Ranked #5566

Rio: Rainbow Gate!

One of the things find I generally like about anime is that they almost always have their basis in manga or novels, at least giving it the chance of having a coherent story. Rio: Rainbow Gate! breaks the norm by being based on a pachinko game, and it shows. I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for this series but after a somewhat promising start things started to come apart fairly fast.

Rio's story is, as expected, dreadfully terrible. Our leading character is Rio, a popular dealer and kind of the mascot of the casino she works in, Howard Resort. Apparently she has some kind of power that gives people luck and causes them to win when she’s around. You can understand why the casino patrons would enjoy having her around but I never could for the life of my figure out why the casino owner himself would. The setting in Rainbow Gate is a whimsical and over the top look into the casino world. Nothing in this anime is really meant to be taken seriously and everything, at least early on, revolves around putting Rio into embarrassing outfits and playing ridiculous games. Honestly, if the series had just stuck with this slice of life type formula it might have been tolerable to watch.

Where things start to come apart is when they start implementing the "story". We are introduced to a kind of competition called Gate Battles, were other top dealers from around the world compete in casino games for the ultimate goal of collecting all 13 cards and getting some prize. Our dear Rio conveniently is a Gate holder so she is periodically challenged over the course of the series until the Gates become the sole plot point. This is when the series really starts to lose itself too. For one, the Gate Battles are silly and downright stupid. They have little if anything to do with any actual casino games and they rarely, if ever, require any kind of skill. Additionally there is the introduction of an absolutely ridiculous super power called "Roll Ruler" that some of the competitors use to control the game or the minds of their opponents so they can win. Believe me when I say that it is stupider than I can actually make it sound.

The characters are marginally better than the plot. Like so many of its contemporaries, there is also way to many of them too for the length of this series. Since it's impossible to ever really get to know them it relies on tried and true stereotypes and cliches. Rio herself is a nice, sweet, and likable heroine but she lacks any kind of depth beyond her heavy udders. She is always thinking of others and trying to help people but she’s a silly , one dimensional character. Any personality she does have is can be solely attributed to the performance of her seiyuu, Marina Inoue. The rest of cast, like Rio, is wholly forgettable. So much so that I am not even going to bother talking about any of them.

Overall the show is pretty to look at. The settings, backgrounds, and characters themselves are all appealing and well drawn, for the most part. The art captures the over the top style of the series as well as bringing to life a lot of ridiculous games and making them mildly interesting. Some of the characters, well most to be honest, have ridiculous chest measurements. But it’s hard to hold the artists too accountable for this, since pretty much every anime is like that these days. The ecchi is pretty tame as well and there isn't any real nudity, only implied through convenient foreground obstacles and strategic clothing. So if you’re looking into this anime because you like that kind of thing, then you’re going to be disappointed. The vocal performances and music are pretty solid, if unspectacular.

In the end, Rio: Rainbow Gate! is pretty much your average run of the mill forgettable anime. It’s inoffensive and completely unremarkable and is unlikely to impress anyone nor did it ever really have any chance to be any good. Fans of ecchi anime will also find little to appeal to them as it is overall quite bland and tame in that area as well. The ridiculous plot and silly characters drags this show down to well below average and isn't worth your time or consideration.

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Wow, 2011 started off with quite a piece of crap.

*NOTICE: This review is solely on my reaction on the first episode, not the entire series, but go ahead and assume I hate this anime*

STORY: Fanservice, casino style! Rio Rainbow Gate is just an ecchi anime, but it starts with one of the most ridiculously stupid plot for its first episode, and paired with its stupid plot is a character device that makes absolutely no sense for the setting.
Get this, Rio is called the goddess of victory cause whoever is around her becomes very lucky, and wins at whatever they're playing at the casino... this would've actually be a pretty good set up for some good plots, believe or not. However, she is the most popular... dealer at the casino...
In the real world, her ass would be fired on the spot, but her boss apparently has a boner for her as big as his mouth (And said mouth could swallow two beach balls).
And said boss forces her to wear all sorts of fetishy outfits and Rio acts so powerless to do something about, but later in the first episode she fights a couple of assassins who are trying to kill her or something, and she beats them up, so her character is so swapped?
I can only guess that she doesn't do anything about her bosses harassment towards her cause no other casino would hire her.

But anywho, the plot goes like this:
A little girl named Mint with a teddy bear named choco hears about a woman called the goddess of victory and precedes to find her by following Rios pet.
Mint finds Rio and is instantly very interested with Rio.
Meanwhile some man watches Mint.
Uninteresting stupid bullcrap.
Man attacks Rio and Mint saying he wants Mints teddy bear.
The man and Rio decide to play poker, if Rio wins, the man must leave, if the man wins... sigh, Rio has to strip off all her clothes, which was suggested by Mint.
Rio arrives at the game, in a wedding dress...
The poker game becomes waaaaaaaay too dramatic, like an episode of Yu-gi-oh, which is ironic by the way cause they're playing cards.
Rio wins by doing some really unnecessary magical girl B.S. AKA she cheats.
Rio hugs the man to comfort him, and as Rio walks away, Mint chases after her, trips, and nearly rips all of Rio's dress off.
The end.

ANIMATION: Actually, its good, too good for this anime.
I just can't believe that this anime got such a high budget for its animation...
Wait, I know why, cause people need a reason to watch Rio's ass and titties, and there's even a scene were Rios titties just wouldn't leave the screen.

SOUND: Nothing worth noting, just typical everything you'd expect from an ecchi anime, though the casino music gives it a nice distraction from the dumbass plot.

OVERALL: Theres a point where stupidity and ridiculous becomes insulting to the the viewer, and if you're like me you'd feel the same way.
Yes Rio looks are captivating, but while some shallow people are beating off to new fap material, the rest of us are looking for something worth watching and less stupid. read more