So what if we took this concept *literally*? And then we added a harem? And then we did whatever we wanted with the plot? That, my friends, is Kanojo ga Flag.
Story:
Kanojo ga Flag is about a generic harem lead, Souta, who can see event flags on top of people’s heads. He transfers to a new school and immediately starts building a harem. Souta’s harem might as well be the harem to end all harems. It has basically every archetype: Tsundere, Airhead, Older Sister, Little Sister, Student Council President, Trap, Childhood Friend, Princess, Idol, Robot, Baby/Grandmother, Tsundere 2, and Teacher. The harem grows so fast that it becomes pointless to distinguish between the girls. They’re all obsessed with the MC for some reason and that’s really their only defining trait.
It managed to work well enough. When a harem gets so big and it’s clear the girls aren’t actually going to win over the MC, you stick around for the pointless harem antics. Beach episode? Sure. Beauty contest? Let’s do it. Super serious plot? Totally—wait what? Kanojo ga Flag never needed a serious plot but it decided it was going to cram it in anyway. I don’t think the plot twist is necessarily that bad; the show definitely foreshadows it. The problem comes from the amount of time the audience has to comprehend what’s even going on. It’s introduced very quickly and you pretty much just have to roll with it and watch in confusion or look up an explanation. An additional episode might’ve helped solve the problem.
Characters:
There’s nothing interesting about any of the characters. The MC always has a bored look on his face that makes you wonder why any of the girls are so interested in him. The best I can say about the rest of the harem is that they exist. They fulfill their roles in their respective archetypes and in the greater plot, but otherwise there is nothing unique or memorable about any of them. If you’ve seen an anime before then you’ve seen this cast.
Sound:
The voice acting was pretty good overall. Of particular note is Nanami’s voice actress, who was only 17 when the show aired. I think she did a good job for someone so young and just getting into the industry. Akane, the airhead, easily has the most annoying voice in the show. She also finishes each of her sentences with “desu” because she’s cute and I personally find it more frustratingly annoying than anything else. There’s no real standout performances among the rest of the cast, though Kana Hanazawa playing a trap was pretty fun.
The OP and ED were passable. “Nothing special” is the key to Kanojo ga Flag. The same goes for the OST: it did its job well enough while I was watching the show but there’s nothing about it that particularly stuck with me.
Art and Animation:
The elephant in the room is Kanojo ga Flag’s art style. The girls are drawn in a way that make them look several years younger than they actually are. Look at any promotional art for the show including the picture on MAL and you’d probably conclude that they’re (mostly) all elementary school students. Admittedly, it looks a bit better when it’s animated. By the end I didn’t mind it too much. The rest of the art is colorful and fits the mood of the show. When the show goes full seriousness, the art gets darker along with it. There were no significant distracting art errors.
The animation gets the job done. There are no huge quality issues or outstanding animation sequences. This is a harem anime for the most part. It doesn’t need to do anything great so I can’t really demand too much out of it.
Enjoyment:
Kanojo ga Flag is not *good*. It is a train wreck in every sense of the phrase. But it is a beautiful, entertaining train wreck. The show is incredibly fast paced and it does a good job at keeping the audience engaged. It’s so stupid and ridiculous that you can’t help but keep watching. I had fun watching the show from beginning to end and honestly that’s the most important part to me.
Conclusion:
Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara will never win any awards for anything. The plot is a mess, the characters are uninteresting, the sound is decent, and the art/animation is bad to ok. BUT I had fun watching it. If you don’t take it too seriously then I think you can have some fun with it.
5/10
