Ranked #640

Midori no Hibi

How would you ever feel if you went to sleep one day, tired of not having a girlfriend, and the next morning you woke up to find out that a girl who likes you had taken the place of your right hand? Or if you liked a guy but were too shy to tell him, and then you woke up to see that you were the dude's right hand? It's an impossible situation, you would say, but that's what's so great about anime: Anything can happen! A high schooler whose reputation as a delinquent scares away any girl he tries to hit on, Seji Sawamura, and a timid girl who's had a crush on him for a long time, Kasugano Midori, are thrown into this very situation. Do we sense romance coming up? Definitely! Comedy? Has to be! Action? Uh, maybe... Ecchi? What!?

No, I am not kidding, the show has all that, with the main focus on the first two. Because when your right hand loves you, that's bound to escalate into a romantic comedy, right? Midori no Hibi (Midori's Days) executes a somewhat standard living-together romantic comedy setting with a refreshing twist, and also does a great job of not leaning too much towards the ecchi side of things. You see some topless females now and then and some bikini shots, but that's all you really get, and after bad experiences with ecchi-intensive shows like Kanokon and Rosario+Vampire, I'm very delighted to see a show that manages to keep it on a decent level and focus on something else. Action scenes are scattered around too; our blond main character is a delinquent after all.

The episodes of Midori no Hibi does nothing special; each episode features a new (mis)adventure in the now jumbled-up lives of Seji and Midori. Be it an otaku who thinks Seji is a doll maniac, a girl who really likes Seji or a trip to a hot spring, you'll be taken through a lot of before-seen situations, and some new. The ending is cute and happy, and when you think about it, the only good ending an anime as Midori no Hibi could have. And while the unoriginal way in which the final episode is played out comes off as borderline facepalm-provoking, it was still an enjoyable watch, right up until the final scene.

One of the things I love the most about Midori no Hibi-- No, the thing I do love the most about it is the whole concept about bringing out what's on the inside of oneself, both feelings of love and supressed personality traits. While the characters don't develop much in the sense that their personalities actually change, they do develop by bringing out feelings of love or personality traits which are in ways hidden from others. And while we have all seen the soft-on-the-inside delinquent and the timid girl, the producers have done a good job with them in regards to the aforementioned aspect. And who can forget the uptight and determined yet tender Takako Ayase whose unrequited feelings of love towards Seji never comes to play, or the otaku who seemingly had a more human side to him inside, but in the end was no more than a crazed otaku anyway? When all comes to all, the cast isn't extremely original nor large, but a lovable gang nevertheless.

The quality of the animation is quite good for this kind of series. The whole story takes place in a city, and there's frequent scenes on high places with scenic views of said city, which are usually animated quite well, from lights in the streets to the monorails criss-crossing the cityscape. Street views of the city and other close-ups such as furniture in rooms are usually beautiful and detailed, but the quality does deteriorate from time to time. The strongest point however, is found in the gorgeous lighting and shading effects. They are eminently soft and relaxing, and especially during the dusk scenes do they come off as tremedous. The character designs are in an entirely different class however, as they are very varying in quality; often no more than mediocre yet often very good. A few close-ups looked like simple Flash animations, while at times they were detailed and fluid, both in design and movement.

The soundtrack was more than likely the weakest part of the anime. Not that it was outright bad; it was in fact quite atmospheric and fit well with the series, but there were no outstanding songs in the background music, and they were quite standard-fare for a romantic comedy. Two mellifluous themes for the opening and ending make up for some of it however, and the voice acting is superb too; the seiyuu manage to portray the characters very well, both their current mood and their character types.

You may have noticed how I used 'soft' or some variant of it frequently in my review (was there some anti-aliasing feature for this show I didn't notice was on?), and that's just what it was. Soft, happy and cute. And just the right length to make it stay that way. If it was one season longer, I'm dead certain the show's quality would have worsened. And part of its charm is that it is such a short watch anyway. If you want a show that's short and charming, Midori no Hibi is the show for you! read more

I read the synopsis for this anime, and I just had to watch it. I mean, a girl becoming a boy's right hand? Impossible!

Oh it's possible. In Midori No Hibi, Sawamura seiji is a well known delinquent with a "devil's right hand", he's known to be in alot of fights with bad people. He's dying for a girlfriend, but he gets rejected by every girl that he approaches.. and he just came to the conclusion that his right hand will be his one and only companion. (That sounds wrong..) Until.. he wakes up one day to find out that a girl named Midori is his right hand, and has had a crush on him since forever!

I really liked this anime, it was too sweet. I got so caught up in it.. I finished it today.. and I only started it yesterday. Anime's that I finish quickly like that have my full concentration. It was the storyline that caught me, but with watching it, loads of other things made me continue to watch it.

One.. the love Midori had for Seiji, it's crazy. She loved him with all of his heart, despite him being known as a delinquent. Two, how hilarious alot of the episodes were, I was expecting it to be funny, I mean come one a girl is a boy's right hand, there had to be hidden gags in just that right? Three.. just the romance, I wasn't expecting it to become so romance-y all of a sudden, but it did and I loved every single bit of it.

I think the main thing that made me want to watch this until the end was to see how she became his right hand, and to see if he ever got a girlfriend. But this anime is really light hearted, and it's just something to watch if you want a bit of a laugh, a bit of romance. I teared up in the last episode, I didn't want it to end. I wanted it to go on a little more, but that would be silly.. it couldn't have gone on for much longer.

The music is beautiful, the opening themes and ending themes are so nice to listen to. An enjoyable anime, definitely. Just because it has a not believable plot.. doesn't mean it isn't good. read more

Title: Midori no Hibi

Manga or Japanese Anime: Midori no Hibi is 13 episodes long, and ran on Japanese TV fron April 3rd, 2004 to June 26th, 2004. Its manga run is done as well, having run from January 18th, 2003 to October 18th, 2004 in Shogakukan's magazine Shonen Sunday. Viz is releasing the manga Stateside, and the final volume (number eight) will be out Stateside October 10th. Media Blasters did a dub of Midori no Hibi, translated as Midori Days, and the final volume (number three) was released back in 2005.

Story: Seiji Sawamura is a high schooler who likes to get into fights, and has an infamous "devil's right hand"; however, this doesn't have the greatest reprecussions for his love life (he's asked out twenty girls and been rejected by them all as of late). Midori is a girl who has a crush on Seiji, but can't work up the courage to talk to him.

One morning after lamenting the night before that he'll be stuck with no one but his right hand for a companion the rest of his life, he wakes up to Midori on his right hand.

...Yeah.

The situation is pretty odd, to say the least, but, oddly enough, it works out really well, especially as a comedy. The romance between the two is really sweet to watch as the series unfolds. Midori is amazingly sweet, upbeat, and dotes over Seiji at every given changce. Oddly enough, she doesn't get on my nerves like most of her character types do. And even though Seiji has a tough-guy image and can be oblivious to Midori at points, he does show his soft side more than once.

Episodes, more often than not, follow what I've dubbed the triple F formula -- fighting, fanservice, and fluff. Episodes seem to be polarized: they tend to either be really good, or really sucky, with none hitting any marks between. These two points are probably the only drawbacks to the story.

Art Style: The animation was done by Studio Pierrot, which also did the anime for Fushigi Yuugi and Fruits Basket. To me, Fushigi Yuugi and Fruits Basket seemed heavily stylized in one way or another. This didn't seem that way. Beautiful character designs, smooth animation... not much I can find wrong with this, really.

Music: The soundtrack for this series rawqs. There's a basic theme, outside of the opening and ending, that you hear throughout the series in various forms. It doesn't get boring at all, oddly enough. Jazz, acoustic guitar, and classical-esque themes are the order of the day apart from aforementioned variations. The opening and ending aren't all that bad, either. I mean, they aren't particularly memorable, but they're still nice songs that fit the series well.

Voice Seiyuus: Good. There aren't really any roles that particularly stand out to me, but I do like the seiyuu that were chosen for the roles, as they fit the characters well.

Voice Actors: Pretty much what I said above; no standout roles, but the voices still fit well, and don't get on my nerves like most VA dubs tend to do.

Dub: The first I saw of Midori no Hibi was the dub of the fourth episode on a Newtype sampler. All in all, Media Blasters did an okay job with the dub; not many liberties taken with the dialogue, and no censoring that I could see.

Length: This is where the series suffers a bit. Thirteen episodes doesn't seem like all that much, but, with the triple f formula and the polarization of episodes make the series drag a bit.

Overall: Has some minor issues with story and length, but everything else is perfect. If you're looking for an over-the-top romantic comedy, then this is for you.

Story: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Art Style: 8/10
Voice Seiyuu: 8/10
Voice Actors: 7/10
Dub: 8/10
Length: 7/10

Overall: 53/70; 75% (C) read more

Delinquent gets a cute little girl for a right hand? Who knew this plot line would actually work?

This anime is definitely the embodiment of the words “romantic” and “comedy”, i.e. Romantic Comedy in case you didn’t catch my drift. It’s about the relationship of reformed delinquent (Seiji) and the girl who took the place of his right hand (Midori). They go through daily life learning about each other, at the same time trying to avoid circumstances that will reveal their secret.

The anime went beyond my expectations. It was funnier than I thought – the number of gags in the first episode was enough to make me stick around and look forward to see the rest. It’s also ecchi-er than I thought. I think out of 13 episodes, there were about 7-8 (possibly more) episodes that showed scenes of exposed breasts, courtesy of Midori (bite size ones), Seiji’s sister Orin and Ayase. I didn’t think it was vulgar though, since the nudity were used cleverly and for comical relief. This means a lot coming from someone like me who hates fan service. I like the plots per episode. It went from going to a figurine shop reeking of figurine otaku, to dealing with a preteen fan. The themes were just nicely done and clever.

The ending was a tad predictable though, but I didn't know if it would end the way I thought it would end. Well it did - and I’d say it was a big “whew”.

The main characters were likable. Seiji was funny, of course. He had some depth to him, so that was good. Midori is oh so adorable! Her personality was likable, and she’s naturally funny. I have to ask though, why is she so shy when she’s life size, and loud and outgoing when she became Seiji’s right hand? Generally, almost everyone is likable. When I said “almost”, I meant everyone except Orin. She is definitely not ladylike, and was mean to Seiji.

The drawing style was so-so. It was simple, but what I really like about it is that the characters all looked so distinct so it was easy to tell them apart. Most of the time, characters in one anime all look similar and the only way to tell them apart was their hair or eye color. This was not the case for Midori Days – The characters were all looked distinct and different. Midori had nice big green eyes, Ayase looked cunning, Seiji’s look fit his personality well and the same goes for every other character. There were times when the characters would waver, but it was slight so you can brush it off easily.

They also used some CG to compliment the scenes, that’s always good. I also want to take note of episode 7, where they used “manga” scenes to portray Ayase’s date plan. I’m not sure if it’s the same quality as the ones used in FLCL, but I heard that the ones in FLCL cost a lot. It was nevertheless impressive, and it also complimented that episode well.

The voice acting was nicely done. The seiyus matched their characters well, especially Midori’s seiyu (forgot her name, though). Midori’s voice, accent and vocabulary made her even cuter. I loved it when she would say “desho?” at the end of almost every sentence.

I liked the music. Their was a wide variety of BGM and each one was made to fit a scene well. I do remember hearing the distinct BGM of a scene from the first episode, and I thought to myself how it complimented that scene well and it made the scene much funnier. The opening was OK, it wasn’t my type of music, but it really fit the last part of the last episode. I really liked the ending theme though, it was sung by Saori Atsumi who sang Biidama, another song I really like.

It was a good watch – from the first episode to the last. It was pretty stable, in terms of how I liked it. There weren’t notable high points or low points, it was just alright. What I liked best about it was the humor, and of course, the adorable Midori. Can’t say it’s one of my favorites, but it’s definitely a must-see. read more

Midori no Hibi is about a shy girl named Midori who has secretly been in love with Seiji for a long time. One day she gets sick and falls into a deep sleep, only to wake up as Seiji's right hand...literally. And as you can imagine, the hilarity ensues.

Only a couple episodes are dull. Other than that, the enjoyment of each episode is pretty consistent. The same can be said about the comedy: Midori no Hibi always remains in a comedic, light-hearted mood; only getting serious when it is needed to progress the story, not as an excuse to take a break, like some other animes do.

So have fun, and enjoy watching this anime. You'll laugh in every episode, except maybe the last one... I didn't get to see the ending credits because I was crying through the whole thing. read more

This story entails a high school boy named Sawamura Seiji. He is feared by most because of rumors spread about his delinquent ways, and his "Devils Right Hand". This is nothing but the truth as he fights for just causes and is very caring. He has numerous failed attempts at love.

The story was very gripping, its very easy to fall in love with this anime, and with Sawamura as he is falling in love. It is heart wrenching at the end. The artwork and sound were very well woven together although with it being a earlier release, the graphics aren't at the quality they are now.

The character and enjoyment are what make this anime a 9 in my books, with plenty of laughter and a compelling character plot, you will not have any situations of boredom. read more

Now you’d think, at least I certainly thought, that the show would go straight to the gutter with this idea. Incredibly, it retains this really appealing sweetness and innocence throughout, not forced or sugary, just…Disney-like, I guess. I mean good Disney, not all that crap that came out after the late 90s. That’s not to say it’s a clean show, ooooh no, the humor is delightfully pervy, but it avoids far more dirty jokes than it pursues despite the various body humor jokes and endless barrages of giggle-worthy nudity.

After a while, anime humor tends to run together, but Midori Days’ brand of twisted giggles feels strangely novel, and I think a lot of it is the frequent interludes of character’s fantasies and head-movies. Yes, head-movies, complete with credits. The story is regularly charming and uplifting, due largely to the fact that Seiji is not just a cliché bad-mouthed punk and Midori is not a cliché moe girl either.

Seiji beats up other thugs just to rescue their pummeled victims because he remembers being a weakling when he was younger, and he’s still naturally adorkable when he’s not trying to act street. And Midori has a lot of spirit and spunk that she’s dying to express after being freed from a lot of her old anxieties, the development of which is really fun to watch. I think based on her cooking alone she’s earned her keep, but Seiji may have his mind on other disadvantages. (Use your imagination.) Unlike Midori, he is not enjoying this bizarre new spell and wants things to change back as soon as possible. Now if you’ve seen the movie Groundhog Day, you already know how things are going to turn out here. The fun is in the journey, and for the most part, the journey is a total riot with a tenderly sentimental conclusion. Miraculously, the mushy wrap-up does not feel forced either, making this really a gem of a romcom.

On the technical side of things, the animation is okay, but nothing particularly special. Character designs are very easy on the eyes, but it’s still very very basic, especially for a brief 13-episoder.

The music is fairly kitschy, but amusing, seeing as it’s used to highlight adorably stupid situations.

The voice acting infinitely makes up for shortcomings in either case, though. Of course it sounds great in Japanese, but did the goofiness translate in the dub? Ooooh yes. Let’s just say I’m sorely disappointed that I haven’t heard Seiji’s voice actor in more roles, because he does a top-tier job. He’s as cartoony as need be for all the goofiness, but he also sounds to all extents like a normal teenager. You know how you hear a lot of anime characters enunciate perfectly, even the rough ones? Well, Drew Aaron as Seiji does not, and the casual snideness of the result is very nice on the ears, and very very funny. Midori is also perfect. Usually the high squeaky schoolgirl voice makes you want smear honey on your ears and blow a bear whistle, but Kether Fernandez goes into the ultimate octaves and still sounds very pleasant. Her unnatural pitch is actually excused by her physical situation, as we discover when Seiji switches places with her in a humorous nightmare episode and sounds like he’s been dippin’ in the helium as well. There are still a few grating cheeses in the most minor roles here, but the leads certainly compensate for them.

I’ve already had my sick sick fun telling you what I enjoyed about the show, but I guess I should admit that it has more than a handful of problems. Actually, with all things in Seiji’s life, it’s woman trouble. His mean, drunk sister as well as a little girl and a classmate who have crushes on him all add to the story well when they’re used sparingly, but when they get their own episodes, the show goes from very good to really really bad. Those few episodes in the middle push the series to the limits of poor taste and cheap shots, and I have to wonder why the writers ever thought it was a good idea to take the focus away from Midori and the effect she has on her disgruntled host bad-boy.

Not that the show is any more plausible in such cases. The animators can never really decide how Midori is attached to Seiji’s wrist, so they do avoid showing us, but it’s a little silly to think that TP-ing her is going to fool anyone. There are countless scenes, actually, where Midori pokes her head out and she and Seiji have a conversation in broad daylight and no one notices. The most minimal effort is made to hide her and it works, against all logic. I think Seiji goes to a school for students with impaired vision…who refuse to wear glasses. I’m not kidding, I’d totally believe it. The only character with glasses is also the only character that immediately notices Midori on Seiji’s arm. Co-inky-dink? I THINK NOT.

That, and this show is kinda fanservice-heavy, by which I mean there are only three episodes of the show with no big plump titties in them at some point. You have been warned, for good or ill. Eh. Once you’ve seen two, you’ve seen ‘em all. I’ll never quite understand the male fascination with funbags.

All in all, a surprisingly rewarding romantic comedy that balances innocence and bawdiness, laughter and tears, but yeah, it stoops pretty low on a few too many occasions, and it’s predictable and silly as all get-out. Twisted good fun!

*THIS IS A PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF MY VIDEO REVIEW WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoGJPYMgxD4

Thanks for reading! read more

[warning, early poss spoils]

So you wake up one morning to find your crankin' hand has turned into some chick who's always dug you? Straight, lets roll with this XD I wont go further into the basic story because a: there's a dozen reviews already here and b: you can look the hell up in the story synopsis for that if you still need it crowbarred in.

The show has one of the more outlandish premises i've seen in a show that isn't centered around pure chaos(a`la Abenobashi). sure the original set up is straight out of left field but the show itself is well written, has very likable characters and can easily put a smile on the face of the most angsty of the broody-brood set. The show has a fairly long list of good points and only a few, that i could find, of bad points.

for the good, lets start with the most important: IT ENDS!!
I don't know why, but a good percentage of Ro-Co's(romantic comedy) leave you with an ending that's left open so as to not piss off too many fans who wanted a specific ending. this show is at least kind enough to give you an ending. is it completely obvious 10 minutes into episode 1 what that ending will be? yes, but that's not the point. this show thrives on its characters: put them in the sun and watch them shine. Takamizawa being one of the best of the supporting cast. He's obsessed with dolls and puppets and is the only person in this entire universe that can actually see the fact that there is a frikkin person on protag-Seiji's wrist, which really doesn't solidify your hope for mankind. Of course he originally thinks she's a puppet to begin with and tries to get it naked so he can see the serial code so he can try and get one himself.

After Taka, there's Seiji's neighbor's 10(i believe) year old daughter who's got a mad-on for him, as well as a girl from school who keeps trying to set up the perfect opportunities for them to hook up that always are explained in a way that reminded you of when the Coyote finished setting up a trap for the Roadrunner and would non-verbally exposit exactly what he wanted to happen before it's inevitable downfall. I gotta admit, these fantasy sequences are flat-out awesome and even come equipped with title and ending sequences to cement the fact that every one of these people are bat-shit insane.

the biggest problem i had with the show was that, no matter how awesome the characters are, the bulk of them just disappear after a certain moment. loli-fest drops off the earth after her centric episode half-way through the series and Taka Kaiser Soze's after some chick runs after him like a fool in love, but at least that one makes a little sense since it can just be said that they were off making nasty, cosplay-rific, pimply(that's pimple-e, not pimp-ly), oily whoopie. The sister character only shows up to scream 'boogadu-boogie' every now again, steal all of Seiji's money and say something to try and get him and Midori together. What made me furious the most is that the character of Midori's maid seemed like she would be an awesome character to put into the story some, i know it would be hard to do but it looked like they took so much time into giving her a personality to just toss it all in the wastebasket and go about their day.

the only other bad part was some of the music. i heard a trumpet's wah-wah waaaaaaah a few too many times and was glad there was no chase scenes cause you just KNOW that Yakety Sax would cue up. But, as for bad parts, that's about it.some of the sound bytes were archaic and they dropped some characters with no explanation. But the goods far outway that and its hard to properly convey how well this show is put together. if you're a fan of sight gags, cute and/or odd story telling and rocoms, i suggest you check this show out some time. read more

First let me say that I would have been a lot more comfortable with this anime if the characters had been in college instead of high school. Midori no Hibi is about a standard anime maverick high school senior who wakes up one day to find his right hand has been transformed into a living 8" version of the 15 year old girl who has had a severe crush on him but is too shy to tell him. Issues about naked 17 year old males with naked fifteen year old females and so are totally ignored and the writing is so clever you don't really mind. The series gets high marks for never descending into the crude humor that the situation easily lends itself to; although it does come close. There is, however, a totally gratuitous, protracted topless scene at the end of the series and therein lies the problem.

The first six episodes are pretty entertaining, if the series stopped there, I'd give it at least a 7. Unfortunately, the writers didn't seem to want to explore some very interesting comic situations they'd established; such as the otaku who falls for a female delinquent or, in contrast, took a fairly complex character and reduced her to a swooning harem stereotype quicker than Anakin Skywalker went over to the Darkside. So, there you have it, watch the first six, scan the second six, watch the 13 if you really can't figure out how it ends.

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i liked this anime because it has an amazing story about a delinquent boy, seiji, who is feared by many and a girl, midori, who sees good in him.

it has its own original plot. it shows that even if a person is feared or scary, we should give a try to see if this is true, like in the story, at first, seiji was shown as a delinquent, while after midori turned into his right hand, he showd his true caring side, and thats why midori loved about him. though troubles come for them, seiji tries his best to help the girl, and tries his best to do as the girl wishes and that is tokkep their secret...Ü...............


hope this helps!....- jared072 ^_^ read more