Ranked #1948

Hyakujitsu no Bara

I will apologize beforehand because i am not used to making reviews. What you will read is my opinion. However, keep in mind that I am writing in the most objective view as possible (hopefully).

Story 9/10

There IS actually a plot. There is a reason behind the main characters' romance, and the bond is deep. Although, I feel that certain needed details were neglected or not brought out clearly. Sometimes, I felt that the plot was rushed.

Art 9/10

Personally, the art style is not to my taste. However, the animation is done beautifully, and I think the art style grows on you. The art style does match the characters' personality. The backgrounds brought out the mood of the scenes. For an example, during heavy and dark scenes, the backgrounds were dark.

Sound 10/10

The background music was very nice and brought out the mood the scenes. I especially liked the piano bgm.

Charcter 9/10

If only there were more episodes! The only real character development you really see is when you compare the characters in the present to them in the past. Still, the character themselves are not so simple. They battle with what they need to do and what they desire. It's nice because it seems that the main characters seem so different, but somehow the meet on the same page.

Enjoyment 10/10

Despite little things, I was VERY tempted to give this yaoi an overall 10, but i cannot. However, I enjoyed it a lot. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to watch a yaoi with a real storyline. read more

Maiden Rose is a very resumed compilation of a manga that has much more into it than what we could expect at first sight. We have two countries in a war, a prince from a country that has a knight from the other country. A Shakesperian plot, that - due to lack of film time - was never explained. And this is the main flaw of this anime. However, it counters for having a plot. This by itself is already a great achievement for a BL animation, where they often forget about plotlines and characters to please the rabid fangirl.

The art was cared and clean, pretty but not amazing. The animation can't be considered a master piece, but it's skillfully done. And that's enough. The same can we say for the OST and effects, not to mention voice acting. For something supposedly sensual these actors seemed rather shy.

However there is something that counters this, which are the characters. They are solid and suffer development, even with the 60 minutes of screen that they were allowed to have. The designs are gorgeous and even though we may consider some actions flawed according to what we know of them I believe that it is part of their personal achievements to surprise the viewer.

Overall, a very good work. We were needing something like this into the genre. Sexually tense, violent and creepy sometimes, but very sweet in the end. Highly recommended to the rabid fangirls. read more