Acchi Kocchi

“Um, m-marriage is where your life goes to drink.”
When I first saw this anime while browsing for brand new anime releases, this anime came into view. My first thoughts… Probably just one of those cliché anime comedy romances. Well I got the comedy romance part right, but the cliché part I couldn’t have been any more wrong. Forgive me Otaku God for calling this anime cliché *goes on hands and knees* The jokes are quite fresh and new, and the romance is so adorable your most likely going to die from potential blood loss coming out of your nose.

Plot:
The plot is ... quite simple beyond beliefs; there is no complexity about it in anyway. Even a five year old can understand it. The anime is about the love between two high schoolers, and what fate awaits them. Well to put it simply all you’re watching is Io and Tsumiki’s relationship grow each and every episode, while at the same time, watching the other characters bug the heck out the both of them, mostly Tsumiki though. Even though this anime requires no extreme thought into understanding what the fudge it’s about, this anime is probably the only anime of its kind that has a perfect way of displaying plot development. Each and every episode, it shows a subtle amount of growth in a relationship from grabbing onto a coat to feeding your lover a spoonful of delicious goodness. This anime just isn’t about romance though; it also does a heck of a good job of making me choke from the amount of laughter produced. Sure not every part of this anime is so funny that it’s enough to make Grumpy from Snow White laugh, but hey I betcha a quarter that he would sniffle a giggle. Which means, whether you’re a Happy or a Grumpy you’re definitely going to laugh, giggle, snort, or even nose bleed when watching this comedy romance filled Heaven!

Characters:
Soon to be lovers, Io and Tsumiki are the ideal anime couple of 2012 with their excellent way of showing character development! Each and every episode, one way or another, shows some tiny sign of character development which is definitely one of Acchi Kocchi’s proud strong points. Their budding relationship is so cute that it even puts Kamichama Karin’s Kazune and Karin’s adorable relationship to shambles! Now why don’t we highlight the extraordinary features of these soon to be lovers? Tsumiki is not your average tsundere, unlike most tsunderes she has that cool and collective attitude that boys go crazy for, however that’s not all; she has her cute side too which proves it with those kawaii cat ears that pop up now and again. Tsumiki is also a fantastic cook, adorable singer, and a super strong woman. There’s no doubt that she’s the ideal woman for most men! Now last but not least let us introduce the one the only, Io Otanoshi! Io may be quite oblivious to many things, but he makes up for it with those devilish good looks and charm that the Gods and Goddesses of Anime had blessed him with. Io like Tsumiki, is also a fantastic cook, but that’s not all, he’s also got the skills of a ninja! He’s every woman’s dream man! But that’s not at all, Acchi Kocchi also has Hime Haruno our nose bleeding princess, Sakaki the awesome pevert who is strangely similar to Yohei Sunohara, and Mayoi Katose the strange girl with a knack for technology.

Art:
If there is one thing I have learned from watching countless anime shows with a variety of different and yet unique art styles, I have come to the conclusion that the art style used in an anime should somehow fit the plot and genre of the anime. For example, in a horror anime, you need a somewhat mysterious and dark feel which will cause the hearts of its viewer a feel of slight uneasiness. In this case, however, you have a romance comedy anime with its goal being to somehow cause the hearts and souls of its viewers a feeling of relaxation, happiness, laughter, and adoration. To successfully put all these wonderful feelings together the animators had used an art style similar to that of Lucky Star’s. However, that is not all; the animators had also used graphics, effects, and the hearts and souls of those who love cute things too not only woo their viewers into a zombie like state in which people will stare adoringly at their computer screen, but also a near death experience where the viewer’s soul have somehow died and gone to a world of pure bliss.

Music:
“I don’t know anything about the meaning of love; I just want to look at you all the time.” That my anime friends are a small part of the cutesy lyrics to the anime’s opening “Acchi de Kocchi de.” Like most openings to animes the lyrics somehow in some way relate to the anime’s plot, cutesy and romantic for this one. The voice actors used in this anime are in no doubt, specialists. These seiyuus had successfully and utterly pulled down the red carpet and walked dazzlingly across it smilingly handsomely at all those other rejected seiyuus and said, “Tough luck kids, maybe next time.” Very unbelievable if I do say so myself that a few voice actors could be as so professional as to pull off the stupidity, cuteness, embarrassment, and all those other fanciful adjectives I type randomly just to make this paragraph longer. “If I grin and nyaa, I’ll know you’ll scratch my back.” And that was just extremely adorable lyrics to the anime’s ending song "Te wo Gyu Shite ne” which is just as adorable and pleasant as Tsumiki with her cat ears which I know most people are as so tempted to pull.

Enjoyment:
If there is one thing I wanted to do after watching episode one of this anime, it was to dance around in my underwear like a strange lunatic while smiling and listening to anime music. If you are wondering if I have problems than yes, yes I do. But that does not change the fact that this anime is so wonderful that every Otaku will get up and scream of joy, while watching Tsumiki go moe on them! I also got into the strange habit of saying cat like things; I have the strange urge to do so. But yes if you want me to get right into the point than yes, yes I 100% did enjoy watching this anime, so much that I want to dance happily in my own little world where my crush will someday pat me in the head lovingly and feed me a spoonful of food. My gosh, I’m sure every girl wants their crush to do that to them! Don’t worry ladies, I’m sure someday your prince will come.

Acchi Kocchi, the anime adaptation from yonkoma manga (4 cell/panel manga) that begin aired around 2012. Several words that came up to describe it are funny, cute and adorable! How the story goes that sometimes make me laugh out loud because of its joke in it, all those cute, adorable and memorable character are the reason that Acchi Kocchi is worth to watch for all of you who really enjoy gag anime and a little bit of daily life romance in school. Although, there are several reasons for me why I give it fair. Specifically, I will explain it below:

(*) Story
How the story told in ... process consist of two part in one episode, there's Part A and Part B. Most of it linked to one another, but there's several episode was not. The story itself is simple like most love stories, there's a girl who falls in love with a guy though their personality is cross apart but somehow they could make romance situation filled with sweetness aura. I don't know how to describe it specifically, but besides the simple and mainstream story, it surely gives us an expression of moe that makes the audience feel relax and enjoy the story. The other points, the romance itself has a small percentage compared to its joke or comedy. For the ending, I would like to say that it's not certainly enough to me for say that is a good ending, but I would not say that is a bad ending either. For all, I would say that is fair enough and could interest to watch for the very beginning till the end of the episode.

(*) Art
The art is good enough. It's from gag manga, after all, the creator may need it to expand their story and character as flexible it can to make the audience not bored and enjoy. Though, those efforts don't work on several condition. But, it is memorable and fit the story. I'd like to say that it's cute art.

(*) Sound
I love the seiyuu, the OP and ED theme and a little touch of back sound that give us a fit sense to watch this anime. The character voice of Rumi Okubo fits Tsumiki well, same as Nobuhiko Okamoto who fits Io too. I just love them all! And somehow I liked Kyouya voice too, it's cool rather than the others. The opening and ending are good and fit the story. It's a good job for this point!

(*) Character
The character is memorable enough. Tsumiki the tsundere girl, Io the cool guy, Mayoi, and Sakaki are the duos who enjoy teasing and make pranks and last but not least is the innocent adorable character, Hime-chan. The characters don't have any specific development till the end of the stories. But it well received for this anime because of the storyline and for the fact, the characters from the story itself that the reason this anime is different than others. It’s unique and everyone want to adore them. Like Tsumiki and Hime for example, I want to pinch and own them if they really exist!! That kind of expression that makes Acchi Kocchi is memorable with its cuteness.

(*) Enjoyment
I got bored while I watched it, maybe because of the same story concept that appears in several times, but despite it, I watched Acchi Kocchi till the very end. It because somehow I like the characters that available in the story and the soundtrack that make me want to singing it with copying Io and Tsumiki voice till I got tired myself. In conclusion, it could somehow make me want to watch it more and it fair enough to watch for all of you who like that kind of genre with a little unique, cuteness and moe characters.

If you want to see an anime where moe caricatures crash into each other, trip on banana peels and produce nosebleeds capable of filling up an olympic-sized swimming pool with blood every single episode then you have found your anime. If however you're looking for a more meaningful comedy then by all means skip this one out as you won't miss out on much.

I have to admit I had high expectations for this anime after skimming through all the reviews and forum posts praising Acchi Kocchi's comedic wit and entertainment value. And while initially the show did manage to make me smile and chuckle ... on occasion during the first 2 episodes, that quickly turned into boredom and disappointment. Why? There's an easy explanation:

Acchi Kocchi has no real story to speak of. It's fully episodic nature and complete devotion to a slice-of-life theme means that it basically replays the same premise and setting every single episode. Now that in itself wouldn't be bad (basic sitcom formula) but this anime also replays the same jokes over and over again as well. Mayoi (one of the girls in the cast) trips on a banana peel, Mayoi trips on ice, Mayoi trips on a puddle of water. Now apply that to every other character and by the end of the series you'll be bored enough to actually try to lick your own elbow.

The dialogue is no different. The two most common expressions you'll hear the most every single episode in roughly 15-20 second intervals are "kawaii" or "kawaii desu". Once the initial premise is established the dialogue is recycled more furiously than plastic in Germany. It basically comes down to this - girls compliment male lead. Male lead compliments them back. They nosebleed. That's pretty much it. Something like this CAN be funny but not for the entire duration of a full 12 episode series.

Secondary male characters appeared to be the only hope later on but unfortunately they shared the same fate as the rest of the cast, only adding more fuel to this burning wreck of an anime.

The only truly positive aspects of Acchi Kocchi would be the quality of animation and the fairly decent OST. While the style itself was not something I enjoyed (huge Moe overdose), the anime was done decently. The only issue with art I have would be that every other living organism apart from cats and our cast is a greyed out stationary statue. Either the studio was lazy or they decided to go with it as a "stylistic" choice but I didn't like it. It just made the anime as a whole look a bit cheap.

The enjoyment you'll get from Acchi Kocchi will only be from the first 2-3 episodes. After that the story, characters, jokes and dialogue go into loop mode and you will not miss anything if you try to drop it after that point.

Overall, this anime was in fact a poor experience. The studio basically created a 3 episode OVA and stretched it out far beyond its entertainment value.

4 points.