Reviews

Jul 31, 2007
Harukanary Toki no Naka de ~Hachiyo Shou~ is a dating sim-gone-anime type story, that leads any fangirl into a world of hot men, and engaging story. This anime, though only 26 episodes, I can easily see as an instant classic.

Story
Harukanary Toki no Naka de ~Hachiyo Shou~ is the story of a modern day girl, Akane, and her two friends Shimon and Tenma. On the way to school one day, Akane is called to the world of Kyou as the "Priestess of Ryuujin" in the country of Kyou. Shimon and Tenma attempt to stop her from being pulled in, but fail, and join her as well.

Akane must gather the eight hachinyou of the four gods to help her protect Kyou from Akram, an evil demon out to take control of the world.
The purpose of my rating is though as the story goes along, it gets better, the basic plot reminded me way to much of Fushigi Yuugi.

Animation
The animation style fits the series well. While it\'s not the most top notch, it does have well done colouring, and nicely done backgrounds and landscapes. While some of the colour scheming seems a bit odd in the clothing, the show is based off an game, so they did remain true to the original style.

Sound
I enjoyed the music in this series quite a bit. The opening theme is incredibly catchy, with a good ending theme that matches the opening. The in series music was well done, and I did enjoy the occasional snippets of character image themes.

Though we did not hear Akane\'s song, or for that matter, two of the four villians, it did give us a taste of the characters themselves, because they occured in their \'special\' episodes. All the characters were decent singers as well, which is always a bonus.

Character
This is where the series truly ranks above and beyond. While the series makes me think of Fushigi Yuugi, it is above and beyond in the character developement. All the characters got an episode or two to themselves, and they did their best to keep no one from disappearing in the shadows.

While I was reminded of other anime characters (Tenma was lovingly nicknames \'Kyo\', Shimon was for awhile known as \'Shimizu\' and Akane by \'Kahoko\') each character did develope well, and had their own personality. While Tenma bugged me with how much he looked and acted like Kyo from Fruits Basket, I suppose he was a necessary character since many of the other characters had a bit more toned down personalities.

The anime also favourited Tenma, and Yasuaki, I found. Tenma was favoured as a possible love interest, while Yasuaki was favoured as a simply cool character. Even though these two were favourites, everyone else did develope still.

Enjoyment
I at first was a bit unsure of this series because of my obvious bias towards it being a Fushigi Yuugi rip, the series, in my opinion, developed better in many aspects. The characters in this all developed, while in Fushigi Yuugi, some characters pretty well disappeared. The music in both series\' are well placed, but I feel the this series did better in their use of it\'s mood effecting power. Though I did have one fairly major issue with this series, I do feel my enjoyment was at its highest by the end of the series.

Overall / My Comments / My Feelings
Overall, it was a well thought out, and developed story. I enjoy the characters Eisen, Yasuaki, and Shimon the most, but of course I can\'t think of anyone I truly didn\'t like (other than their annoying mascot-like friend..)

My major issue with the series is the four gods. In actual history, they were known as \'The Genbu Turtle of the North\', \'The Azure Dragon of the East\', \'The Red Bird/Pheonix of the South\', and \'The White Tiger of the East\'. In Fushigi Yuugi, Yuu Watase CREATED the names Genbu, Seriyu, Suzaku, and Byakko for the Gods. This series used those names, which... I suppose is okay, but are technically the rights of Watase. Oh well, no real harm done.

The one thing that hindered my enjoyment of the series at the beginning however, was Tenma. He looks, and acts SO much like Kyo, I always referred to him as Kyo as I watched the series. I didn\'t know his real name for a while because I was calling him Kyo. Also, Shimon and Akane look similar to Keiichi Shimizu and Kahoko Hino of La Corda. Another ehhhh...

However, some of the character similarities I embraced. Such as Yasuaki being like a completely personality-less Chichiri. Or perhaps Eisen reminding me so strongly of Amiboshi at first because of his flute. Should I mention Yorihisa looking so similar to historical pretty boy Ranmaru Mori when shown in his flashbacks? (I\'m referring to the Koei interpetation of Ranmaru).

As my sister had mentioned, I greatly enjoyed the lack of \'friend gone evil rival\' in this series that most teleport to another world stories seem to have. Though Ran\'s appearance kind of turned out to be like that, she wasn\'t half as bad as some other stories (*coughYuicough*).

All in all, I reccomend this anime to anyone. I do mean that. It\'s not so overly Shojo that a guy will be scared off, and it\'s not so overly Shonen that some girls will loose their attention span. Their is a good mix of fighting along with a bit of sexual tension (though nothing comes out of this in the end). I personally think any guy will simply enjoy the coolness that is Yasuaki, he is also very appealing to us fangirls. The series brings a bit of both worlds into a good mix, and is being delivered for us to watch. So do it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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