Ranked #2716

Canvas 2: Niji-iro no Sketch

5 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW: Surprisingly Entertaining

I didn’t really like harem anime series, but I actually liked Canvas 2. In fact, I think I looked forward to watching it. That’s really surprising, because normally I would avoid series that had ero-game written all over it. It was really interesting to see how Hiroki, the main character, would interact with the girls in his life, a lot of them under-aged, I might add.

Like your usual harem anime, Canvas 2 had ecchi scenes complete with unnecessary shower scenes and panty shots, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but I didn’t mind it at all. As a conservative girl, I would detest any hint of fan service thrown my way, but truth be told, it wasn’t that repulsive. I’m not sure if ecchi fan boys will like or hate that.

Anyway, as expected, girl characters dominated the cast. I liked all of them, except Elise. I found her to be really irritating and fickle. I know Kiri isn’t charismatic enough to be Hiroki’s girl friend, but I really didn’t want Elise to end up with his cousin. You’d think I’d be used to cousin relationships after all the anime I’ve seen this year alone, but I kept hoping that Hiroki wouldn’t pick Elise. The fact that she kept calling him “onii-chan” made me think that Elise saw Hiroki as her older brother more than her boyfriend.

I was surprised to find Aya Hirano in the cast list. I guess her role as Sumire Misaki is one of her lesser known roles. Usually when someone says Aya Hirano, you think of Haruhi Suzumiya or Misa from Death Note. I thought that the voice she had for Misaki was closer to her real voice. Takahiro Sakurai, one of my favorite male seiyus, is also in the cast list. He did a great job of portraying Hiroki.

Animation wise, it was actually pretty good. It’s simple, and when I say that I mean there’s nothing that special about it. The art design is pretty similar to what everybody has seen in anime so far. I do love the wide variety of colors after all. It wouldn’t be as good if it didn’t have a whole spectrum of colors. It is an anime about art, after all.

The music, as expected, is cutesy. I realized that the opening song, "Plastic Smile (Niji-iro guitar version)", was sung by Honey Bee[YURIA]. I read somewhere that her work is used in a lot of adult video games, so I guess they picked the right woman to sing the opening song. I actually liked it, it was quite catchy. The same goes for the ending song, “NA NA IRO" by Sweets Tankentai. I learned both songs right away so I can sing with it when I watch Canvas 2.

I guess I watched it mostly because I wanted to see who Hiroki will end up with (and I cheered for Kiri the whole way). It was really fun to see him go back and forth between the two girls that captured his heart, and even if I have harem series before, this is the first time that I was seriously concerned on who the main guy will pick. I think that it’s the same for those who have seen this anime. read more

First of all, this is the first harem anime that I watched that I liked so much that got me into making a review for it.

Story:
The story is quite nice and somehow unpredictable. If you've watched Da Capo, it resembles most of it. But the way the story is presented, and the story itself, has a unique touch to it.
Even though it's harem (I don't like harem animes anyway) this is entertaining to the point that I really watched 11 episodes in one sitting and I never included this anime in my Dropped list. I gave the story a 9 because I enjoyed it so much; even though others doesn't like its ending, I personally have nothing to say about its end.

Art:
The art is better than other harem animes, and it's just good. It may not be the best, but the art is great.

Sound:
I couldn't remember other music here, but the opening and ending songs are nice because it actually gives a very simple feeling to the anime.

Character:
The characters have different strengths and weaknesses and it was presented in the story in a way that the main guy character is always involved in them.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed it so much that I loved it!

Overall:
This is one harem kind of anime you might want to watch... ^_^ read more