Ranked #1234

Asu no Yoichi!

Asu no Yoichi! (other than telling the story of several pairs of large breasts) gives us the story of Yoichi, a teenager who grew up in the mountains, living as a samurai, gets an instant culture shock when he moves to the urbanised world.

This anime is yet another helping of ecchi and harem (the two seem to go hand in hand anyway), and surprisingly, instead of watching an offensive tragedy in motion, Asu no Yoichi! manages to have genuine moments of good humour and twists on the tradition and criteria that most anime with these genres follow.

What makes it a little different from other ecchi fighting type anime is that Yoichi is already pretty much the best. In fact, in an actual original moment, his sensei laments inwardly that there's nothing left to teach the boy as a warrior, so he sends him to the city as part of "training" just to save face as the superior. So there's none of that boring, 'I train harder to become the best!' nonsense that drags an anime on and on.

Despite that, the anime is riddled with various "facepalming" moments. There are laughably awful reasons for fighting and the explanations are possibly even more ridiculous. Take the training of one of Yoichi's rivals: the girl, Tsukasa, has to strip down and fight half-naked since she can only perform when she's embarrassed and exposed. Exhibitionist, perhaps? Its logic induced many guffaws.

This is not the type of anime meant to be taken seriously. If one does, then there will only be two reactions depending on how much you enjoy ecchi anime: you'll either be quite disgusted or you'll think this is probably the best show to come around in a long time.

The art was at best average. Mostly ass and boob shots open every scene or complement most scene transitions. I had no idea ribbons were even still fashionable, but according to this anime they are, and apparently, all nubile girls like wearing them. The characters at least looked distinct from one another, although the question remains on how a group of sisters each look so vastly different from one another. But hey, if green and purple hair is normal, then why ask these questions? The character design was pretty interesting anyway, though the background art was very plain and the fight scenes were animated sometimes lazily.

Soundtrack right out of the late 80s/early 90s with power guitar riffs. At one point, the background music sounded like it was composed by sampling from a Super Nintendo. The OP and ED themes were fine, though nothing completely spectacular.

Uninspired, bland, cliched characters. The supposition can be made about most of them. Most of the female characters, anyway. Even though each sister was given their own personality, their characterisations have been recycled from various anime of yore. The tsundere? The meganekko geek? The busty, brash girl? The shy, quiet girl? We've seen these all before, and instead of developing those archetypes (or stereotypes) into actual complex characters, they remain two-dimensional at best.

Ony Yoichi seems to be a little less vapid than the other characters (despite being a moron). He actually has a brain, believe it or not, and uses it to question things in modern society. Such as, why is it that Japanese people think it's not normal to wear a kimono in public, but it's fine to wear Westernised clothes. Very little do harem anime actually address real issues, far less for cultural or societal ones.

Curiously, it's the "bad guy" of the anime who is possibly the most decent human being out of the lot. While he is rough, violent and a cheater, Washizu actually has decency when it comes to girls. His feelings don't vacillate between liking a girl when she flashes him or falls conveniently on him--his crush remains the same, and he only has eyes for her. It's rather... refreshing, really, to see a supporting character in an ecchi harem actually not being sexually awkward or disgusting.

Despite it being a gross ecchi anime with that wonderful touch of harem, Asu no Yoichi! actually manages to be severely entertaining, whether you're watching it for the right or wrong reasons. It's filled with a lot of amusing dialogue, most of the sexual nature, but when it tells an offensive, often misogynistic joke, it actually manages to be funny instead of just completely tasteless.

This is definitely not for every viewer.

Any fan of ecchi/harem anime should definitely take a look at this title. It's great, there are lots of fun moments and scenes, and though it lacks originality in terms of the characters and situation outcomes, this anime manages to give a viewer what it wants (depending on if they want it, of course).

Asu no Yoichi! presents us with attractive girls, some fighting, and some attractive-girl fights. If you want something else or something more, other anime are suggested, but with this title, you'll get exactly what you expected and maybe just a little more. read more

Before watching this anime I thought to myself, "This is probably one of those harems ecchi shows where a lot of girls fall for the same guy." Well it was almost that.

Instead of a lot of girls there was only two, Ibuki Ikaruga and Ayame Ikaruga. They fall in love with Yoichi Karasuma. But unlike many harems this anime has a credible storyline. Unknowingly Ibuki has a fiance. After many years he has finally come to wed his belowed. That's basically the jist of it. Yoichi and the girls try to overcome obstacles and challenges that are thrown at them.

AIC is known for creating some of the best animation in the anime world and they don't disappoint with Asu no Yoichi. Color, character design and background are all animated really well. One of the bright spots in this anime is "Washizu visions" and "Tsubasa visions." These are "visions" the respective character has funny visions of what he or she believes will happen.

Every character plays a part in Asu no Yoichi. There isn't a lot of character development but interaction between each character is huge. They all have a special moment with each other. Secondary characters such as Washizu also play a big part in the anime. They all have a big part during the last few episodes.

There are many golden comedy moments in this anime. They all contribute to the enjoyment level of this anime. Asu no Yoichi is enjoyable and fun to watch. On the other hand it doesn't have many epic moments that will make you remember this anime. If you have the time this you should check this anime out.
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