Kiniro Mosaic

Don't you just hate it when an anime looks like it'll be good and then turns out to not be so?

Seriously, I really want to like this show. I really do. The first episode was so sweet, so charming, and reminded me so much of Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, I didn't mind having a nice little slice of life anime to watch. I didn't have any expectations at first as I didn't know much about it, but when I saw the first episode, I thought it'd be a nice exploration of cultural differences similar to how Ikoku Meiro no Croisee was. I thought it'd be ... a really cute and sweet and interesting serious, without getting into borderline saccharine and moeness. I thought it'd be different from those other cute girls do cute things anime that have been swamping the industry lately. Boy was I wrong. After the first episode, it just basically said, "you wanted an interesting slice of life anime?! Ha ha! Tricked you! Well, too bad! Here are some unfunny moe blob antics where everybody acts like idiots over the stupidest things!"...yeah. Thanks for stomping all over my expectations, Kiniro Mosaic. Now I feel like I went through the second season of K-On again, and THAT in itself wasn't a pleasant experience!

The story is about a girl named Shinobu who, as a kid, went to stay with a family in England for a while. She knows no English but that doesn't seem to bother her. She meets a girl named Alice (Seriously, what's with Japan's obsession with the name Alice? If they really had that much trouble coming up with a name for her, they should have gone on some websites or something! I would have named her something more English, like Adriana or Amy or Jolie or Cassie!), who at first doesn't like her due to being ridiculously shy, but soon warms up to her. After spending time with her, Alice soon finds a very good friend in Shinobu. After Shinobu leaves, Alice vows to learn Japanese and go to Japan someday to meet her friend again. Years later, Alice gets her chance and manages to transfer to Shinobu's school. Her Japanese is fluent and she stays with Shinobu during her stay in Japan. Soon, her other friend Karen joins the picture, along with Shinobu's friends Yoko and Aya.

As far as the animation goes, visually, its pretty and very beautiful. I like the soft colors it uses on everything, like flowers on trees and the insides of houses. It really looks like a watercolor painting come to life. But as far as character movements go, it's rather minimal, looking just like any other anime that just focuses on looking pretty and having characters do stuff nobody in real life would do. Personally, the animation is pretty much this show's saving grace mostly because it's easy on the eyes, though at times some things do look a bit blurry. I do like how skillfully it uses a lot of pinks and yellows, and not just for hair colors either. Unfortunately though, the character designs are really bland and uninteresting. Normally this would be a good thing, but everyone here just looks like a bunch of moe stereotypes, made to act like moe stereotypes too, which certainly doesn't help.

The music is nice too, and surprisingly varied for a moe show. It doesn't limit itself to just one tune, and for the most part, it does its job well. There's soft piano tunes, nice classical tunes, comedic pieces, etc. They all do their job well...but not even this could save the show from derailing into stupid moe antics. I'll discuss the first one one seriously glaring flaw that's really starting to bug me: what's with Japan and their belief that any and all English/American people are blonde with blue eyes? Not all Americans and English people have blue eyes and blonde hair! I'm American and I have dark brown hair and green eyes. I actually read somewhere that back in the forties or fifties, the Japanese asked Osamu Tezuka to make Japanese people in his stories have blonde hair and blue eyes, and this was after World War 2 ended! Seriously, talk about doing a complete 180! I don't know if this is a cultural thing or not, but the Japanese really need to see that not all Americans and English people have blonde hair and blue eyes, or even foreign people in general. Gunslinger Girl took place in Italy, and not everyone in that anime had blonde hair and blue eyes, save for only a few characters.

The characters...oh God, how the anime flanderized them over the course of the anime! In the beginning, Shinobu just started off as an innocent girl in another country, but later on she became a full on, squeaky voiced ditz! All the other characters are bland and don't change over the course of the anime, and they all fit their molded stereotype. Shinobu is a straight up ditz, Yoko is perky, Aya is a tsundere, Karen is loud and hyper. Heck, even the teacher is a moe stereotype! No teacher I know acts the way she does! Alice is the only one with some depth to her, but even then it's forced and superficial. Oh God, I HATE Aya. She started off as the level headed one of the group, someone I'd actually like, but later on all she does is blush and jump to conclusions about everything! I wanted to bash her head in every time she reacted to something or even opened her mouth! And as much as I like her seiyuu, her voice wasn't helping matters. Heck, for that matter, EVERYONE I know has a squeaky voice! No teenagers I knew sounded like they did! God, by the time the third episode came around I wanted them to just shut up, their voices were that grating! Seriously, I hope Sentai dubs this anime and gives them all realistic sounding girl voices! One thing I love about anime dubbing is that English dubbers often give girls in moe shows realistic voices, Air and Kanon being the best examples, and it works. But yeah, they rely too much on their assigned gimmicks to be funny (which they aren't) and they're completely shallow and uninteresting. Plus, trying to act like five year olds clearly doesn't help here, and the forced, artificial voice acting just makes it worse.

So yeah. Kiniro Mosaic is just yet another unfunny cute girls do cute things like idiots show meant to rake in some cash. The characters are boring, the voice acting is horrid, the jokes got old fast, and the show in itself is...well, if you like moe girls, give it a go. Otherwise, give it a miss.

First review!

Overall, not a bad show, but not a fantastic one either. Let's get into it!

~Art & Sound~
VERY cute/moe/sparkle-y art. Nothing breathtaking, but no real problems. Has some cute moments in alternate art styles.

OP and ED were pretty good, but nothing really special. Not much to comment on. However, it is worth noting that sometimes, the ED would randomly play, like, 8 minutes into the episode. Then there'd be ~13 more minutes of content after it, and THEN the episode would end. It was weird. Why did they do this? WHO KNOWS.

Both Art and Sound ... - 8/10.

~Characters & Plot~
The characters are supposed to be the shining, glorious star of slice of life. This show didn't really have that. The characters weren't BAD, but for a slice of life show, the characters have to be SUPERB. Why were they not superb in this show? Well, that ties in with the plot.

The plot was by far the biggest problem for me. This is because, well, there was ALMOST ENTIRELY ZERO PLOT. Of course, this is slice of life, so that's sort of the point, but this show seemed to deliberately avoid/defuse any situation that could have lead to development.

This show (like many other slice of life shows with cute girls), hinted at yuri pretty often. But this show did it A LOT. Almost every episode there's a romantic moment that could easily end in some sort of loving embrace, but instead ends with someone (normally Alice) smiling with twinkling eyes, and saying "okay!". And then 2 minutes later they pretend like it never happened.

Most slice of life shows use tiny touches of yuri implications for comedic purposes. However, in this show, the feelings felt a lot more real and grounded. Yet, nothing ever goes anywhere. Obviously, Alice likes Shino. DOUBLE OBVIOUSLY, Aya likes Yoko.

"You've shown up in my dreams a lot lately." .~*sparkle-y image of yoko, and blush*~.
-Aya, to Yoko

REALLY? That's full romance. Don't bullshit me. Don't worry though, this isn't really a spoiler, because all the feelings are pretty evident early on- even from the first episode. I mean, I'm not asking for another freaking Sakura Trick here, but come on, give me SOMETHING. You could literally watch the first episode, and then watch the last episode, and you wouldn't even know that all those little romantic moments happened.

It's pretty clear why things were done like this. This way, the creators of the show can say "well, teecchnniicallllyy, there's no yuri in the show", and that makes the show less weird, and therefore more easily accepted by the general public. Yaaaayy. By staying in the gray area, sure, that problem is solved, but the show feels a little bland as a result. Now, I see there's going to be a second season, but I'm fairly certain nothing will actually come to fruition in that, either.

There's always the comedy though, right? Sort of. The comedy isn't all that great either. The humor is pretty repetitive, and it was very rare for a funny moment to actually be genuinely laugh-able.

Character - 7/10
Plot - 5/10

~Enjoyment~
The romantic set-ups got my hopes up and then went nowhere. I was always waiting for that MOMENT of feeling realization that never came. I knew it wouldn't come, since this is slice of life, but I COULDN'T HELP IT OKAY I LIKE ROMANCE AND IT WAS TEASING ME. The relatively lackluster comedy that often defused the romantic moments probably added to the frustration a bit. Of course there were quite a few entertaining portions, but certainly not enough.

Enjoyment - 6/10


~Overall~
Cute art, good-ish comedy, half-baked romance, and a partridge in a pear tree. If you want something cute and easy to watch, without too many crazy laughs, check this one out. Just don't get too hooked into the implied yuri moments (like me), or you'll be disappointed. It's certainly a passable slice of life show, but in my opinion, it's not much more than that.

Overal - 6.5/10

Welcome to Golden Mosaic, or Kiniro Mosaic. The anime that was overshadowed by the popular 2013 anime that was hyped during it's airing. While being a big slice of life fan, this anime is definitely one that that brought out the comedy of every day simple things while also bringing a little hint of soft yuri.

The story is following the groups daily lives in school and outside just hanging out. The anime opens with an english scene that lasts about the first half of the first episode making it a great opening that made me laugh with the accents that they spoke with. The art ... is really cute and looks like a typical "moe" so to speak, but has great detail in the background and the little scenes where they made them look a lot more chibi than usual. The characters are all interesting with their personalities and definitely one of the strong points of the anime. Overall this anime is one that is under the radar, and definitely worth anyone's time to watch.

Raise your hands if you thought this was going to be a moe yet fulfilling tale of two girls from different cultures discovering each others' worlds, like Ikoku Meiro no Croisee...and not just another K-On/Lucky Star clone.

I was drawn in by the first episode, in which ditzy Anglophile Shinobu participates in a student exchange program and stays with shy, skittish English girl Alice Carteret (OF COURSE she has blonde hair). Despite both girls knowing only the words "hello" and "konnichiwa" in each others' respective languages, they make some sweet memories together and become fast friends. So when Alice comes to Japan to meet up with ... her pen pal, we think we'll see some steadily paced introduction to Japanese culture through gaijin eyes and musings about how we're not really so different in the end et cetera et cetera. Of course, perhaps we should've been tipped off about the reality by the fact that first (and best) episode was largely anime-original; the manga just had the scene of Shinobu and Alice yelling "Hello!" and "Konnichiwa!" at each other.

So naturally, what we get, as I said, is yet another K-On clone, with most scenes built around misunderstanding jokes and very light teasing with plenty of cute shaking, blueface, or blank white (or in Alice's case, blue) eye reactions. There's even an ersatz Azunyan in the form of Aya, being egged on by a Ritsu wannabe. Even their Christmas cake teacher (OF COURSE she is; you know all this by now, right?) acts like her quivering, flighty students. Meanwhile, the whole "innocents abroad" theme is only barely returned to again, even after Alice's energetic "hafu" friend Karen arrives to fill the "genki girl" quota; what we thought would be the focus of the story is pushed to wayside by embarrassed squiggle lines and "EEEEEEEHHHHH" moments.

Perhaps I'm not the proper person to write a review for this anime since, like I said, I was expecting something like Ikoku Meiro in modern times, and with the Japanese/Westerner roles reversed. And while I certainly enjoy some moe moments...c'mon guys, why give up such a compelling start for yet another schoolgirl show? Do we really need yet another A-Channel?

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

When it comes to anime, something that it does right, or at the minimum what it does well, is cute. From characters, to story, and everything in-between, cuteness is prevalent in most modern shows, to the point that it sparks huge debates about it being supersaturated. Despite the controversy, Kiniro Mosaic steps up to the plate, bringing along a delightful little anime that is sure to make anyone smile.

STORY

Kiniro Mosaic begins with the sweet little Shinobu, visiting England to study abroad. There, she becomes best friends with Alice, who, a few years later, goes to Japan to live ... and attend school with Shinobu in return.

Above all else, this show does two things very nicely: humor and cuteness. The comedy for the show stems mostly from the way in which the characters react to the current situation and also heavily on the personality or character quirks of the specific characters. Often times, as an audience member, you will know exactly what is going to happen next, but this doesn't necessarily detract from the laughs. Instead, part of the fun is actually anticipating how Shinobu and Alice will act during specific situations. At the same time, the amount of adorable moments is off the charts. All of the blushing, name-calls, whimpering, happiness, and mannerisms compound to the point that its almost unfair. There isn't a time on-screen where a character isn't being as cute as humanly possible.

This being said, the comedy and cuteness isn't for everyone. To be honest, a lot of what goes on during the show can get somewhat repetitive. The same gags usually make their way into the show, such as Alice's and Karen's English, Aya's closet-yuri feelings, and Shinobu's love for all things foreign. This is an issue that is born from the character's themselves. Since there really isn't a story to be had, what we get is the characters being who they are for twelve episodes.

Speaking of story, the show is essentially a slice-of-life. It does an interesting mix of small and episodic segments that don't really flow well together. Each part within an episode may be endearing and fun to watch, but the smaller, twenty-second sections somewhat break up the "focus" that the episode was attempting to establish.

ANIMATION

Mosaic tends to stick with a mostly plain looking art-style. In regards to the environments, the locations are generally rather typical, such as Shinobu's house or the school grounds. The world doesn't feel very "alive" because that isn't where the show focused a lot of its attention.

Rather, this attention was placed heavily on the characters. While the character designs for Alice and Karen are the only notable ones, the "minimalist" or "chibi" drawings of everyone during the show once again elevate the cuteness level to new heights. The smaller, oval eyes, their dazed expressions, and Yoko's single fang help make the entire experience that much more fun.

In regards to the shows actual animation, for the most part it is somewhat above average. The characters are generally pretty lively, always moving about one another to either participate in teasing or to react to someone's phrasing. The show also employs many different tricks to express the character's current feelings, from brooding and melancholy auras to sparkling and dazzling lights. Much of it isn't technically needed, but reiterating the point once more, it allows for the show to take one more step in the comedic and adorable direction.

CHARACTERS

While none of the characters from Kiniro Mosaic are memorable, they all perform their jobs quite admirably.

My least favorite from the bunch (which isn't saying much) is Yoko. Mature, tomboyish, and understanding, she's the first one in the group who will point out the obvious. More often than not, she won't play along with the group mentality, and instead bring everyone back down to reality. Her constant grounding and usually fourth-wall breaking humor makes her the "audience's voice" during the whole show.

Aya, or Karen's incredibly cute nickname for her, Ayaya, is smart, kind, and a romantic at heart (I can relate here). Her suppressed feelings towards Yoko are adorable and hilarious at the same time, and her inability to cope with external pressures make her a great addition to the cast. She doesn't usually say much, instead letting her actions speak for themselves.

Shinobu is technically the MC. Always optimistic, her love for anything related to English knows no bounds. Her smile is infectious, her friendship with Alice is too cute for words, and her general behavior and likability allow her to not only bring happiness to the rest of the cast but also to the audience who watch her.

Alice is "moe" incarnate. Small, blonde, and so adorable it hurts, she's the kind of character people either love to love or love to hate. Her motivations for doing anything almost always revolve around Shinobu, and her friendship towards Shinobu, likewise, is as tight as could possibly be. Alice cries at the thought of not being beside her best friend, having Shinobu taken away, or when anything even remotely trivial happens to Shinobu. Acting pretty much as a little sister, there just wouldn't be a Kiniro Mosaic without her.

Arguably the best character from the anime, Karen is also a foreign exchange student. Pretty, energetic, and jubilant, she makes it her mission to always have fun. Her broken Japanese, coupled with her springy attitude, make it nigh impossible to keep a straight face whenever she appears. She loves to joke around, hang out with her friends, and really just be herself. While she may be seen as the "fifth-wheel" for the group early on, it becomes apparent later on that she is anything but.

SOUND

The OP for the show is pretty generic. While upbeat and lively as the show itself, besides the "one-two-three" beat that it incorporates at certain points during the piece, it's nothing that really strikes a chord or stands out on its own.

The ED is slightly better. They chose to go with a jazzy song, probably to be a bit more "western" due to the overall higher amount of English present in this show when compared to others. The actual song is fine, using a mix of both English and Japanese. Again, it's nothing amazing, but it does edge out the OP.

The soundtrack overall is average. If anything, my favorite "piece" was the piano transition usually heard at the half-way point that accompanied the "Kiniro Mosaic" frame.

Above all else, this one earns a rather interesting title: best English voice acting. The characters that do speak English, the most important being Alice, Karen, and Alice's Mom, all speak English very well in comparison to any other English I have heard from anime. When I first started hearing it, I was actually taken aback by how nicely it was being done.

Lastly, Karen's VA, Nao Touyama, nails it, allowing Karen's character to flourish in terms of personality and cuteness.

ENJOYMENT

This show has probably one of the best first episodes for a series I have ever seen. It is almost movie-quality, with its wide-screen, great voice acting, good use of emotion, and easy-to-follow premise. And yet, it's only twenty-five or so minutes long. I was actually slightly disappointed when the rest of the show didn't follow the same trend, but I think it would have been unrealistic to have the same level of dedication throughout.

Yet, the show slightly proves me wrong with its final episode, and more specifically its final ten minutes. It tries something vastly different from the rest of the show, and oddly enough it works.

It's important to understand just how cutesy this show is. Nearly every character is a "moe-blob," some more than others. As such, the show's characters rely greatly on the audience taking a liking to them. If one is not a fan of incredibly adorable girls acting beyond cute during all predicaments, then that person will have a hard time liking the show. Thankfully, I'm quite the fan of such charming archetypes.

This anime is super sweet, funny despite its repetitiveness, and in very specific areas tries something outside of its comfort zone. If someone is looking for a show in which to sit back, relax, and smile profusely, then he/she needs to look no further than Kiniro Mosaic.

SUMMARY

Story: Fine, funny, cute, yet repetitive

Animation: Good, mostly plain but actual animation accentuates the comedy and cuteness

Characters: Good, their personalities and quirks fit the genre quite nicely

Sound: Good, okay OP, ED, soundtrack, "Best English VA Award"

Enjoyment: Great, "moe" to the max

Final Score: 7/10

After surviving the last 2 episodes of the disappointment that is called Boku wa tomodachi ga sukunai NEXT, i needed a new anime to make me smile and forget that disappointment. Then i saw this: God! I was so happy that I started watching this when it was finished.

Story = 7 - The plot of the 1st episode was Language Barriers, but when it progressed, it just turned into 2 British girls living and adapting in Japan, hearing Engrish and broken Japanese made my day even more! The story isn't complex and deep.

Art = 7 - I don't really care about the art, ... but the artist did what they can to make this show light and fluffy. So kudos to them.

Sound = 8 - As for sound, the seiyuus who provided the voice here are part of a group, they sung the OP and ED, both were catchy and cute, it can give you a heart-attack if your not careful. They even managed to squeeze a musical, w/c made the OSTs much better.

Character = 8 - before i start writing this, after watching lots of all-girls/SoL animes, I can classify the main cast into categories:
Boke = idiot,
Tsukkomi = straight-man,
Airhead = always spaces out or in their own world,
Ms.Perfect = has good grades and good at sports or has good grades but bad at sports, vice-versa, normally Ms.Perfect characters has a weakness or secret,
Ojou-sama character = the insanely rich characters and;
Moe characters = Cute characters that can give you heart-attacks with a simple glance.

Shino = Airhead/Boke - she looks like a Japanese doll, she's extremely fascinated with foreigners especially blonde girls, it is unknown if she likes blonde boys anyway, Shino is basically an Airhead, she need someone to look after her, if not, she can pretty much be in trouble. There are even hints that Shino is a ninja/assassin. She wants to be an interpreter.

Alice = Moe - a blonde loli, that clearly likes Shino. Alice is a very interesting character, there are times she acts a Tsukkomi, but during those time Shino's the Boke, she can speak good English, in the 2nd episode (according to Youtube), she even had a"Cockney Accent", when she said: "Ms. Karasuma, your English is a little awkward!". I had to pause at that part to laugh for 3 mins.

Yoko = Boke/Tsukkomi - the show classified her a the main Tsukkomi, but IMO, Ayaya was the one playing Tsukkomi always. Energetic and loud, the big-sis of the main cast, because she really is a big-sis in real life. She's dependable, and according to Karen: "Yoko is like a convenience store.", that's how dependable she is.

Ayaya = Ms.Perfect/Tsukkomi/Moe - at first i could believe Risa Taneda voiced her, because Ayaya doesn't say "Sempai", but whenever Ayaya gets flustered she sounds like Mirai Kuriyama, so yeah, Risa Taneda voiced her alright. Anyway, Ayaya is like Mio of K-on, strict, serious, and unexpectadly moe, she plays Tsukkomi when Yoko, Shino and Karen play Boke. I loathe tsunderes with a passion, but Ayaya is okay.

Karen = Ojou-sama character/Boke - when i first saw Karen, i thought: she was gonna be spoiled bitch, but, thank god i was wrong! When Karen arrived, this show even got more louder! Her Boke-ness is beyond Shino and Yoko combined, w/c is a surprise for me. Karen gives this show a lasting memory, because of her broken Japanese.

Enjoyment = 9 - Hearing Engrish and broken Japanese in the same show is a new experience for me! This show was really fun to the point that I re-watch it a lot of times.

Overall = 8 - With the basic formula of all-girls/SoL, add in some good random Engrish sentences, broken Japanese, blonde girl fetish, one-sided yuri love, closet Siscon and fluffyness with a side of a light and relaxed atmosphere, you get Kiniro Mosaic.

Have you ever thought why your life is so boring? I will tell you. It is because you still have not watched Kiniro Mosaic.
NOT ONLY while watching it you will encounter a superior friendship story and perfect OST (and a ton of AYAYA) but also you will find the reason why living on earth is not that bad. Spoilers are the worst thing in existence so i will let you get over the entire show by yourself. Once you watch it i recommend you reading parts that have not been animated. This show is an absolute game and life changer.

Kiniro Mosiac is the moe franchise you should probably steer clear of. It’s the most boring and uninventive that I’ve seen in the genre. The girls are cute, and if you want to watch it purely on that, then go ahead, but it’s like a stale loaf of bread.

• Meet you main heroines Shinobu, the Western obsessed Japanese girl, and Alice, an exchange student from England that is obsessed with Japanese culture. Like you may have thought to yourself after a sigh, that sounds extremely generic. That’s because it is. Those are the focal points of this series, oh, and a bland-sauce pretty foreigner ... named Karen that has little-to-no personalty other than being devious and lazy.

• The most interesting characters are Aya and Shinobu’s hot older sister, which it rarely shows. And Aya’s personality is overshadowed how flamingly gay she is for the tomboy of the class. This series is very episodic and nothing really happens, other than girls gushing over each other and shoujo-ai innuendo that never really leads anywhere.

• Unlike a show like Yuru Yuri, there is absolutely no character development between the girlsーif anything, it just gets lost in a cacophony of silly, pointless humor and repeats the same jokes ad nauseum. Rinse, repeat the same silly, lower budget than normal moe show over and over again.

• If you are a native English speaker, such as myself, you may tire quickly of the hellacious English spouted by the supposed Englishwoman. The comedy is boring, the characters are boring and mostly one-dimensional. If you’re a fan of moe, you can skip this one. Just throw it in your imaginary hamper and forget to wash it. I give the first season a 4/10, the second season a 3/10, and the film: Pretty Days, which is pretty much like a long episode, a 2/10.

Comedic slice of life anime will always be a great thing to kick back and watch no matter how many of them are published and this sure is no exception.

Kiniro Mosaic starts as a story of childhood friends and quickly turns into a high school fountain of comedic humor where half the time you have to watch a scene two or three time to full get what the hell just happened because you missed half of it from laughing too much. Starting at three original friends quickly becomes 5 as the foreign friends become local classmates and with five very different personalities, the most unlikely ... of friends make for some... cultured humor

It comes across as very bright and cutesy which is understandable for its aimed at younger age groups but at some points can become too much as the constant highlight of "blonde hair" either blends into the scene too much or it stand out so much so its the only thing that you end up focusing on. It really doesn't have a middle ground as the animes' color plate seems very finite and can be displeasing to the eye.

Music is matched to the art style to keep it a very cutesy child like portrayal but a lot of the time blends with the scene to the point where you don't notice it. It's used in many ways to amplify the scenes atmosphere or just a backing to make scenes flow smoother or make it seem a lot more calming. A for the voice acting, the "English" spoken by the European foreigners is utterly horrid and can almost cause bleeding ears. Even if it is spoken by Japanese VA's imitating a British accent.

Characters are questionable as none seem really relate-able and each have a personality so far set from each other its sometimes hard to believe that they're friends. As for the development of the characters, these kinds of anime rarely have much in term on character development and this hold true for the most part. However that is not to say there isn't any but it's all within the first few episodes with little pieces over the next few episodes as well.

Enjoyment was a bumpy ride as It comes with light yuri undertones and sometimes barely legal humor for an anime of its age demographic while also keeping its very bright and happy moments that make you just want it to hurry up and move on. It also has a lot of spontaneous humor that is quite spotty in its actual comedic value as some are laughable and others just make wonder if they were even trying to be funny when they put that in. But it still was overall a great comedy.

Overall Score: 7/10

This is a review of both Kiniro Mosaic seasons, as well as the movie Pretty Days. No spoilers beyond season 1 though.

Kiniro Mosaic is probably the most odd anime I have seen to date, A moe show with a cast of only female characters. It is a typical slice of life anime that takes place at the beginning of high school and progresses as the years go by. You dont go into Kiniro Mosaic expecting some deep, complex story line, quite the opposite actually. Its simplistic and adorable nature makes each episode so enjoyable if hardly anything is really happening.

Theres really only 5 ... characters you have to care about. Alice is pretty annoying and the best parts of the show are when she is not the focal point. Karen and Aya are the stars tbh, even though they are polar opposites. Karen is everything that makes this goofy & fun show wrapped into an immature high school girl. And Aya...well...I believe she is one of the best Slice of life characters I have ever seen in an anime. So much internally and emotionally is going on within her, it just feels so realistic compared to the typical annoying tsundere. The story development she gets throughout the two seasons, and ESPECIALLY in the movie is just amazing. Theres not a moment I didn't enjoy when it involved her.

This may seem like an anime that you'd never expect to watch, as its not "your taste". But I assure you that even if you are a huge shounen fan, you will love this just as much. In my opinion, a decent show that does everything it tries to do [perfectly] is a lot better than a show like HxH or Death Note, which has an extremely high ceiling at times but struggles with some major flaws. Kiniro Mosaic is there to be something you laugh at and brighten your mood. Its execution is near perfect. To feel nothing but positive emotions towards an anime is a very rare site, and thankfully Kiniro Mosaic delivered. AYAYA

There have been many moe slice-of-life anime in recent years. Unfortunately, most of them either focus on fanservice, which can be offending to some, or on an oblivious male protagonist, which gets boring rather quickly, or on abstract moral values, which feels forced most of the time.

Kin-iro Mosaic, on the other hand, has the right combination of "cute", light-hearted humor, moe exploitation, with just a dash of yuri undertone. The characters are easily recognizable and lovable. The interactions feel natural (at least in a comedic context). The background music fits each scene perfectly, without distracting from the overall enjoyment. The art is simple
but effective. It ... doesn't try to solve social problems nor explore complex love stories, nor does it need to.

The show does, however, lack that "magical touch" sometimes felt in KyoAni's or SHAFT's works. I could not find anything about this show to exclaim about besides the fact that it's very well-executed, but Kin-iro Mosaic still manages to put a stupid smile on my face for the full 24 minutes of each episode. Perhaps that's all it takes to make a great show.

"Desu" - Karen

In order to help review this anime, I invented a much needed drinking game that should help in many ways with the enjoyment of this series

Take 1 shot when:

Aya acts like a tsun
Shino is wearing some weird outfit

Take 2 shots when:
...
They treat Yoko like a man
Alice starts crying

Take 3 shots when:

The characters do some gay shit
Someone says something in Engrish

Finish the entire bottle when:

Karen says "Desu"


I think by now you should have a general idea of what the series is.

Kiniro Mosaic follows the lives of 5 closet lesbians, 2 of which happen to be transfer students, this being the only "Thing" in the "Cute girls doing things" category. Other than that, they do the standard slice of life stuff, such as visiting shrines on new years and eating things

This is not to say that the series wasn't somewhat enjoyable. There were moments when I chuckled or related to the characters, but honestly for the most part you would be better off watching another series. Unless you've already watched all the good anime then you'll enjoy this like the weeb trash you are

Sound is alright, the opening and ending are pretty good. The art is dips down and up in quality enough to simply be called mediocre, although for a slice of life series it can probably be justified.

If you enjoy slice of life and watching little moeblobs interact with their surrounding then you'll probably enjoy this. To each their own, but for those who want to see a little more characterization and plot I would recommend going elsewhere

It amazes me how similar A channel is to this anime, even the characters are similar, this at first seemed like a bad rehash of the popular anime but the more I watched I realised although it is not as good as A Channel it still has its own good points.

Story: The story is fairly normal for a slice of life anime, nothing much happens and it focuses on one year like most anime of this genre, it is based at around 12 episodes with the possibility of an OVA later on, it mainly focuses on the life in and out of school of ... 5 school girls with two of the main characters being English (England), this creates a language based plot around the anime, however the idea of a girl from ENGLAND sounding like Google Translate kind of pisses me of and many times through the anime I found myself wanting to rip my ears of, otherwise the anime story wise is fine.

Art: The art in Kiniro Mosaic is almost identical to the type used in A Channel, it may also to some people resemble the art in love lab, this art is cutesy and fairly normal for a slice of life like this one, the art itself has no effect on the anime other than extenuating cute features.

Sound: Not really much I can say about this really, the OP isn't bad but isn't nearly as good as some of the more recent and memorable anime. The ED is pretty good though and takes a leaf out of many slice of life anime and has the ED as the main characters singing and dancing together which works pretty well but other than that there are no real scenes where sound becomes important of all that great. In terms of voice acting that a whole different thing, it’s fine until the girls (who are apparently native to England) start sounding like bloody Google Translate and then my ears bleed but other than that its fine, and actually pretty cute.

Character: the characters are similar to the characters of A channel but there are not many other defining features in the characters, there is not much time spent on back story so not much of the characters life gets revealed.

Enjoyment/Overall: This anime was pretty enjoyable, I usually score anime high so if you are into anime as much as me I would take like 2 points off to get it to a reasonable score, as you can tell my biggest problem with the anime was the continuous use of bad English throughout it but other than that it was just another slice of life which means in lay-man’s terms "It doesn't really matter what happened in the anime, the fact is it happened and it's not the end of the world if it didn't work out."

Welcome to The Kaiters Anime Review of Kiniro Mosaic! (The first one reaching MAL! so please bear with me!)

Kiniro Mosaic is a Subtext heavy show about Moe girls in school, a slice of life about 3 Japanese girls and 2 British Exchange students, each having funny characteristics and providing lots and lots of Yuri subtext that is both funny, and still hope giving for season 2, will it the next season actually hold an F/F relationship? or end with one? probably not but it wouldn't be jarring if it happened at all

The Character Design is probably the strong part of the Art in the ... series, as they do stray form the classic "All girls in same uniform" by adding some personal flair to their school uniforms. and the style does a good job of being cute and somewhat colourful, though its Definitely not an eyegasm.

As someone who really likes moe this reviews is probably(definitely) heavily biased in its score. if you do not enjoy moe take this review with a huge grain of salt. I even broke one of my dresses from going "Kyaa!" to hard at one point...

a true 10/10 for any Moe fan

The Kaiters Seal
Tit gets the Kaiters Seal of : Go watch it already!

So I NOW own both seasons of this show on Blu-Ray...I also own the Alice Cartelet figurine as well. When starting off, I only watched the first 3 or 4 episodes of the show and then quit hard. After forcing myself to give it another chance, all of that stuff happened. I also read some of the other reviews on here before posting mine. Here goes nothing...


**STORY**
I have to say that this show starts with a more "story arc" and narrative feel to it, but uses this as a backdrop for context moving forward. We're introduced to WHY there is a little blonde English girl ... in freakin Japan, which to their credit (looking at the naysayers) is a LOT more than we get from other anime. So kudos to the Kinmoza team for actually putting in the effort instead of plopping characters into high school and going from there (something even Azumanga Daioh is guilty of to a certain degree). It's a Slice of Life Comedy and is quintessentially the "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" anime genre in a nutshell. I am going to go into WAY more detail on this in the "Character" and "Enjoyment" sections, so I'll wrap this section up now. If you don't like CGDCT, just don't watch it...simple as that.


**ART**
The art is fantastic! The girls are super cute and the environments look great. I couldn't point out anything "stylistically" different, so this gets a 9 which is perfect in terms of quality. The low-quality expression-heavy animations are also cute, but this is common in other anime as well. The show is very GIF-able though!


**SOUND**
Voice acting seems good (I watched the sub) and I LOVE the music for Season 1 OP and ED! I'm lumping Seasons 1 and 2 together on this, which is why it's a 9. The OP and ED were weaker for Season 2, not bad just not as good as Season 1's. Voice acting still seemed good in season 2 though.


**CHARACTER**
I'll let this be the first hop into the "You don't 'get it', apparently" tangent which will be fully-explored in the "Enjoyment" section. Just let that statement simmer as it may apply to the naysayers of this series...

I could write for hours about the girls, so I'll try and keep it brief and do it in paragraph instead of broken-down form. Alice is an adorable character, you love her to death and just wanna hug her. The relationship with her and Shino is really touching in episode 1, you get why they become friends and it's super endearing. You're introduced to Karen later on who grows on you a lot (quickly as well) though she has a rocky start. Yoko and Aya start off bland, but just need time to develop and you end up loving them too. Sakura, their teacher, is also quite lovable in the end.

"Yeesh, not very detailed and sounds too positive" is probably what some folks are thinking. Remember that comment about "Getting it"? Here we go...


**ENJOYMENT**
If you don't like SoL comedy or CGDCT, I don't know why you are watching this to begin with, but this isn't aimed at you...though reading this might change your opinion on the show regardless.

When I watched this the first time (remember my first paragraph? I QUIT this show hard after 3-4 episodes) my problem was that I didn't "get it" and I think some of the reviewers didn't either. I thought the show, and in particular AlicexShino, was nauseatingly sweety sweet to the point of making me want to vomit. The ironic thing is the show is absolutely aware and that's the joke. Maybe it's getting lost in translation, but the schtick is that you're laughing at how over-the-top Alice and Shino are, it's meant to be COMICAL. Once you realize THIS, it's like you're watching a completely different series (and I mean that, I rewatched the WHOLE thing).

With that in mind, it's in essence making fun of sugary anime, the show is intensely more enjoyable. To think it's not would be like defining Kimura and Kaorin from Azumanga Daioh as a serious romance, or Konata's obsession with anime/manga as a serious psychological problem to be explored. You're completely missing the humor. This is also a feel-good anime, so while it's self-aware and comical it's also meant to be healing at the same time. I can never understand dissing a show for being exactly what it advertises (and even poking fun at it, as well).

So with that in mind....

**OVERALL**
I love the show quite a bit, but for some folks the aesthetic might turn them off even though the show is fully aware of itself. I ran into the same thing with MLP Friendship is Magic (season 1, that is). If you can't get past the aesthetic, that's fine, but it's not a factor outside of personal preference. As another example from Western animation, the Powerpuff Girls also fits this. If the subtlety is lost on the viewer, they aren't going to see the humor in it. With that in mind, the show is great. Season 2 (Hello! Kiniro Mosaic) was also very enjoyable. It felt as though it picked right up where the other left off, unlike other anime. If you like season 1, check out season 2!!

This anime is a typical slice of life series involving "cute girls doing cute things" which I highly enjoyed watching it. Since, I'm a sucker for watching these type of anime series.

~Story~
The story is about a Japanese girl named Shino who visited and stayed at Great Britain. She met an English girl named Alice and the two became fast friends. Years later, Alice came to Japan and attended the same high school with Shino. They are now closer than before along w/ their other friends.
8/10

~Characters~
The characters are mainly focused on these five girls: Ayaya, Karen, Shino, Alice, and Yoko. Mostly the main characters in this ... series would be Shino and Alice. The girls are really enjoyable and have a very good relationship with each other especially between Shino and Alice.
9/10

~Art~
The animation to this series is bright and colorful. It does give you the light-hearted feel of the animation. The character designs have the typical cutesy design to it. The animation can be related to A-Channel.
8/10

~Sound~
I really love the music in this series. The background music has a really nice cute melody which sound very light-hearted that gives a good tone to this series. The OP and ED are the best. I really like the OP (Jumping!! by Rhodanthe) better since its really cheery and happy. I do also like the ED (Your Voice by Rhodanthe) song, too.
9/10

~Overall~
This series is really enjoyable and nice to watch. The characters are entertaining, the relationship between these girls are good, and its one of those relaxing anime to watch. If you enjoy watching slice of life, or seeing "cute girls doing cute things together", or want to find a relaxing anime to watch, then I highly recommend this one. This goes for the people who enjoy watching K-On!, Lucky Star, A-Channel, etc.
Final Score: 8/10

What’s the most generic show or movie you have ever watched. Maybe it’s a shounen show that you think is too similar to whatever you watched before or a drama where all the dramatic elements are in other shows, but worse.
Well, I think this is the most generic show I have ever watched.
Lucky-star and K-on are another two high school slice of life shows, both of which came out before KINMOZA! And even though I’m not the biggest fan of any of those, I can appreciate what they did for the genre.
Lucky-star being one of the early high school anime from what I ... know, and K-on developing the genre a lot. But I can’t say that for KINMOZA!

So what was it about KINMOZA! that is so generic? Well, everything about it is made better in other high school shows. The music felt like either a knock-off of a lucky-star soundtrack or K-on. The animation was fine, but the character designs looked like children. They were supposed to look 15 but managed to look 5. But they didn’t do it for all characters, So they look really out-of-place. So unlike lucky-star that has a similar style (where the characters look really young), it isn’t consistent.
The character tropes also felt just like K-on. There’s the smart one that is a little shy, the tomboy and the naive child. All of these tropes were made in K-on, and better. And they were just generally very boring and one-dimensional. Well except Aya and Youko who I actually really liked. They showed different sides of their personality and I found their relationship to be interesting.

I know this review wasn’t great, but I didn’t want to put too much effort for this shit.

Hey, at least I saw the ”oh my gahd” scene that made me watch the show from the beginning

Not gonna lie, I have not been in the mood to write a long review in a while and I even have resorted to the common "spoil all of the categories that I rated" bit where I put the rating above my opinion, but this one finally made me feel like I could write a fleshed out sentiment on it and it is very deserving of one. However, all of the review is centered on the characters alone, because I thought they did things that were unique from most cute girl anime like this one. So, if you are expecting a lot on the story ... alone, well, I cover that in the next season since the characters took up too much of my time.

But yes, it follows the usual cute girl doing cute things bit, I'm sure every other popular review on here covers that. But, what stands out to me is how this one starts. Right off the bat, you see Japanese subtitles on the screen and the character is speaking ENGLISH. And, VERY fluent English at that. I give it high respect for making the voice actor speak genuine English, rather than pulling a fast one and just leaving her Japanese.

I know most anime do have those little funny bits where a character does speak real English and everyone is confused, but whenever a main character speaks English, they just mask it with everyone not being able to understand that character or they have a light accent.

So, right off the bat,, that caught my attention right away. It also made me have to put away the crunchy food because I was on a streak of watching subbed anime for the longest time and knowing I had to listen with my ears, for the first time in a while, what a character was saying was pretty surprising; given I was expecting this to be a sub, first of all.

Of course, later on, we are in fact greeted with the usual Japanese when the anime finally begins with showing a house in what we found out was England. So, yes, an English speaking family in a subbed anime; quite unusual for a lighthearted comedy since making the actors speak that way must have been quite hard to pull off; especially since it is fluent. But, I'm going on too much about that, but only because I thought it was very unique.

Anyway, onto the part of the review that you want to read: how the anime actually is. So, as I said earlier, "the usual Japanese" I mean that the protagonist of the anime is introduced here; by the name of Shinobu, she goes to England for a homestay where she meets the family and we find out that the mom is capable of speaking Japanese herself to greet this foreigner. There was a scene before where she sees off her friends, and they are all fairly young here so I would pay attention if you want to catch some cute designs since this will be the only time you see them this way in present time of the anime.

Now, back to the other thing, here is the real star of the anime: the blond haired girl named Alice. She hides behind her mom's posterior as she is greeting Shinobu. She speaks English in the entirety of the first episode and humorously attempts to speak Japanese to Shinobu; whom in return, attempts to humorously speak English. But, I will not try to spoil the whole introduction too much because it is quite hilarious.

Now, later into the anime, we see the characters age quite a bit; with Shinobu having the most notable appearance change in her bangs now appropriately covering her forehead. The other Japanese characters are the ones we saw earlier, and they are the friends that Shinobu sees off. There is Aya, the only obvious personality in the entire anime as she sports a tsundere look, is very diligent, gets the homework done and all that. She is nothing too special by herself.

But, here is where the second most interesting part of the anime comes in, as we are greeted to Yoko. She sports the usual tomboy act that almost all red haired female protagonists have. I have honestly not seen a tomboy female that has a different hair color than red, though I have only seen two anime with female tomboy characters that I am aware of.

Yoko is quite reckless and brings forth most of the better comedy as she develops. She also sports the biggest chest of the rest of the females, though it is appropriately sized for her age and not over-exaggerated by the other characters. In fact, this is the first female anime comedy I have ever seen where the female characters do not heavily envy the one with the biggest bust the entire time; rather, they compliment it and most of the scenes doing so only have it for less than ten seconds most of the time, with no envy in any of them.

But, no, that was not the second most interesting part of this anime, given I literally stated that I have seen tomboy females like Yoko before, though only once when I actually think about it. But, the interesting part is how Aya feels about Yoko. I was going to list this as a spoiler, but it is quite obvious when you see them together right away.

But, Aya treats Yoko as though she is a real boy, gets really nervous when she is within her personal space and has occasionally fantasized at the idea of dating her. This caught me off guard big time as I have never seen something like this done before in these cute girl anime, especially one with a story like this one; and it gives their relationship a bit of flavor immediately because of how completely opposite they are from each other, which brings forth that infamous saying about lovers.

It also does not help that Aya is so nervous around Yoko that she can not even do simple things like call, text or anything with her as though she were the love of her life and she stutters on every line that isn't a retort to Yoko; almost always when it is a compliment, she usually fails to recite what she was thinking properly which confuses Yoko every time. And Yoko, not being aware of Aya's feelings, still treats her like one of her casual female buddies; much to the discomfort of Aya.

I saved the best of the Japanese characters for last, but now let's talk about the present Shinobu. My favorite thing about her is how she sports the least flashiest hair out of any of the other protagonists, even though she is the center of them; which reminds us that every protagonist does not need some wacky hairstyle to be considered cool. In fact, every other protagonist might very well outshine Shinobu in this regard if people judge characters based on their hair, too.

But, look outside the cosmetics and Shinobu sports probably the best personality in the entire anime. She is extremely nonchalant, never gets mad (though does get agitated and usually only at her big sister that teases her; never her friends) and actually possesses a very professional talent for her age that is referenced throughout the entire anime. She wears extremely outdated clothes, though she is never ashamed of them and nobody judges her beyond the first glance of the outfit. She makes for such an interesting character that I would rather not go on about her as long as I did with Yoko and Aya and want to just leave the experience for you to see yourself.

Now, you are probably wondering why I have suddenly neglected Alice, even though I admitted that I was a big fan of how she spoke very fluent English. Well, because she kind of stops speaking it in the present time as she finally learned Japanese and, like Aya, is very diligent in her studies and is the only other one that is, well, like this.

It is a shame because I was hoping we would have more humorous moments with this, though they do make up for it by one of her infamous traits: whenever she is extremely stressed, she completely forgets how to speak Japanese and goes on English tantrums which happen a few times and confuse the crap out of everyone. She also speaks English a few times in the beginning in full sentences, non-stressed, but she slowly lets go of it as the anime goes on.

(LIGHT SPOILER START)

Funnily enough, despite one of Shinobu's career options being that she wanted to be an English interpreter, she never speaks English throughout the entire anime; besides the one greeting in her debut episode.

(LIGHT SPOILER END)

Wow, this went on for a pretty long time. I do not even know if I can call this a review, since all I did was go on about how much I loved the cast. But, I guess this will give you a good idea that they are not reeking heavily of generic personality traits, besides Aya; and that you might give the anime a chance. It will standout pretty well due to the English speaking Alice, alongside many more things that I left out just so that you could experience it for yourself.

My reviews almost always go on about something without ever spoiling much, so I apologize if my devoid information did not convince you to watch this, but I feel like too many of the better reviews on here spoil a lot to the point where you barely do enjoy the anime if it is a comedy.

One thing I would like to point out before I end this is something that is probably on your mind by this point:

"This person is ending the review, claiming that they go on about all the protagonists; but what about the other blond girl in the poster?"

Very good question. I did want to cover her as well, but I did not want to extend this for a very long time, so I only cover the first two episodes. Oops, light spoiler: you do not see her for a little while. Hah, oh well. But, this girl alone was probably the third most major reason why I stuck with this anime, because I spent many months tracking down where this girl debuted from after I saw memes that showed a few of her most memorable scenes and nobody EVER told me where she was from. So, I can say this much: you WILL like her, too.

So, maybe this entire review was about only the characters, but I suppose this relates to the fact that they cover the entirety of the anime due to their unique traits and that the story is the usual generic "high school socializing" bit that you see in every cute girl anime ever made. They only standout from one another because of the characters, so I imagine almost every other review on here goes on about the characters more than the plot, anyway.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the long read, though this review is probably my most scarce one yet on information about the anime itself. I hope I said enough to convince you to give Kiniro Mosaic a chance.

First impressions aren’t everything, and Kiniro Mosaic shows this well. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily.

The anime starts off with a rather strong premise given its nature as a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (CGDCT) series. Main character Shinobu Oomiya takes part in a brief homestay in England, under the care of her mother’s friend. While there, she meets a girl her age, Alice, and after some initial awkwardness the two become friends. During their time together they break down language barriers to get to know each other while also learning more about their respective cultures. This is all done in a way that’s ... fitting for this type of show, and all in all it was a great start.

After such a strong opener, it wouldn’t be strange for one to expect more of these kinds of developments. However, the show instead begins to drift into a different direction, for better or worse. It is one that’s more standard for a CGDCT anime, but I still believe there are more positives than negatives to this approach.


Story and Plot:

Outside of the premise of connecting despite cultural differences and learning about others’ cultures, there isn’t much of a story to Kiniro Mosaic. In the first few episodes there is a more distinctive focus on the original premise, but after the main cast gets to know each other, things shift to a more typical formula. The show is mostly episodic with a series of loosely connected moments of the characters interacting with each other. These range from comedic bits to more wholesome and heartwarming moments between the cast. Most of the comedy stems from the cultural differences or characters acting absurdly in their affections for the others, while heartfelt moments also revolve around the difference in values along with the cast’s growing friendship. Overall, the anime offers a good mix of comedic and wholesome moments while continuing with the slice of life approach as the show progresses; this is all while it offers its own unique flair as it mostly builds on the foundation of the original premise.

7/10


Characters:

This is probably Kiniro Mosaic’s strongest aspect. The main cast is rather small and the show revolves around five main characters: Shinobu, Alice, Aya, Youko, and Karen. Shinobu, along with Alice, is the token cutesy character. She is a fanatic of Western culture and has a strong obsession with blonde girls; these two traits are often played on for comedic effect. Alice comes from England and has learned Japanese in order to be with Shinobu in high school. She is typically shy but at the same time very affectionate of Shinobu. Aya is the smart and reliable one of the group who also gets flustered easily, especially around her best friend Youko. Youko is more of an outgoing “genki” girl and also a jokester, but at the same time also acts as the “straight man” in some cases. Karen also comes from England, but in contrast to Alice she is very easygoing and carefree, never hesitant to speak her mind. There are also recurring characters like the homeroom teacher and Shinobu’s sister to fill out the supporting cast.

Coming into the show and having seen the legendary “Ayaya” scene, I figured that Karen would have stolen the show the moment she appeared. Surprisingly though, none of the main characters seemed to get special treatment, and no one was overshadowed by another. Each character gets their moments in the spotlight. Along with this, their antics and interactions with each other are a joy to watch. Definitely the highlight of the show.

9/10


Audio and Visuals:

The anime’s opening is upbeat and energetic, certainly appropriate for the tone of the series. Meanwhile, the ending closely matches the energy of the opening, while being a little more lowkey as to befit an ending. As for the background music, it isn’t exceptional but it tends to fit the respective scenes quite well. For example, the exaggerated depiction of Western life is often accompanied by a classical music style. On the other hand, the slice of life scenes are typically complemented with what you would expect from a standard CGDCT/comedy show, with different tones depending on the mood.

As for the art, the show is quite colorful and vibrant. But for the most part the art style and animation are fairly simplistic outside of the nice character designs. Particularly notable to me were the watercolor-esque backgrounds, most prominent in the early episodes when it came to showcasing the beauty of Western culture. I though the approach to background art was neat and went well with the show’s style. Overall, the production value isn’t too much to write home about but was still quite fitting.

8/10


Enjoyment:

Looking back, I enjoyed this series a lot! When it had started to drift into the episodic format, I was a little worried that I would lose interest, but that wasn’t the case at all. There wasn’t a moment where I was outright bored of the show, and it gave me a lot of laughs and entertainment along the way. Equally so, the wholesome moments really resonated with me in addition to the overall message, despite the show’s seemingly simplistic nature at first glance. It also has some of the most endearing Engrish I’ve heard in an anime.

9/10


Overall: 8/10

I think a good way to describe this show would be that it reels you in with its premise while still having more to offer outside of that. “Come for the premise, stay for the endearing characters and their interactions” might be a bit of a mouthful but explains it well enough. The first impression wasn’t everything to me, and I found a lot to love even as the series changed its pace.

Robert's Too Late Reviews is patrolling the reviews section again, and this time only a day after the previous review was released! Quick turn around for a silly, enjoyable show. I rank a lot of shows really high, often times too high, so I'm going for a bit more realism this time. Kiniro was a charming little show, but lacks in many areas that some might find important. We're going to take that all into consideration as we move through this review. Unfortunately with wall space becoming a huge premium on the RTLR wall, we won't be adding any blonde cuties to the wall today. ... Let's see if we can exchange this lack of posting into something more palatable. Of note, this is dealing only with season one, nothing else.

Story: 5
There's not much to really be had in the story department. First a Japanese girl does an foreign exchange in grade school, and ends up in a house with a cute as a button blonde British girl. They develop a friendship, and then Japanese girl goes home. Later on, during the first year of high school, the British girl makes it into the foreign exchange program, and wouldn't you know it, ends up drawing the home of the girl that had stayed with her years before. The two are reunited and get about living their lives in Japan. Later the British girl's good friend, a half English half Japanese follows her British friend to Japan and ends up in the same high school.

So we end up with two native Japanese girls who are friends with the Japanese girl who did the exchange program, the exchange program Japanese girl herself, and two blonde British girls who round out the quintet of friends these girls form. The British girl, Karen, is not a exchange student, but is a half British, half Japanese girl who convinces her parents to return to Japan after her good friend Alice entered the exchange program. The rest of the show is the group getting into slice of life hijinks and just having a good time being teeny bopper girls and doing all the things girls that age do.

Make no mistake, this is a 'cute girls doing cute things' anime, and has a great deal of 'moe' content. There is also light but noticeable shoujo ai/yuri content, as the former exchange student Shino has a very large crush on both British girls as they have blonde hair. She's obsessed with blonde hair and while there's no overtly sexual overtones presented, it's more than clear that she's kinda close to that line over their blonde appearance. There are also the two native Japanese girls who seem to have the budding of romantic links between them, especially the quieter, dark haired Aya in regards to outgoing Yoko. None of these really stray over the line of 'hinting' but they are most decidedly there. This gives the sugar sweet coating covering the show a bit of edge and interest.

For the most part the story revolves around daily life and activities. Usually something comes up, a shopping trip, a beach trip, a school festival and we get Aya being totally nervous about it, and British Karen just totally becoming incredibly excited to participate in whatever it is. British Alice is only concerned as long as her exchange partner Shino is also interested, which works well as Shino bases her interest on what blondie Alice and Karen want to do.

The show is broken up into several parts in most episodes, an overall theme might exist, but will be interspersed with quick little skits in between, some of them lasting only a few seconds at a time, and always played for a laugh. The show doesn't take itself too seriously at all, whether it be Shino tripping over the cuteness of blonde hair, or Aya and Yoko fighting in a mock way over some small silly thing. This is a show about basically nothing, just with a lot of humor injected into it. This is why the story scores a 5, there's nothing special to it, and while humorous most of the time, there's no real cohesion going on at all.

Art: 7
The art looks pretty good, only they over rely on the comedy tricks and tropes to the point it's a bit overdone. I think this is more a question of personal tastes, but I got a little worn out the 5th time they showed Shino sparkling in love with either Alice or Karen's blonde hair, among other tropes. Otherwise there's little to complain about, as there's not a lot of action to be had, just a lot of joke looks and funny faces.

Sound: these are freshman teen girls, and they sound like it. Karen in particular can strike a nerve, she's so upbeat all the time and often prone to dropping broken Japanese, seemingly on purpose. Another complaint, one I think unique to English speakers is that when Alice and Karen are communicating in English, their native language is just as broken and rough sounding as their Japanese. I know its silly to expect perfect English out of an anime show without dubs, but they do sound quite awkward at times.

The theme songs are fun and enjoyable and the background music worked well. The girls do sound their age, and if teen girls grate you, this isn't the show for you, for sure. Otherwise they all sound fine.

Character: 6
The characters are a bit one sided, in that Alice is crushing on Shino, who returns the feelings in an innocent way, but also is distracted by Karen's golden locks as well. Alice is polite and not prone to anger, but she really wants to be Shino's first and best friend. This makes sense as they spent time together in their childhood during Shino's exchange program.

Karen is funny as she is Alice's friend from Britain and just seems to show up like it's nothing. Her family just jumped and decided to move half way around the world. Wish I could afford to do that! Karen is bubbly and always happy and excited. She's kind of the life of the party, even when not needed to be.

Aya loves Yoko, but is loathe to admit it to herself. These are kinda young girls so we're not talking romance really, we're talking the seeds that might some day become romance. Aya is lost without Yoko, and Yoko knows it. The good think is Yoko doesn't mind and takes comfort in their relationship as well. The girls are all well written, and more than just a single trait.

Enjoyment: 8
I really did laugh my head off at this show. Maybe I have juvenile tastes, but that's fine, I don't mind. These girls were cute, and they were funny. Whether it be Karen's over enthusiasm or Aya's reserved view, they all mess together well and is a good time overall. It's a silly show, but silly sometimes is a great thing too.

Best girl: Komichi Aya. She's the more 'grumpy' and down to earth one of the whole group and is fun to watch in her nervousness.

If you can handle the rapid fire pace of the show, with the very short skits based around the general theme of the episodes, give it a shot. If you don't mind silly girls doing silly things, there's fun to be had here. If you're looking for seriousness, pass on by. This show looks to spark humor from a simple place in one's heart, and if that simplicity puts you off, then this isn't for you either. If you can hang with kids being kids, and find fun in that, check this one out! It's not a show stopper by any means, but it's fun enough to check out for sure. Thumbs up!