardly to actually resolve the ... romantic situation for fear of making some fans disappointed.

What I can say to this anime that It's fine, if you want a decent romance anime with a relaxing setting then this is for you, there's not much drama (expect for the romance part) or whatsoever.

There's nothing really new to the story, I mean a city boy who became a transfer student, a boy meets girl scenario, a couple of anime troupes and archetypes etc... It's completely unoriginal but I'm sure you'll enjoy.

probably the thing that makes the series so relaxing (at least for me) is the fact that it's set on a countryside and the characters aren't really that aggressive despite their troupes.

Regarding ... the romance, It's just okay, they did break out a one romance cliche though (spoiler I won't tell it), the only plot hole that I think is the main character's memories, other than that nothing really.

Overall It's completely unoriginal, It's only 13 episodes so I don't think It's that hard to follow, and It's a very peaceful anime with an Okay end, though I can't say that It's the best

Hoshizora is an interesting ecchi-based harem, so much so that it took two complete viewings for me to collect my thoughts. It isn't a particularly innovative series but still manages to entertain through decent character interactions and late-building tension. Despite giving very early signs of which harem girl will win Kazuma's hand, the series still puts forth a decently plausible plot line, especially compared to some of the other flops of 2012. If you're looking for a simple harem devoid of senseless action or magical elements to spend six hours on, look no further.

Animation:
Hoshizora is a fair looking series with minimal CGI elements and some ... pretty good looking water effects. It uses a pleasing color palette ranging from a slightly under-saturated base appearance to heavily-oversaturated scenes (such as sunsets). The backgrounds are also quite good; in fact they are so detailed at times that the less-detailed characters look comical when superimposed in front of the background. While lacking in details occasionally, the character styling is fairly good. All important characters are easily distinguishable, including siblings with impossibly different hair colors. My only major critique is Ui; the real world is not so forgiving to those who gorge on monster parfaits and snacks on a daily basis. The series could have also done with a better QA as there were instances of mysteriously, instantaneous costume changes.

This is a relatively calm series where the highlight in terms of action is a school race. There's no hint of magic (other than Ui's metabolism) in this series as well. What you will find, instead, is a fairly generous portion of ecchi panty shots and naked scenes full of god rays and mystic mist. The series' overall approach is a bit more conservative than 30-sai in terms of sexual references and the characters are (thankfully) a bit more mature in feel than those in R-15.

Sound:
Each episode starts with a progressive but melodically challenged OP. It starts as a calm lullaby but then evolves into a frantic-paced jpop song. I can't put my finger on it but I didn't particularly like the singer's voice. The main ED is a fast and playful work that sounds as if it served as the baseline inspiration for Nichijou's OPs. It heavily relies on synthesized sounds, which makes it blend with the BGM quite well. The 10th episode is special in that Madoka gets her own fitting ED, you can probably guess why. The BGM is unusually limited in variation so be prepared to hear the same playful synthetic songs over and over.

At the time of its release, the voice cast for this show isn't what I'd consider an all star team. While the VAs gave an adequate performance, I think the script severely limited them at times. Consider the following example from the first episode:

Kazuma (with an incredulous tone): "Hey... you're a girl?"
Ui: "Yes, I'm a girl."

I still can't quite grasp what the scriptwriter was thinking at some points. Script aside, I was also a bit annoyed at how girlish Ayumu sounded. Overall, don't expect this to match the level of drama in other shows such as Ano Hana.

Story:
Kazuma and his weak brother, Ayumu, move in with a family friend in a quiet, rural town, where the residents gloat about their convenience store that closes at 8PM. Soon, Kazuma starts bumping into girls (literally) left and right and before you know it a harem has developed.

The story is told in a slice-of-life, episodic manner with only minimal connectivity. It's a bit strange in that episodes sometimes end abruptly, not at cliffhangers but just as if the director decided to chop up one long movie into chunks. The overall pacing is a bit slow and, with the random episode transition points, the series doesn't really push you forwards.There are a handful of episodes where the ending isn't so arbitrary, specifically episodes that focus on a particular harem candidate. The story doesn't really have any rising action until the last two episodes, which builds to a predictable but satisfying climax and conclusion.

Overall, the plot is extremely predictable and closely follows established harem patterns. The majority of the involvement comes as a big lump towards the end of the show so pace accordingly. Compared to other shows in its season, the story is a bit boring and overly conservative. Luckily the characters bring a bit of life to the series.

Character:
Kazuma is your typical harem lead, a nice dude who is oblivious to girls' feelings and who blushes at anything ecchi. He somehow miraculously adapts to the slow pacing of rural life after having living the majority of his life in "the big city" and is shortly somehow surrounded by all the school's idols. The series makes use of a lot of established character patterns (useless comic-relief guy friend, a bunch of tsunderes to spice up the mix, etc.) but successfully presents them in a mostly plausible manner. Though, honestly, the bulk of the juicy, drama-filled interactions occur very late towards the end of the show. This is where you'll find some decent character development and some hard choices. If not for this last glimmer of inspired presentation (similar in feel to the better parts of Mashiro-iro Symphony), I would have called this series a flop as well.

Value:
Overall, the series had some decent comedic scenes as well as some solid development late in the season. If you can deal with some minor inconsistencies and some shamelessly haphazard episode transitions, this series is a fair watch. It treads on very safe grounds using existing cliches and harem patterns but is brave enough to at least forces a conclusion that may disappoint some fans. This is by no means an outstanding harem, but seeing how bad some of the other 2012 harems have been, it seems directors ought to be looking back in time for some much needed inspiration.

The story feels fairly similar to other school/harem/ecchi anime in that things play out more or less as you might expect. So don't go into this expecting to find something you have never seen before or anything too unique. However taking that aside the characters are all very likable and the protagonist Hoshino is actually a fun guy to watch as well. Despite not being too unique this anime does very well what it sets out to be. It had me hooked and interested from the start and i could not wait to find out who Hoshino ended up with in the end. So if ... this is the sort of anime you like, then you will probably enjoy it as much as i did.

Let me just say this is my first review, so please bare with me.
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi is possibly the most tragic rom/slice of life i've ever seen.... Not that it was overly dramatic but the story really didn't measure up to my expectations.

Story:3
Now I personally like the story regardless of the cliches. It wasn't spectacular but it wasn't so awful i had to up and quit the show.

Art:7
I loved the art. It was a little too glossy for my tastes but it was well done and the characters looked nice :).

Sound:7
The sound was great. Not horrible, Nothing that ... would bug you during viewing.

Characters:6
I'd have to say even though the characters seemed to just be like any other characters from any other harem, they had this feel to them as if they were each unique in their own sense.

Enjoyment:6
The story line was your run of the mill harem. You had your karaoke and your beach seen. They also included the other events you usually see.

Overall:5
Now i'm not gonna say this was the worst anime I've ever seen but it was far from the best. The twist at the end will leave you puzzled thinking. "WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS OK?" The story up until the last 2 episodes was pretty genuine though. I thought it was going for a feeling sort of like AIR or KANON. Don't be too judgmental though and pass up on this anime due to the reviews or forum posts. It's not as bad as it seems. The reason the anime probably got the awful reviews was due to the ending. Which I'll leave you to critique yourself. If your gonna give this a shot though make sure to be prepared because your either gonna hate it or your gonna love it.