Ranked #2372

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls

-Story: (5/10)
The basic premise behind 'Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls' is the story of an atypical male harem lead character, who has the ability to transform girls into MASTER SAMURAI i.e. freaking strong god-like fighters by kissing them.
Yes, that’s it. That is the entire plot right there. You have 13 Episodes of a single guy surrounded by half naked girls giving fan-service and creating lustful, semi-comedic moments.
So the plot is typical harem anime. The plot could have been so much better and made this anime epic, but it wasn't.
-Animation: (10/10)
The Animation is awesome. When I watched the first episode, I was like holy Neon genesis evangelion this anime is going to be epic. The level of details and art style makes for great watching. It’s really hard tofind flaws in the animation, nearly impossible if you are not a pro.
Imagine an exquisite ink painting. Now imagine it moves and flows like a painter is painting a picture at the same time you are watching anime. This is the animation quality of Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls, and it’s amazing.
-Sound: (6/10)
Solid music and sound effects set atmosphere. Good but not great.
-Characters: (6/10)
1: A typical male lead who is easily embarrassed.
2: A typical female character with the mental capacity of a 5 year old likes to get half naked.
This is a harem anime. The characters are typical like in all ecchi/harem animes.
-Enjoyment: (8/10)
Only because of great animation I gave a very good mark.
-Overall: (6/10)
If you're after an exquisitely animated series packed with action, comedy and fan service 'Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls' may be for you if you don't care about terrible plot development.
Hope the 2 season will have less fan service.
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Oh man.. It's another samurai harem. What's with Japanese people and turning historical figures into high school girls? Anyways, this anime series is based on a light novel series written by Akira Suzuki. Wait a minute. I know what are you wondering.. "Hey isn't the main male lead name is Muneakira?" Yes you're right. I mean if you're writing a story about a harem, wouldn't you want to be the center of it? And let's just add "Mune" to your name and nobody would even notice.
(Yes, I know Mune can also mean breasts..)

I really had high expectations with this one. No kidding. It's been a long time since I've watch an anime about samurais. Unfortunately, as promising as this anime looks, here comes the hundreds of unnecessary fanservice and fillers to drown out the story. Oh sure, I'll like a few fillers now and then but they're rush the entire plot buildup right to the end of the series.

Now on the positive side, the reason why I sticked to this anime (No it's not because of the fanservice...) it's the astounding art this anime brings forward. It's a bit nostalgic as this reminds me of the game I used to play about a b*tch.. Umm I mean about a wolf (Ookami was it?)
Anyways, rarely I've seen an anime which uses the traditional ink style for all it's censorship and transition point however it gets annoying over time.
I have no complaints about the sound either.

And here comes the characters. What? Only three girls in his harem?? Lame.. However, all three of them have some useful personalities to assist with their ever useless male harem lead. And Im suprised there's more tsunderes than Ive expected! As usual, as the story develops, each girl had their chance to express their feelings to Mr "Breast" Akira here.
Oh boy, once again the male harem lead is there as a wallflower for every battle. Every battle when you think Muneakira is going to take charge and battle, prepare to get disappointed. Remember, this anime is aimed for people who loves fanservice so they wouldn't want to see a guy in the battle now would they? Hey, at least he isn't dense unlike some other male harem leads.
And what about the villains? Twisted as usual. Nothing new here.

Personally, I quite enjoyed this anime. That's because unlike others, I did not take the story seriously from the start after watching a few episodes of fillers. If you're looking for a nice samurai story with a decent plot then go look elsewhere. As entertaining as this may be, I wont be watching it again as this sort of anime is where you watch it once and you're already content. I mean, can you watch 12 whole episode about "Love", "Honor", and "Bond" all over again?

Overall, it's a good time killer if you have nothing better to do. Definitely a must watch anime for all you harem lovers. Just don't let the whole ideology of "Love and Honor conquers all" get stuck with you. Remember, an anime is an anime, and real life is just like an anime, without those big eyes.

Haremu Kingu,
Signing off..

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Story:
The story is pretty standard for a harem anime: a single male gets surrounded by beautiful females. The male protagonist has the ability to transform the females into overly powerful warriors called Master Samurai, and that's basically it. It kind of reminds me of Sekirei. The plot had a LOT of potential, but was drowned out by the fan service and comedic attempts, and so many character introductions. If the anime wasn't so short, and they focused on the plot more, this could have been an incredible anime that was very different from all of the other ecchi/harem anime. Overall, the plot was poorly executed and the comedy isn't all that great either.
Art:
The art is beautiful. The style has a nice look to it, and I particularly like the character design of the male protagonist. The background artwork looks like something you may see in an old Asian painting. The animation is smooth, and the few fight scenes that were there were pretty cool. The fact that they integrated ink splotches to make the anime seem like a painting was very nice. However, I feel like they over did it with the ink transitions; they happened way too frequently and kind of got annoying. The ink censorship was also very distracting in the censored version, but I watched the uncensored version so I didn't mind much.
Sound:
There was nothing particularly good or bad about the music in my opinion.
Characters:
The characters were the basic characters you'd expect in a harem/battle anime. We have the oblivious, yet pure-hearted male. We have the super-smart loli female, arrogant yet beautiful female, cool headed female, masochistic female, annoying female that is unimportant, and an antagonist who treats his female partner like trash. We received barely any character development for any of these characters since there were so many to be introduced, so when love scenes started, they seemed a bit rushed.
Enjoyment:
Even though the love scenario was rushed, I still sort of enjoyed it, and the art was very nice to watch. The fan service may have been to much, though. I had a feeling the plot wasn't going to be performed as well as it had potential for while watching this series, but I still hoped that it would pick up, and it didn't. The end, like all of the other developments, was rushed. I still managed to enjoy it though.
Overall:
This anime wasn't very well executed in the story or character department, which is essential for a successful anime. The art was incredible, but it would have been nice to see more serious battle scenes rather than so much fan service. How can so many breasts be exposed so easily!? Either way, if you really enjoy ecchi anime, or nice artwork, and don't mind the bad characters and storyline, then you might want to give this one a try. Otherwise, this anime is just like every other harem/ecchi anime out there, and is not worth mentioning in particular. read more

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls isn't a series that I expected much from so I guess in a sense it exceeded my expectations. It is not the best series out there and it's not for everyone either, but it can be a good time waster.

The series does have a plot but it only significantly advances in the final episodes. So like many ecchi comedies out there, there is very little plot and when there is it's pretty weak. However not every series requires a strong plot to succeed, in fact there are many series out there that are successful with no plot. All a series really needs to do is satisfy it's viewers and I would say it satisfied me. There were a lot of attempts at comedy in this series, some worked and some didn't and there were some moments that were just hilarious.

The artwork was really stunning and beautiful. The style of art seems really unique and the detail is just amazing, even in the background. The last couple of minutes of the final episode were full black in white which was visually pleasing to me too. The battle scenes are also well animated and looked nice too. I'm amazed at the amount of detail that were put into each one of them. Then there was the censoring. The ink dots that were used to censor inappropriate body parts could really get annoying especially when characters were moving around, since the dots would have to move with them. But it really depends on the person, some may be bothered by it and some may not be.

The sound department did an okay job. The opening sounded great with an intense rock song to get you pumped up for action. The voices seemed to fit each character's role. There's really nothing else to say about the sound.

To be honest, the characters could have been done better. Although the protagonist, Muneakira, may be unique in some aspects (he's a samurai for crying out loud), he seems a bit generic. He's useless and usually doesn't have a clue what's going on, yet somehow almost every girl manages to fall for him. I still don't the sick magic that makes girls fall for useless protagonists.

Our main heroine,Jubei, actually has two sides, her normal form and her bad-ass form. She's usually only in her bad-ass form during battle, in this form she's really strong but also pretty smart as well. In her normal form she has a really innocent personality and refers to herself in third person to be cute. I like how both personalities contrast from each other.

Of course a harem would not complete without our 2 love rivals, Sen and Yukimura. They both seem bland. Yukimura is our short, flat chested character she is a bit tsundere but at least it's not overly done. Then we got Sen, at first I hated her because of her jealousy but by the end she was tolerable. Both of these characters aren't bad but they both really don't have the qualities that separate them from your typical harem characters.

We also have some side characters and they sometimes do add to the jokes in the series especially Kanetsugu but there's nothing really notable about them.

The series as a whole however is enjoyable. Although some of the jokes weren't well executed the others were hilarious. The story might have been lacking but I really can't complain about that since these types of series tend not to have plots. It's definitely a good time waster

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls is far from being a masterpiece but it managed to pass the time. Although it's not for everyone, the series manages to entertain and at the end of the day that's all I really ask of an anime. read more

At this stage of my review, that is to say, the very beginning, i feel obligated to let you know that this review will not end positively. It's a warning you perhaps do not wish or care to hear but one i must inform you thusly. There will be positive comments throughout but they will all fall eventually into a melancholic tone to highlight certain disappointments.

This show can be summarised in the following sentence; that is to say if i do not go off on a random tangent instead, big breasted female samurai fight against villains. That is, there are only two villains of the show but one of them isn't really that bad. He's just extreme. There are also only two males who actually do something. I believe there to be a third but he would hardly count and you do hear about other males but they are never seen. Expect a lot of harem clichés to slither their way in and out of the plot. I say out but to be fair they never leave. They stick around to the end. I will not claim Hyakka to be great and groundbreaking for its genre or claim it to be so terrible it's an insult.

The setting for this show is a hard one to grasp. At first you start thinking perhaps it is set in the edo period or a period similar but then a character whips out a computer from nowhere. Unless the writer of this show knows something the rest of the world doesn't. I don't think they had computers that far back, at the very least, we do know it is set in Japan and that it is set among very traditional Japanese people; Dojo's, Kimono's, those sliding doors. Not really surprising. It would be weird having a samurai show in modern day Tokyo or something. It's one of the shows facets that help it differ from the likes of Sekirei and Ikkitousen.

Each character from this show i found out (help from wikipedia was much appreciated) shares their name with famous Japanese icons from the past albeit gender flipped and huge personality changes. I mean ALL of the characters do, not just a couple or a few. There are two who do not however rendering my previous inflection on 'all' moot. Muneakira is our harem protagonist and to be fair to him he is a lot better at it than most HPs but he isn't that great. He actually does very little but what he did do was pretty bad ass. Yukimura is a small flat chested girl and is basically the 'smart' one of the group. Sen is the Ojou type who is incredibly bossy but does lessen as time goes on. These two become quite obsessed with the HP at times, i know, a pain right? Jubei is a slpit personality of sorts and claims the family name Yagyu, the exact same as our HP, yes they managed to throw in the classic non blood related little sister. Her 'other' half is so cool, that it can be forgiven. Matabei, Kanetsugu and Hanzo are pretty much there for the fan service. I mean, Matabei only ever wears a loincloth and a small shirt, Hanzo's attire consist os the standard maid uniform and Kanetsugu looks like Hatsune Miku of Vocaloid fame. With the abundance of clichés you should expect these characters clothes to get shred to pieces. I watched the blu ray (oh boy the blu ray) so everything was revealed in full HD. Something of which is hard to explain to people walking by glancing at what i am watching and having to explain not all anime is tentacle and boobs. Ah yes. I do believe i forgot to mention there are in fact two separate tentacle monsters and an invisible fiend. If you do not possess the ability to see me through your computer monitor i am as of mentioning the three monsters, shaking my head. You do have a blond haired big breasted d'Artagnan to look forward to (or straight at if you tend to perv).

The music was an area i don't have any particular feelings towards. The opening is enjoyable as far as openings go. I will listen to it for one minute thirty every episode but i will not hunt down the full mp3 anytime soon. Same goes for the ending. Had i not watched this on my tv but instead on my laptop i would most certainly have skipped it. Now holding my hands up in regret, i did not pay an attention to the background music for the most part. That is not a good thing, if it didn't stand out it was probably out sounded by speech or destruction or just wasn't very good at all. My money being the latter. One thing i did notice a couple of times. The battle music sounded awfully similar to Black Lagoons opening theme song.
The voice actors did an ok job. I watched both sub and dub. Well only about a thirds worth of it subbed but still subbed non the less. Now there were a couple of moments in which phrases such as; 'Ooooh' and 'Aaaah' would uttered from my lips in reply to the occasionally badly acted line but i would put the blame on the scrip more than the actors. This is a show in which the sub out ways the dub but i would recommend watching the dubbed version due to the reason stated in my next paragraph.

The best part of is the art. Not necessarily the greatest compliment you could get. In fiction i consider the story and characters to be far more important than how good something looks. Here though it should be seen as a compliment as had this show used a regular art style it wouldn't stand out in the least. Everything is drawn with a thick black outline compared to a normal thin line that may not even be black. Often when looking at a still you could compare it to a more traditional western comic book. They also had some fun with color. The entire final abttle is in black and white. Not the kind of black and white where it's drawn in color and then a black and white gradient map in Photoshop has been applied leaving a more grey feel to. No. This is drawn verbatim. Black shadows and outlines. White everything else. It really did make it look quite nice. They also used blood splatter on a regular basis. Even in calm moments just to pan from scene to scene. It was a nice change. Even during battle certain characters had different color motifs.

The art is the single part of Hyakka that sets it apart from the crap you usually find in battle harems. It is also why i probably would never recommend Hyakka Ryouran to anybody. Because what am i supposed to say? 'Watch Hyakka, it looks pretty', i'll likely get replies along the lines of 'Sod off' or 'anime always looks good idiot' or 'So does Gankutsuou and that's better'. Anyway, i find this show to be top of it genre, not really a compliment in as much, the rest is just shite. Quite frankly my dear the bad far out way the good and i can fully understand why it has the MAL rating it does. read more

First thing you will notice watching this show is very unique artwork with amazing level of details, even for the background, drawn in way unseen in other shows. I rarely even comment on art portion of the anime and if I do, I use only unimaginative words like "standard", but this time I'll do differently. Not only I am mentioning the artwork itself, I am even putting it at very first paragraph of this review and I'll even exaggerate to the point I'll say whole artwork is probably the best thing I seen in anime for years. It's only my opinion only, but I really loved the art.

Ok, I am done praising this anime, since except the artwork everything else is .. let's say it isn't that good. I would like same art style to be used for something little different...

Story is set in alternative future of Japan where old tradition mixes with modern technology, since Shogunate remained in power for all that time from the medieval era and samurai tradition is still live and well. Main character of this show, Muneakira, is a samurai (or I would say samurai-in-training if there ever was such a thing) which posses a special ability to awake special powers in others, creating a Master Samurai destined to protect the country from great evil.
It's needed to say, all those future Master Samurai are actually girls and mentioned transformation is done though a kiss , which turns whole series into traditional harem genre one. I have nothing against the harem shows, however this turns to be one of the worst of them, since everything happening after a first two or three episodes stopped to make any sense to me and I didn't actually grasp rest of the plot/story. It was like they met, then was a chaos and then bad guys got beaten and that's it, while I don't even know why bad guys were actually bad. I know, harem shows tends to have a simple plots, but those plots and stories are actually making some sense (compared to Serekei since you will find many resemblances here)

To add to it, main character is annoying pathetic wimp making occasional "love and honor" speeches, but being useless otherwise (again except power-up-kisses). I also know having a weak main harem lead is pretty standard cliché, but in other shows main leads are usually normal people drawn into unexpected and unlikely situation - main lead of this show suppose to be a Samurai, goddamn it! He is expected to have some guts!!

Anyway, why we always have either pathetic weakling or super-powered badass with extremely high self-confidence? Who made that up and why there is never a middle ground to it, with somewhat reasonable main character behavior?

As for the rest of the cast, female characters are ... well, they are pretty much fitting to harem trope and except the fact they have the names of (originally male) historical figures, they have pretty much standard personalities for almost any harem show. No complains on that, since as I said, I have no reason to hate this specific genre.

Honestly, I watched the show because there is a second season released this month and before I watch it, I wanted to actually understand the story and basic plot. However, as you will notice from above, I failed to understand anything but a very basic premise. But nevermind. I must admit, as for overall enjoyment, it's a good time killer if you have nothing better to do and could be actually entertaining sometimes, plus I laughed at it sometimes, so I will be nice and will give it a fair ratting. read more

I was all over this anime when I watched the promotional video for it because the action and art were amazing. I was very disappointed after finishing the series.
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____|| STORY ||____
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurau Girls is about a male Samurai named Yagyuu Muneakira fighting enemies with the help of Samurai girls. The plot was rather weak. I felt that the episodes strayed off what the synopsis says and becomes something you didn't really expect to happen.
The first episode was a winner! It had a powerful introduction, introducing the viewer to it's amazing water colour cel shading, amazing action and a promising story. Unfortunately, the first episode was misleading and it was probably the only episode I actually really liked out of all 12 episodes. The anime started off well, then probably after episode 2, 3 or 4 the story seemed to go for a new direction and started to get random and inconsistent and then came the 'cheesy' ending...
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___|| ANIMATION ||___
The animation and art were the only things that kept me watching. The animation was rather inconsistent though. Animation were only at best during the action scenes and when it comes to common movements it was alright. There was ONE fight scene i thought deserved a 10/10 and that was the fight sequence in the beginning of episode 2. The art was just as good as the action with it's amazing water colour painted cel shading and ink drop effects. Dark outlines of characters and BG environment made everything look like a moving painting which was a different experience for me. Special effects were pretty good.
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_____|| SOUND ||_____
BGM/OSTs were pretty enjoyable. Opening and ending theme song were both pretty catchy and great to listen to.
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___|| CHARACTER ||___
The characters weren't that interesting. Nothing really stood out of them except for their 'Samurai' titles and moves (action). Their personalities didn't feel original. I guess it's because ecchi animes have always been using the same personalities over and over again. But wait, if i think about it there are actually other anime and ecchi ones too that uses similar personalities. Why is it that they are still more enjoyable than Samurai Girls even when they have very similar personalities? Dialogue plays a part here too! (in my opinion) I didn't like the cheesy dialogue in this anime. "Destiny this, destiny that, I'm doing evil acts to save the world". Don't get me wrong, there are some characters that were pretty good and fun to watch (Yagyuu Jubei and her alter ego - Main heroine) but there were others that just ruin the mood.
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___|| ENJOYMENT ||___
I did not enjoy the series much. Having just good action and art isn't enough. The story was either all over the place or there is none at all. It felt like the comedy was being forced out and made things obvious and not very funny. Of course if something embarrassing is about to happen we would know but in Samurai Girls case, it was too obvious. I didn't like the "alone with a girl" scene because it was pretty lame. That goes for the dialogue as well. There are other ecchi anime that could do a better job. read more

'Hyakka Ryouran SAMURAI GIRLS' is the 40th anniversary media-mix project by Hobby Japan, a plastic model / video game magazine publisher.
This series is an interesting watch because it's not only a "media-mix" as in franchise with products in multiple media platforms, it also feels like many popular anime series are mixed together. However, it represents everything that went wrong with today's anime industry.

ART:
Series like 'Gankutsuou', 'Mononoke', 'xxxHOLIC', 'Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei', and 'Yojouhan' have such distinctive and unconventional art style or character designs that you'll never forget once you've seen it. Sounds pretty cool, we should do it too! And there we have it, sumi-e (wash painting) style backgrounds, ink drops and brush strokes for censorship and scene transitions.
I have to admit that the style was unique, background is visually pleasing, and there were couple of breathtaking scenes. However, this art style was executed very poorly in many aspects. For one, the character designs were rather ordinary and they looked out of place in the picture even with the thick outlines as a buffer. The presence of modern day gadgets and use of CG made it seem awkward at times because it did not conform to the era or the style. The censoring technique was fine in still pictures, but it was unsightly and annoying when character is moving because the way ink dots follow and disappear screams of "look at me! I'm different!"
The action is cool, and labeling of people and attack move's names were done rather well though.
The animation in this series will certainly be remembered, but it simply did not work for the most part.

SOUND:
Yagyuu Juubee's voice is really cool when she's transformed into Master Samurai, but sounded way too cute/loli despite her appearance in normal form. Muneakira sounds too girly for the macho hero who's supposed to be all about samurai honor. Otherwise, the side characters' voices were done pretty well and sound like they should.
BGM was pretty generic. OP is a really good intense rock song, not only is it very catchy, it also had the Japanese flavor, and the vocal was amazing.

STORY/CHARACTER:
The title "Hyakka Ryouran" has two meanings. The first, more literal meaning is "Profusion of Flowers Blooming in Chaos", as in girls (flowers) of various (profusion) backgrounds are unlocked (blooming) into master samurai and wreak havoc (chaos). The second meaning is "Appearance of Abundant Talent in a Short Period", which describes the resurgence of Master Samurai after a considerable draught in awakening. This series has a great naming sense in its own title, and also the names of signature moves for each character. For example in Sen's "DenKouSekka", a lightning attack which reads "Lightning Fast" in Japanese, "Kou" is deliberately written in wrong kanji that has same pronunciation that means "Royalty". D'Artagnan's ice attack that seals enemy movement "Zettai Reido" means "Absolute Zero", but written "Absolute Slavery(Imprisonment)".
A lot of moves have such creative names like that. However, the originality ends there.

The setting is really, really bad. Sure, it's an alternate universe where the Shogunate rule survives, and there's zero Western influence in Japan, but then you have all the advanced technology (from the West) like air planes, cameras, and computers. It got so bad at one point that commando units holding guns were guarding ninjas and samurais. Talk about awkward.
The premise is basically Evangelion ripoff, you have a chosen hero who unlocks the power of super-powerful beings to fight ones that want to end the world, and an organization trying to prevent that. The secretive organization functions through unethical practices (human experiments/sacrifices vs child labor), and yes, there was mass production of the super-beings to build up the force.

Then all the characters were for manufactured harem. All the girl fighters except Sen have names of MALE historical figures or fictional characters of major literature with similar attributes. It's not even 'Sora no Otoshimono', and girls literally fall from the sky, and yes, one of the them is a cyborg. The initial villain is identical to Vegeta, he thinks he's above all others (emperors and kings), he does have a good purpose but uses any means to achieve his goals, he even wears a Power Level Scanner, and of course, he joins the hero and heroines in the end.
There were many other similarities to DBZ, from "Her power level is over half a million!" to "They are far beyond our capabilities, we can only watch". The girls basically power up like Super-Sayan, and then a heroine even flies like one, before getting spirit bomb-like power recovery from allies. The whole action is like 'DBZ' meets 'Sengoku BASARA' with ridiculous power and constant yelling about love, honor, and justice. While this could've been quite funny if it was parody, there was nothing in this series to suggest that was the case.

And there's these random fan-services with explosion ripping off girl's clothes, a girl wearing thongs all the time (historically some men did, but still...), dumb activation of power (kiss), and 'Sailor Moon' ripoff naked transformation.
Character behavior in general made no sense, and things happen just to advance the plot.

ENJOYMENT/OVERALL
It's nearly impossible to create a completely original story or characters in this day and age. For example, one of the villains in this series also had a magical eye like Alpha Stigma, a ripoff of Geass, which is a modified Sharingan, which is a souped up version of Hiei's evil eye, and then you can trace that all the way back to Medusa.

However, good storywriting can camouflage similarities well enough that they won`t be easily noticeable and bother us. On the other hand, the mix of themes and reference in this show is blatant and shameless. They are so poorly executed that the apparent lack of originality is obvious to the viewer. And then you have excessive moe and ecchi fan service, failed art style innovation, and manufactured harem environment to distract us from the flaws in story and production. Like many similar harem anime today, 'Hyakka Ryouran' was a very poorly produced and forgettable series.

That said, the story is shallow and cliché, but it does have a good pace and some of the tried and true formula do work, and the action scenes are exciting. The show is a true mix of previous anime and lacks originality, but it does offer quick entertainment.
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Does anybody remember Brave 10? Of course you don't wanna remember it; the lot of male leads herein were a bit too awesome for you grass-eaters to handle.

Hyakka Ryouran (not to confuse it with that other badly-written anti-shounen exercise in masochistic femdom "Oh Samurai Girls") is based on the same concept: Taking known historical figures of Japan (Jubei, Hanzo, on down) and turning them into characters the audience can easily digest visually.

The concept works, but negatively. It falls right into the garbage bin where every other "cute girls do cute things, have no dignity, and beat up some loser guy" animu had been created.

At first I didn't wanna watch because I heard "ninjas and samurai slash apart weaponry sent by the US" and instantly labeled it "jingoist Japanese garbage." But then "Snickering Fat Guy" (ADV-turned-Sentai) licensed and dubbed this.

After watching 8 episodes of this on YouTube I can say that it had something going but decided to throw it away: Panty shots, maid ninja Hanzo, and schizophrenic moron/psychopath Jubei. Muneakira did have something going there at the start; being able to one-up Matabei, and keeping Sen and Yukimura from fighting... But he ended up as yet another loser who gets beaten up by the chicks for daring to have an "unneeded harem."

Look: I want Wayne LaPierre of NRA to suffer because he's an idiot for wanting to flood the streets with guns and have the gunmaking industry pocket the money at innocent people's expense. But creating someone to beat up because he's able to get more women than you ever will... DAMN!! It's as if the creators, and the fans, of this type of garbage are the type of people who fear the real world and can't accept their own powerlessness like the rest of us. read more

If there's one thing 2010 isn't short of, it would have to be the abundance of ecchi anime that's aired this year. From titles like Kiss x Sis, High School of the Dead, and even Seikon no Qwaser, it makes one think that Japan has had a rise in lonely boys who are buying into this stuff like ice to Eskimos.

Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Girls is no different in that all it really is, is a show about samurai with breasts set in neo-Japan. Die-hard fans of historical anime/literature may feel insulted to this as famous names like Sanada Yukimura, Yagyū Jūbei and even Senhimé are made to cast as moé characters.

Story - 6
Ryōran takes place in an alternate world where the samurai co-exist with modern technology. How Akira Suzuki(author of the light novels) came up with the idea is beyond me but its definitely not unheard of if your a fan of Gintama. In this reality, master samurai are like guardian deities who serve their shogun as well as protect the populace with their godly powers that differentiate them from your average samurai.

Sound good so far? I thought so too until I realized this series was more a rom-com harem then an action anime. Don't get me wrong, there definitely is action in the series but there just wasn't enough to outweigh the lame overdone comedy. For those who have seen the series Sekirei may see some similarities(like the norito kiss) in this anime, and will probably get the same disappointment in regards to Ryōran's plotline.

Art - 7
If there's one thing Ryōran will be remembered by(if it ever gets remember by next season), is its art and animation. From background to character design, everything is presented in a unique fashion that is different from your typical 2D or CG anime. Of course that doesn't mean that characters are drawn in a weird way as first and foremost, this is an ecchi anime that has samurai girls showing off their assets. One thing I have to commend the director with is the method to which they use to censor the ladies naughty bits. Instead of using the traditional white light or white fog, we are shown ink blotches which coincide with the series artwork.

Whilst I wouldn't say animation is first class for Ryōran, I'd definitely rate it higher then other battle anime that's come out recently(like Nurarihyon no Mago)

Sound - 7
Another component I guess I enjoyed for this series would have to be its sound. With J-rock band Faylan performing the OP "Last Vision For Last", your easily swayed into thinking this series is well worth watching as it pulls you in with the beat like any good shonén anime should. The ED "Koi ni Sesse Tooryanse" performed by the leading ladies of the series is not bad either(nor is it any good) and the BGM is nicely set in place giving you the right ambiance and pacing.

I really have no complaints with the voice cast, asides from that anyone who has seen School Days may be clearly reminded that the main lead for this series is Makoto. Thought I'd throw it out there :D

Character - 3
This is where the series fails. The characters of Ryōran are shallow and there is not one character in the anime that I could say is solid. We are reminded time and time again through each character, that this really is a two-bit harem. The main lead at first showed some promise but quickly fell into the endless spiral of uninspiring harem males and the supporting ladies are a joke. If someone was to ask me if I've seen Ryōran, my first reply would be "Oh, that boobies show?" because that's all the women of Ryōran is all about.

Enjoyment - 6
Watching Ryōran is like riding a bicycle through a mountainous valley. There are so many ups and downs to the series that its not worth counting. As long as your not looking for a deeper meaning to what this show portrays, then its all downhill in regards to enjoyment.

Overall - 5
Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Girls is first and foremost an ecchi anime. If that's what your looking for, then this series should definitely please. Yes it has action and a bit of story, but I wouldn't call it its selling point and is more a bonus. read more

Completely and Only for Timepass.

Made for males with lots of fan service, it's the usual hot curvaceous girls who can fight with a single male convieniently stuck amidst them. Having watched 4 episodes till now, it still makes for some good entertainment with great artwork and editing with decent comical situations. Don't watch for the story or even character development as i feel the creators want it to be light with a pinch of mystry and drama, not too much brainwork that is.

So i'll give it a 7 - watch once, enjoy, then amnesia.

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls is the kind of anime show that seems to have everything going the right way before it even starts airing. A storyline revolving around samurais? Check. Edgy visuals that make the anime stand out from the rest? Check. Fan service? Double check. All the ingredients to make a great anime series are present, which makes it all the more perplexing that Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls turned out to be a complete failure of a show.

Let’s start at the beginning. Taking place in Great Japan in an alternate timeline where the samurai tradition has been kept alive through modern age, the show starts off with the arrival of protagonist Muneakira Yagyuu at a samurai academy, where he accidentally stumbles upon Yukimura Sanada and her bodyguard Matabei Gotou as the two undress, encounters childhood friend and princess of the Tokugawa clan Sen Tokugawa, meets the quirky Jubei who he seems to share a special connection with, and otherwise gets to know a good deal of other female students. However, no one seems to be aware of the fact that Great Japan is standing before a grave threat; one that shares a long history with the country.

It’s hard to get a good sense of what Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls is about during the first episodes, because when it comes to story progression, the series is all over the place. Taking a look at the first half of the show’s episodes, close to nothing happens that is relevant to the plot. It seems as though the anime forgot that it actually has a story to tell, concentrating too much on trying to deliver as much entertainment value as possible, but ultimately failing in that respect as well, with many jokes simply falling flat and the amount of humour ending up to be rather insufficient overall.

The second half of the series isn’t much better either. Whereas the earlier episodes seemed to go nowhere, the final ones feel extremely rushed. Characters are introduced on the go, the antagonistic threat literally appears out of the blue, and the plot suddenly rises in scale with no explanation whatsoever. In addition, despite having so much time on its hands to allot for character development (early on the episodes are basically just various interactions between characters put together to reach the twenty minute mark), most characters end up feeling rather underdeveloped, with protagonists such as Jubei and Muneakira turning out to be nothing more than cardboard cut-outs of anime stereotypes as the show concludes.

The only thing preventing Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls from being a complete waste of time is the visual department, where the series clearly stands out. Boasting an unconventional look, the show features a stunning art style comprised of detailed—albeit not particularly original—character design, backgrounds in wash painting style, and ink drops marking scene transitions and censorship, in case you’re watching the censored version. The animation is also relatively well-done, though for an anime revolving around samurai warriors, the amount of fight and action scenes is surprisingly sparse.

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls also lacks in scope. Aside from a number of scenes that I can count on the fingers of one hand, only the characters relevant the plot are shown, making the anime unbelievably disconnected from the world the story takes place in and causing the experience of watching the show to feel like a far-off and underwhelming venture. There’s a lot more to complain about, but the things mentioned earlier should give you a general idea of what to expect and—more importantly—what not to expect from Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls going in. read more

Ahh, the classic ecchi action show. I am not a fan of the genre in general, but the first episode seemed like it could turn out well. It also seemed like it had a plot. The art also seemed rather unique in its genre of bright and happy. Yes, it was all what it seemed.

Expectation: 6
Episode scores:-,-,-,-, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6
Actual: 4 Bad

Yet the plot is quickly put aside for the last episodes, nothing unusual, as the harem tries to become master samurai. Now what can be wrong with that? Well, i don't mind the cliche random guy getting all the chicks, and the fact that at first they are essentially just trying to use him as a stepping stool. Yet, while there is some actually relationships that seem to do well, any interaction is transformed into interaction between a master and his samurai. Well at least for the dense lead anyways. Even the kisses are lame, and insignificant because of the same property.

With Samurai you would expect some good battles. Yet, we are bombarded with poor fight after poor fight. Either it is a master samurai beating the crap out of somebody defenseless or them pulling off their 'named move' once or twice inbetween talking. The only exceptional scene is the climax, but they sacrifice any logic for the pretty effects.

There was a lot more comedy that i enjoyed which was unexpected. It might of been one of the few redeeming qualities of this show, but even then they are not that good. i might of just felt like enjoying slapstick humor for some reason when i was watching this.

The characters are not very deep. The harem consists of tsunderes with a side dish of servants and energetic idiots that fell of of the sky. Their characters are not really anything special, nor do they have at least one oddity about them. At least i was a Rie fan so i was able to appreciate something about at least one character.

Overall, not that much different from any other ecchi show. The plot is pretty lame, and the comedy is not up to par with a lot of better actual 'ecchi comedies' out there. I would call this average for this genre, but the standard is set pretty low as far as i am concerned as of late. read more

At this point of the story, it hasn’t fully revealed itself to be important, because majority of my thoughts were being distracted by the beauty of the cel-shaded animation. However, there is more to the story than just action fan service scenes.

Whether it’s standing still or in movement, it’s really a rich and attractive art design. The environments feel like a sharp watercolor painting, and the characters blend in with a darker, deeper color.

Hirakawa, Daisuke (School Days, Omamori Himari) and Kugimiya, Rie (Toradora!, Hayate the Combat Butler!) share the majority of airtime on the first episode. Both of these voice actors have had their share of different roles, so expect nothing but a perfect performance from the both of them. The sound effects match the soundtracks used in intense, dramatic, mysterious scenes, and also match the amusing, make-fun-of-the-size-of-my-breast scenes.

Each characters outfit/weapon shows a lot of creativity, detail, and personality. Although, not much characters were revealed my favorite characters so far are Yagyuu, Muneakira and Sanada Yukimura. Yagyuu feels mysterious, and Sanada is hyperactive-ish.

Overall I enjoyed my visit in the world of Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls and I can’t wait to view more episodes when they air. The story is intriguing, the animation is colorful and smooth, the sound fits the atmosphere, and the characters are likable. read more

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls.
It is quite interesting .. I love the battle scene. It is interesting and I
love it! In this story, a woman named Juubei fell from the sky and then ​​Muneakira suprise, and after seing what just had happen, Muneakira catch her. After that, Juubei wake up and say "onii-chan" (brother) at Muneakira and kiss him. And that is where she became master samurai and also that is where the story begins! You should watch it to know more about story :)

One thing that made me want to see this show. THE ART! I saw the trailer, and was unbelieving. I watched the entire series, and now am a believer. This is one of the most unique and well done art styles I have seen in an anime in a long time. The heavy lines, softness of the colors, detail, all combines to make it very nice to watch.

Granted, there is a lot of fan service. And I agree with others assessment, the ink blots used to cover naughty bits was annoying, especially in combat. However, getting the blu-ray version obviously fixed this problem.

I don't have a problem with naughty bits, in fact it is a plus for me. (I am a guy duh) But I don't like that it will take away from some of the demographic because of that. With such great art, action and story, I know there are people that will miss out because of it. read more

Overall: Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls is a fresh take on Ecchi anime. The main charecter is only stereo typical in that he is a tad shy about sex (like most maile leads in ecchi anime), but that forgivable aspect aside he is a highly skilled samurai. With fresh visuals and a good use of sound to compliment them you should have a good time with this show.

Story: I would have given this show a lower value if is wasnt for the last 2 episodes. So far the story has been very bland, but as of episodes 10 and 11 the plot has finally begun to move and its much more enjoyable. Basically something evil is moving towards japan and the two sides that can do anything about it are fighting each other, because one wants total power and the other group is made up of our free spirited protagonists.

Art: Wow. The first episode should give you an idea of the art style they choice for this show, and I have to say it is fantastic. I know that some people might be turned off by black paint strokes in the middle of the screen and dripping paint for a transition, but it works for me, if only because its very unique.

Sound: The sound is also fantastic and it compliments the tone and the visuals quite well.

Character: The characters that make up samurai girls start off one dimensional but grow into fully fleshed out people while the show itself grows in scope. I find this to be a pleasing formula and some how they pulled it off.

Enjoyment: Fun, funny and action oriented this show should if nothing else entertain you for its duration. But by no means will it leave you with any lasting impressions. read more

Like all too many animes out there who are considered a "harem" this also has a bunch of girls who are all in love with the main character but for some weird reason that i just can't figure out they always have to beat him up and act like hes some kind of freak of nature. whilst just like always the protagonist is indecisive and for some reason he's an all Human Rights champion or something, always making stupid and long speeches about how no one should fight and everyone should just live in happiness with each other even though the ones he are preaching for are mass-murderers who do their best to kill him and bring misery to a whole bunch of people.
and i mean, hes supposed to be a freakin SAMURAI, he's job is to kill people!!!

the story is nothing special, mostly just needless preaching about "justice" (as they call it) some not-all-to-exiting fights and lots of FANSERVICE! (witch i think is just irritating). there is character development but all "development" is predictable and you know whats gonna happen from Ep3

the characters are bad, so bad i have seen the same gruesome characters several times in all to many animes (and mangas).

the only good thing is that it doesn't have BAD art..... although some of the voices are squeaky and just plain ugly.

seen 11 episodes and theres nothing special to it.... if you wonder why i'm still watching it it's just because I've got nothin' to do read more

well i have only watched about seven episodes , but that's probably enough to the basic gist of whats going on.
First off , it is a harem anmie ,no if whats or buts and carries many of the typical characters and events you would expect to find in such an anmie , including lots of fan service.

That said, there is a surprising undercurrent to the story ,that has you guessing and keeps you quite intrigued to answer many of the mysteries posed.that's not typical any means. Its got of a bit of heart .

The action scenes are well done as is the art.Plus i like the main character here hes by no means your typical weak wimp , a refreshing change.

This has a possibility of turning into something much deeper and quite excellent and i am just hoping they let it.

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Back in the time of the samurai, where guys controlled girls that had mystical powers. [sarcasm] yeah that totally makes sense. [/sarcasm] The girls are obviously more powerful than the guy but they listen to them. They like to be controlled by a powerful guy. Talk about a S&M relationship, and sadly not the hentai kind of S&M. This anime hardly has nudity, and when you think might get to see something it is censored.

OMG the stupid ink blob things that cover the screen can get very irritating. I have to say that 70% of the time you see tons of ink blobs that cover about half the screen at times. It is used for
censorship and during fight scenes. The FIGHT scenes....... I mean come on! It may look cool to some of you but I think i completely gets in the way. !@#$%^&*

Honestly i can't give a good evaluation about the sound because I some times I needed to concentrate in order to read what people where saying and watching what was going on, or at least what I could see.

One thing that I can not figure out was the point of Jubei and Muneakira having the same surname. What purpose did it really serve? Maybe I just don't remember. Then there is Matabei and Yukimura. Both of them are the bad guys, or at least that is what it seems like when the show first starts. Then all of a sudden they are not the bad guys. Turns out the bad guy is really [Insert giant ink blob here]

Despite me saying a bunch a bad stuff about this anime I did like it, to a certain extent. Otherwise I wouldn't have finished it. Everything was just barley good enough for me to keep watching. I do like anything with a little bit of ecchi, but that is just my personal taste. read more