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Apr 13, 2024
Sakura-sou is at its core a standard high school romance/comedy/drama anime, with themes of talent vs hard work, dreams, failure and what it means to feel like you’re surrounded by people impossibly better than you. It took me 10 years to finally getting around to watch it, and it was a pleasant surprise.
Our premise is that Kanda, a regular highschooler with no goals or directions is thrown into a dorm full of eccentric characters, unfit to live with the other students. One of the main strengths of the show is presenting its cast full of quirky, over the top characters. Their anime-style ridiculousness made me
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care for them immediately.
The main conflict of the show is that between humans and aliens, who through their circumstances are made to live under the same roof. Humans are the regular people living under Sakura-sou: Kanda, Nanami, Rita (not a resident but relevant enough to count her), and as we’d later find out, Jin. People lacking natural talent but nonetheless determined to achieve their dreams through hard work and perseverance. The aliens are the people so unrealistically talented at their craft that from the perspective of a regular human they might as well could’ve come from outer space: Mashiro, Misaki and Akasaka. They’re cartoonish depictions of what naturally gifted people look like from the eyes of us untalented ones. This struggle is depicted as a pair dynamic, each Human has an Alien with whom they share their struggles. Sakura-sou is a character-driven story, so I’ll analyze it through its main cast.
Sorata starts off as a gloomy guy with no aspirations, but by virtue of being around creative people, namely Mashiro, he got the inspiration to try to make a videogame, only to fail twice. The second one being specially painful since he was slapped with the harsh reality of failing due to external factors out of our control. This showcases the first problem of being exposed to talent as an untalented. On one side you’re inspired by the seemingly endless possibilities they bring to the table, but on the other you’re quick to compare yourself to them when things don’t go your way. Asking yourself what’s the point of all this if I’ll never be as good as them. He lashes out at Mahiro a few times because of this. Indeed, he came to hate his own lack of talent he saw on her. In his mind, the hours and hours spent drawing mean little if at the end she’d succeed either way. Meanwhile he puts in all the effort too, but is only rewarded with failure. “Why can’t you just fail once, so this world would seem a little less unfair?”. These are all valid feelings that hit a bit too close to home. Any creative pursue is by its very nature a painful one. Even more so as an untalented person nowadays where you’re bombarded with impossibly talented people on social media. I want to admire and look up to them, but I can’t help but feel anger and envy, all they seem to do so effortlessly takes my hours and hours and like 3 mental breakdowns. That’s why Sorata is a pretty relatable character to me, something I wouldn’t have expected from the one given the role as “generic light novel main character”. The fear he showcased before commiting to his pursuit is a very real feeling to me too. Fear of failure, of wasting time, of being mocked, of exiting the seat you were given in the “unremarkable” bench.
Mashiro, an aspergers-type savant, is presented as someone who cannot do anything but paint. A pretty direct metaphor for her internal reality: She doesn’t know a thing about how other people feel, or even what she feels. Once she begins to open up, she becomes plagued by feelings of remorse that her sole presence is causing hurt in others. As much as I sympathize with Sorata, these feelings are indeed unfair towards aliens. They did not do anything wrong to be the recipient of hate that is ultimately towards oneself. At first she is unaware to this whole ordeal, as explained by the Rita arc. An oblivious Mashiro led Rita to quit painting all together. Rita was told “Why bother if you can’t be as good as Mashiro”, which is obviously a very harsh thing to say to someone else, but it is a very regular thing to tell oneself while in the pursuit of doing something meaningful. We are unfortunately not as kind to ourselves as we might be to others. Her decision to outright quit is also extremely relatable. I sure have thrown pencils across the room in frustration, begging myself to give an explanation as to why I even bothered to put myself through all this in the first place.
Over the course of the show Mashiro learns to be more aware of the people around her. As I said before she has done nothing wrong, so it’s not like she can somehow fix this issue, but it’s also true that it was disheartening for Rita convey all her feelings of anger and frustration under the rain, for Mashiro to then say “I had no idea”. Her display of talent drove people she cared about away from her; it’s lonely at the top. What she learns is to understand the world around her, her own emotions and why other people might feel the way they do around her.
Jin is an interesting character, at first introduced as a know-it-all genius screenwritter, we over the course of the show we learn that he’s just the Human to the Alien that is Misaki. This, combined with the fact that they’re a year older than Mashiro and Kanda, makes it apparently clear through out the show that Jin-Misaki was written to exemplify the struggles of this kind of relationship to Mashiro-Kanda. Roads already walked, but still with many unresolved emotional hangups.
Misaki, a mad scientist-type savant, is the oddest one out of them all, the person the term “alien” was coined after in the show. A relentless creative genius left all alone because the rest simply can’t keep up with her. I must admit she’s my favourite character of the bunch, her over the top scenes are always fun to watch. Below this seemingly endless energy and optimism lies someone who, unlike Mashiro, is much too conscious of the loneliness at the top. The fact that at first she was all alone at Sakura-sou is a great visual metaphor for this.
Jin is one of these rest that cannot keep up with Misaki. His scripts are not up to par with the bombastic animation she brings. This is used as a metaphor for their to-be relationship. Now, this is one parts I didn’t like about the show. The way it handled this relation was obtuse to me. It’s kinda funny that they even poke fun at this fact in the show through Mashiro’s manga. From what I understood Jin started dating her sister Fuuka as a (very direct) replacement for Misaki. He truly only loved Misaki, but was afraid of her. The show doesn’t develop this much though. Was he afraid of bringing her down? Was he afraid that she represented his lack of talent, like with Kanda and Mashiro? The show doesn’t elaborate on Jin’s personal motivations to suppoert this last one though. Did he want to become a screenwritter because of his own volition, or because he wanted to follow Misaki?
The whole “wait for me” romance trope was also a but off-putting for me. It’s obviously unrealistic as anime should be, but to the point that it breaks my suspension of disbelief. I think Jin’s feelings are valid at their core, but I felt the show didn’t elaborate or put them forth clearly enough for me to relate to them. Which leaves the poor Misaki in a loop of being depressed about it and deciding to forget and get on with her craft, which I’ve read was also a problem for other viewers. Although I must say the kiss at the end of the show was pretty satisfying and the fact that they remembered the marriage proposal gag from episodes before put a smile on my face.
Akasaka, an asshole-type savant, is probably the Alien that has the more grounded development out of them all. A genius turned shut-in that lashed out at other people for not being able to keep up, resorting to isolating himself from others. I think It would’ve been cool to see a bit more development. Did he isolate himself in fear of hurting the people he cared about? Or out of fear that they’d turn away from him for his skills? We didn’t get to see this much unfortunately. In any case, the show did convey the fact that he’s scared of getting involved with people, even if he cares about them. And over the course of its runtime we see him open up to the residents of Sakura-sou, and to be more honest to himself about his feelings towards them. It was cute to see Rita progressively drag him out of his room (literally and figuratively). It’s also every programmer’s dream for a blonde chick to fall for you despite of your lackluster social skills lol.
Finally we have Nanami, a very unfortunate character. I truly cared for her and her development, despite the fact that she’s clearly the hard-working brunette classmate/childhood friend that serves the role as the final vertex to a love triangle that she’ll never win. A lot of people dismiss her and this plot point as bad because of this. While this trope does suck, I feel like there’s more to it in this case.
Nanami is the embodimentof hard work in the show. Pursuing her dream in spite of her family, she works herself to the bone to pay her tuitions to both high school and the voice acting academy she attends. For this she sacrificies much of the time she’d spend hanging out and doing normal highschool student things. She’s plagued by much of the same problems Kanda is, but to a greater degree. It is established that being a voice actress has been a clear goal of hers for a long time, and that her entire awake time revolves around it. She’s Mashiro’s polar opposite, which is why I think it was necessary plot-wise to have her be a part of the triangle. I think it’s meaningful that Kanda is exposed to both sides of the spectrum in a romantic way.
I think a lot of the characters that fall into this trope fail because their whole personality is the love triangle they’re made a part of, but I think Nanami is a bit more than that. Her journey is arguably more interesting than Kanda’s, since she’s portrayed as the one that gave it her absolute all and still failed (although Kanda’s initial lack of direction is more relatable). Her breakdown later in the show felt very true to what it’s like to give 110% and still get the short end of the stick. “All these years have been a waste” is a line that too crossed my mind, after failing an important test I had studied hard for. That’s why her failures hit me harder than Kanda’s. Having said that at the end of the day she’s still a character set up for failure from the get-go, which I have to admit is upsetting, but in a way shows the uncomfortable truth about trying to do something extraordinary: Sometimes, regardless of what you did, you just fail. As a side note, it’s kinda sad that Nanami’s voice actress career didn’t take off after this role. Nanami being her first major main role and still by far her most popular one (at least according to MAL). She was most likely chosen to form a cast of already somewhat established voice actors because of her native Osaka dialect. It seems that she slowly faded away after this, in stark comparison to the rest of the main cast that would go on to become staples of the industry. It’s fitting, in a tragic way.
All in all, this was an enjoyable experience. There were also some other minor problems I had, like how the whole Kanda family arc wasn’t fleshed out at all, but at that point I think I was already on for the ride to be bothered. The show’s pace was fast which I liked, but also gave its climaxes enough time to hit. The graduation ceremony was really emotional, they handled it really well without it getting too corny. The fact that it didn’t end there and had an extra episode about the newcomers of Sakura-sou was a good call in my book, it made for a more uplifting ending. The comedy was great too, I laughed out loud multiple times.
On a more personal note, this is the first anime I watch after 3 years. I think the last show I completed was Yuru Camp S2 back when it was airing in 2021. I quit anime for multiple reasons, but one of them funnily enough was my creative pursuit. After having a long discussion with my friends about the anime we used to watch a few weekends back, I got the bug back and decided to watch something again for old time’s sake. I remembered Sakura-sou being all over the Anime Cracks/Vines videos I use to watch way back in the day when this show was still relevant, but I decided against watching it at the time because from the clips shown I assumed it was just another generic ecchi show (they only showed the nudity scenes of the first few episodes). Ironically, that’s why I decided to watch it now, I wanted a really “anime trash” to reminisce about being 16 again. As fate would have it, I ended up with a show that not only was not anime trash, it also discussed a bunch of the problems and ideas about creativity and talent I’ve been having since quitting anime. I think that’s one of the reasons I felt so strongly about this one to write this review.
Anyways, that’s about it. If there’s anyone at all that made it here, thank you for caring, truly. Also, I’d love to hear some feedback.
Cheers
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 23, 2023
Hi, I was the proofreader for this series for the past 4 years; from chapter 2 till the end (I'm checking Vol. 16 extra as of writing this) If you've read this in any unlicensed site, I was the one to check the translation before it got typeset. So, since I've been with this manga for so long, I thought I'd give me thoughts about it.
This is a light-hearted Yamamoto SoL. Meaning, mostly one-off chapters, generic romance manga tropes, superficial characters interacting by means of standard manga humor, and big foreheads. If you've read Takagi, you've read this one. Do not come into it
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expecting anything else than a cutesy high school slice of life with some romance tints. And I say tints because the premise is deceiving, there's almost no progression nor it has anything interesting to say about romance when it gets down to its "serious" parts.
Speaking of progression, not only are almost all chapters standalone, you can read the first few, skip straight to the end and not miss anything too crucial in terms of plot. Yamamoto just set the scene and let it ran loose till he didn't want to anymore, and ended it. I'd argue this could've been condensed into two or three volumes, but of course that wasn't going to finance Yamamoto's monk lifestyle. (It's a running joke in the scanlation group that he ended all his series to fuck off to the middle of the woods and live like a hermit swimming in manga money)
Having said that, if you like the characters, and enjoy watching them fucking around in various situations with classic Yamamoto romantic teasing comedy, then you'll have a sweet sweet time. I know I did while checking every script.
In conclusion, that's pretty much it. There's not a whole lot more to this one. You can finish it in a couple days if you really wanted to, but I personally think it's best enjoyed in small bits, otherwise it's just gonna get repetitive fast.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 22, 2021
Horimiya, Happiness, disappointment, death.
Being a fan of romance manga is hard. The trash heap of mediocrity we have to put up with in order to find the actual good stuff is embarrassingly high. From lackluster characters, no progress, to uncomfortable self insert harems, to the entire shoujo genre, one begins to question, is it really that hard to portray this common aspect of the human experience?
Part 1: Happiness
That’s where Horimiya comes in. Horimiya’s every romance manga reader’s wet dream, second only to being in a real relationship. It single handedly fixes everything wrong with the genre. It introduces interesting non generic characters, establishing their
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good and bad points upfront, making me instantly want to root for them. It gives its main characters a life outside of being in love with one another, by this I mean neither character’s personality is just to be in love with the other. You realize this when you think about what they would do if they’d never met in the first place. Hori would probably go on to university while Miyamura would most likely end up running his family's bakery. Both would end up as somewhat functional adults, though you’d wonder how’d they deal with their personal hang ups had they not met each other, which makes you appreciate how positively they were impacted by the relationship. It is clear that both of them function better as people when the other’s around, making you want them to be together. A simple but perfect pack wrapped in a gorgeous and expressive art style.
But by far its biggest strength is that things actually happen. Crazy right? This is the most common critique of the genre as a whole, and what people mean by this is not necessarily that there’s no confession, no skinship or whatever, but rather that the characters don’t seem to be affected at all by their newfound feelings. A lot of romance manga is just a bunch of haha i like u, lol jk, unless?? moments. They realize they wanna fuck by the end of the first chapter to then proceed to fail terribly at conveying their feelings in the most manga ways possible. It’s fine if that’s the joke, but it really gets stale and you end up wondering what’s the point. There are a bunch of series that showcase the characters’ personal growth without having the main couple actually get together. But when you have both? White liquid on the wall. By the end of the third volume we already get a solid confession, and not long after that they become an official couple. They kiss, they fuck, they even propose to each other at some point (as serious of a proposal two highschoolers can make).
So what gives? What’s the point of this discussion? Why aren’t we just becoming the romance version of the jojo fandom and start spreading the good gossip of Horimiya wherever we go?
The answer is slice of life. If you’ve been around lately (and by lately I mean in the past 5 years) you know that the development kinda stops. It just ends. It seems like every other discussion about this series is about this, and understandably so. You could’ve stopped reading at the proposal chapter, leap to the last chapter, skipping everything in between, and you wouldn’t have missed much, if anything. There’s no real progression between the main couple, nor any of the potential ones. Everything just halts. Stuck forever in SoL hell.
However, I could never truly understand these people making angry threads about how they were dropping the series as if anyone cared. And for two reasons. The first is that I had already fallen so much in love with each character, that Horimiya achieved the status of “I could watch these people do whatever for another thousand chapters and I’ll still be content”. I can count on one hand the number of pieces of media that have reached this personal status. I cannot express how much I truly loved and cared for these characters. The manga did such a good job at presenting relatable and down to earth, well written characters. I mean I’ve been using a Miyamura profile picture on almost all my social media for half a decade at this point. I really felt a strong connection with them.
The second one is a bit more general. You know me, I love me some good SoL. I watch Yuru Camp religiously, I welcome the vast nothingness and foreheadness (lol) from every Yamamoto work, I have and will continue to pester anyone who’d listen about Ojiro Makoto, and I rewatch K-on and Hyouka to this day. I love a good slice of life show.
And as you can imagine the latter part of this series was very enjoyable for me. It was like an endless detour and I was up for every second of it. At some point I even scored Horimiya a 10 with only around 60 chapters out; I’ve never really taken scores seriously, but the one rule I follow is that I think it’s unfair to rank something that you haven’t seen to completion. This was the one exception. I thought to myself, this one has given me so much it could end tomorrow and I’ll still rate it a 10. Or so I thought.
Part 2: Disappointment
Overtime Horimiya became something that I wouldn’t aggressively look forward to, but rather a nice 10 minute or so read that I’d have every once in a while. You see the one problem with monthly publications is that it takes forever for anything to happen, which, if the series is popular enough, means really long run times. Horimiya has around 120 chapters total over 10 years, something that would only take a bit over 2 with a weekly one. But what’s the problem with this? What’s wrong with the authors keeping their sanity?
I’m sure this effect has a name (you know I’m not looking it up to look smart), but the longer you look at something the more apparent its flaws are. Was this really the ground breaking story I once fell in love with? I still vividly remember ditching the next day math test I had to read this new exciting manga I had found on fucking mangarock, back when that was a thing. Hagiwara was the first artist I ever followed.
This feeling became more and more apparent when talking about it with friends who were just getting into it, and became especially prevalent while watching the anime adaptation. I just didn’t feel the same charm as I once did.
I figured this was only normal, in these five years I’ve changed as a person, and read way more manga and watched way more anime that I’d like to admit. I know it’s corny to say something like that in regards to some dumb teenage romance story, but I can’t find another way of describing it, it’s a first for me to have been actively consuming a piece of media for such a long time that didn’t already have deep nostalgic value.
However this wasn’t nearly as dramatic as my writing could lead you to believe. It was a weird realization sure, but it wasn’t anything more than that. I mean Horimiya would still be publishing for a long time right? At some point they’ll get around to exploring the relations between Tooru and Yuki and Sakura and Yanagi and all these other characters that I hold very dear, right?
And that’s when it hit me. The “I could watch these people do whatever for another thousand chapters and I’ll still be content” statement had an asterisk that I had overlooked. And that was “as long as everything is resolved eventually”. It was wishful thinking. The teasing chapters with side characters sprinkled throughout this SoL phase gave me confidence that this was gonna happen eventually, in 10 or 100 chapters, but eventually. And that’s when the news hit me.
Part 3: Death
When the news about the ending dropped it hit me like a truck. It was so sudden. I basically went through all the stages of grief, which this review might be a part of. I mean at first I went around saying that I didn’t believe it, there was no way. Until I read the tweets from the authors and had no other option but to accept it. Ok that sounded way too dramatic, but sounds cool no? Anyway.
Where was my development? There were so many stories left untold, why end it now? Did they get (rightfully) tired of working on the same thing for a decade? Was it monetary? Did they just run out of ideas? As far as I’m aware the original webcomic does end on graduation as well, but why not expand it? Horimiya isn’t a to a T adaptation anyway. I still ask myself these questions, even though it’s pretty pointless. They must have their reasons, and they most likely weren’t anything petty.
All my expectations went to nothing, just like the progress earlier in the series. In a way it’s my fault, but why on earth have basically the best progression in any romance, into nullity? If the orders would’ve been reversed it would’ve been fine, but this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s such a waste honestly, they’ve shown they were capable of doing it once, why not more?
This seems to be more or less the consensus among long time readers, surely without as much doomer energy, but half are sad it’s ending and the other is thinking “finally”. I haven’t seen anything complement the ending at all, unsurprisingly. They just dropped the ball, and didn’t care to pick it back up. (I know there has been an unbelievable amount of care put into this work, I’m not trying to diss the authors, I’m just talking about this as if the manga just spawned into existence). I know I should focus and cherish the good parts, but to me the root and the fifth of a story is having an engaging start to lure readers in, and a satisfying conclusion to reward them for their commitment. Obviously how you tie these two together is extremely important, but without a good beginning people wouldn’t bother, and without a good ending people will feel betrayed and disappointed. This is a case of the latter. This dismay just bleeds into the rest of the manga; I begin to question if the “good parts” were truly that good in the first place. It’s terminal.
One might say that I’m just venting my frustrations, that I’m just writing this in the heat of the moment, and in a way I am. I don’t think this is a proper review. I’ve talked more about myself than about the actual manga, but that’s the point. I find art analysis largely uninteresting. I don’t wanna hide under the “I’m just doing it for myself” shell, but more so than to provide actual literary critique, the reason I’m doing this is to “immortalize” my thoughts and emotions (mostly emotions) on something that was once very important to me.
The only reason I still favour this site over objectively better alternatives is that this account holds all the records of my anime watching from more than five years ago (not only the list but also the dates), and for every second of that time, Horimiya has been at the top of my favourites list. Gonna be weird not seeing it there again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 24, 2020
Our story takes place in like 1780 or whenever was the last time someone above the age of 40 wrote a love letter. Our boy tries to defeat the league right after just getting his starter and get flat out rejected not by the champion but by the guard at the entrance that always performs that useless badge check.
Unfortunately for him Red/Green wouldn't be released for another 200 years or so so no dokokashira door for him. Forced to do things the old fashioned way, he proceeds to stop being the generic male mc from every other romance that everyone hates and hit the gym.
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All 8 of them. To finally become the best there ever was. Though his thing is more like hitting the balls rather than throwing them to have electric rat come out. To each his own I guess.
Anyway he goes back to that very same badge check to finally defeat the champion, but in the process he realizes that the true best girl was that entrance guard that led the way all that time ago, unlocking the true ending that you could only know of from reading it in niche magazines with weird ads.
Good shit all around, only wished it was longer, but that's not a real critique anyway. Must've been hard programming all that before electricity was figured out. My only hope is that the same developers work on part 2.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 5, 2020
This is the story of a stalker manipulating her victim sold under the idea of a story about a cute girl in love.
Both the artstyle and the fact that we see a cute girl flustered after each interaction with her victim shouldn't diverge from the fact that she's messed up in the head. And no this doesn't fall under the category of teasing (aka something like takagi-san) because theres a line between playful banter and having a camera installed on the victim's room and having a gps attached to him in order to know his every move.
The story is pretty much that every single
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time. I'm not saying the lack of plot is something bad, but rather the plot is just straight up fucked. In handsight it's kinda ironic that the one that has a job that is known to attract stalkers is one herself.
From what I gather from chapter comments the people reading this either are hate reading it (which is apparently a thing now), or just find it funny in a twisted way, kinda like when you laugh at an NTR mc getting cucked, the "lol get fucked" kinda feeling. I couldn't find any comments of people that geniuently enjoy this, which is a good thing.
In conclusion, please don't.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Apr 14, 2020
I've decided I'm gonna start writing a review for every show I finish, so this is a first in hopefully a long list.
Lovely Complex is a pretty straight forward shoujo. Its goal is basic, showcase a compelling romance, and it somewhat succeeds at this. The gimmick in this one is that the girl is taller than the guy, not only that but they're both below and above average height, from which they develop a complex from. Fortunately this gets resolved pretty early in the show as it's pretty clear what any normal person would think: it doesn't matter.
The first thing that stood out to
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me was the way they talked. Apprently the author is from Osaka and they speak this weird dialect. It doesn't affect the story much but it's almost funny to hear dramatic moments being spoken like that if you're too used to "normal" Japanese. Fun fact only the VA for Otani is from Osaka, so kudos to the other VAs for having to learn a different of speaking.
The show was really promising with it's pace at first (except on episode 1 that's way too fast), with a solid confession in episode 5. This led me to believe that we'd be able to see more of Risa and Otani as a couple and how they deal with that, unfortunately she gets flat out rejected and then we get into the most annoying part of the show.
Risa is basically a saint. Despite being rejected and being talked down multiple times during the show she never gives up in persue of her loved one, because not taking "no" as an answer totally doesn't sound creepy in any other context. She really doesn't have much going on besides being in love with Otani and being tall. The show portrays her as a fun person to be around but that isn't a personality. It doesn't bother giving her any sort of goals until almost the very end.
Otani is a dick most of the time. Whether out of embarassment or not he really says and does some really hurtful things towards Risa, something I found extremely annoying. Even if he can't be true to himself or he doesn't actually believe any of that, it's something that really bugged me. Which is unfortunate considering that he's the only character with any sort of goals, it being basketball. As a sidenote, I think it would've been interesting to explore more of how basketball impacts his life, besides the "he plays basketball and is short lol". You could've easily made up some sort of backstory of how he was bullied for his height and decided to pick a sport that rewards height to prove people wrong. But that didn't happen.
That's one of my main gripes with the show, it doesn't make a good attempt to portray its characters as other than the instruments for their romance. Now to be fare no one is the most intersting when they're in highschool. I mean I had nothing going on back then, but it would be nice to at least have something.
The other four supporting characters from their friend group aren't super worth noting, except Nobu she's absolutelly best girl, almost being the representative of the audience in calling out the main characters' bullshit. I specially liked the semi-dramatic episode each couple had at the end, specially the one between Nobu and Takao, but it would've been nice to have more of those earlier, so that the ones at the end don't just feel like the author remembering they have to do something with those characters.
I'll now break down the characters that actually have an impact in the main couple, as in being other potential love interests. One thing that all have in common and that I greatly appreciate is that nobody had a chance in breaking them. This may sound like a bad thing but given the fact that it's obvious who's gonna end up with who, I'd rather not see a dramatic arc that I already know the conclusion of.
First is Haruka, Risa's childhood friend. He is presented as a big thread to Otani but is downgraded to "that one guy that appears in some jokes" character. He didn't have anything going for him besides admiring Risa so I don't have a problem with this. Same with Otani's ex girlfriend. She was treated more like an actual thread, but then again she wasn't presented in any intersting way.
Seiko is probably the most interesting one, because it's the only one that goes through some sort of character development (that isn't a main character). Of course it gets less points for being the cliché trap guy, but I enjoyed watching his development nonetheless. Even if the conclusion is again not that farfetched: it doesn't matter.
Maity is also a well presented one, but it also represents my main problem with the show. He's the only real adult in the show and it shows in the way he acts. He's presented as Mr. steal yo girl but as we eventually find out he just wants our main characters to be together. When you look back you realize he never showed romantic interst for Risa (because it would be very fucking illegal), but rather he makes it seem like that's the case to make Otani jealous and admit his feelings towards Risa.
And that segways into my main problem: the relation feels unbalanced. Risa is pretty much the only one doing the work, and Otani is treated like a goal more than a person who has to come to term with his feelings. It really doesn't seem like Otani likes her much. I mean it took him two potential love interests to finally get his shit together.
I absolutelly hated the parts from the first confession to when they finally get together. It's fine and even intersting to not have the characters get together right away and make some drama where they question their feelings. What's not fine is have half the show be this dinamic of "Risa gives up, Otani says or does something slightly nice, Risa requestions the whole situation, she realizes that she still loves him no matter what and decides to keep trying, Otani says some cunt shit, Risa cries and decides shes gonna give up" on a loop. It killed all the good will I had towards the characters. When you realize this went on for like a year you have to wonder much of a good person or a masochist Risa is to put up with Otani's stupid shit. What's worse except from that part where they meet Umibozu and Risa learns from his wife that love is unpredictable and that no one really has a clue of what they're doing, none of the two learn anything about themselves or about the emotions they're experiencing, they're just going through the motions to deliver some drama.
After they finally became a well stablished couple the show delivered on some great moments, like the stadium scene and the whole arc about the characters going through graduation and what they wanna do after highschool. However that wasn't without its flaws. Like the introduction of two new characters, Otani's neighbour and Risa's coworker.
It's painfullyobvious that neighbour-chan was written to be a "what would've happened if Risa gave up because of her height". She is not particularly likeable nor presents any sort of thread to be considered important at all. Her only real impact in the story was linking Risa to the fashion world.
Risa's coworker is the most halfassed attempt at creating fake drama I've ever seen. The first things that we know about he guy is that he's short and that he's an Umibozu fan, sounds familiar right? The second thing we know is that he's a fucking sexual harasser. Did they really try to pass the scene of him tryng to kiss Risa as romantic or dramatic? Either way she then proceeds to go out with him even though a) he just harassed her b) his intentions are painfully obvious. Of course Otani sees this and breaks up with her in an instant because because that's what you do apparently. The "breakup" in particular felt extremely wrong because even if Otani is in the right to be mad him breaking up with her in an instant feels like a low blow after all Risa has done. Risa is tring to climb a rope Otani is holding. This only puts in the spotlight how unbalanced the relationship is. Now to be fair this gets resolved rather quickly and in a really cute way, but still the damage is already done.
The conclusion felt rather satisfying. Them sharing a moment due to Otani's exams feels like a genuine couple experience for once. Also the last scene with the graduation was hilarious.
Now I'll say that I overall enjoyed the show, it had enough to keep me wanting to watch it. The jokes are funny and even though the animation isn't stellar the way they portrayed them with the deformed faces and whatnot was really good. The main problem is with the romance itself, which critically damages the overall quality since that's the point of all this. The show set out to tell a compelling romance story and failed in my opinion. It was surrounded by great things all around but it failing at a fundamental level is what brings it down.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 21, 2019
With around ~250 pages total, this Bimajo no Ayano-san is a very pleasant read that you can probably finish in an afternoon.
The premise is as basic as it gets, Ayano-san is a housewife that gets herself into various situations throughout the series, mainly revolving around the fact that she's portrayed as a very beautiful woman, a fact everyone but her and her son seem to notice.
Once you've read one chapter, you've pretty much have read all of them, it really doesn't get any deeper than that. This is not a bad thing mind you. Rather, the enjoyment comes from seeing Ayano going about her
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day, and smiling with her or at the reactions from the people around her, accompanied with a gorgeous art style. Also can we talk about her outfits for a second? Not only they're really well done, it shows the artist was passionate enough about this manga to have Ayano wear different clothes on each chapter, which to me is very impressive.
Most readers have described this one as "wholesome", and I think that's pretty accurate. Since most of the jokes revolve around Ayano being a solid 11/10 there are moments of sexual tension, however they're mostly handled pretty light-heartedly (still that didn't stop some of us from asking if the author draws porn, cuz my god that art style).
All in all, if you have one or two hours free, I'd recommend giving this one a shot, moreso now that the scanlators grinded pretty hard to complete it (seriously they did the whole later half in like a month, make sure to thank them).
ps: the ending might disappoint
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 20, 2017
Tired of watching 12 episode shows and getting frustrated because of the "go read the manga lol" endings? Well look no further! This anime is a promotional video for the manga from which it's based from, and boy does it get the job done.
The whole thing is aesthetically pleasing, the animation is nothing special, but the stuff like character design and background art are forceful. From watching this I'd definetly start reading the manga if I wasn't doing so already. The music is your generic mellow J-Pop song, but I honestly wouldn't expect any other type of music from something like this.
The only real problem
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is that although it classifies as "anime", it doesn't really have much substance by itself, it only really works because it's just a promotional video.
Bottom line, as an anime, is meh, but as promotional video (which it's the only thing this should be considered as) it's pretty damn good. And in the vain of promotion, go read the manga! It's a cute and lovely yuri manga with some melodrama here and there, definetly worth your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 5, 2016
"They are not even trying"
That's how I would describe this masterpiece, probably the best anime of the year. This show falls into the "So bad it's actually good" trend that other shows have delighted over the years.
But, of course, there's that other kind of people who hate fun and are sucking off of Miyazaki's balls that can't enjoy this type of shows. There are some shows that are liked by everyone, and if you dislike them people will unpolitely write you letters about your point of view (aka they will tell you to kill yourself), but I can honestly say that if you don't
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enjoy this type of show, I assume you hate fun, allow me to explain:
Art in general, specially video-centric mediums, is about your experience with the piece, how you feel about it. The charm of this show relies exclusively on that impact it has on you, which of course would be laughing at basically everything this show has to offer. The people that don't like this, and other shows that follow this trend, are the ones that say that current anime sucks and the best year was 1998 (although that year had like 3 or 4 good shows), that anime was a mistake and that the industry is dying. My response to that something doesn't have to be good in order to be entertaining, while it may sound kind of obvious, unfortunately there are people that can't wrap their heads around this idea.
Needless to say, I think this show is hilarious, and shows how the simplest of things can be amusing...
Either that or they wanted to be the anime community's meme of the year, in that case this whole thing is pointless.
If you're watching this, I recommend doing it with some friends on a Friday night, with pizza and beer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 26, 2016
First things first, how's it going everyone? Hope today is a good day for you. Now that we got the formalities out of the way, I'll do some quick clarifications:
-English is not my first language, so if you see any grammar or spelling mistakes, dont hesitate to comment on my profile pointing out my mistake.
-I'll be writing this on an article style because I think is easier to read and write, and I'll be covering the overall story, so there will be no spoilers in here (I mean it's a slice of life/comedy manga, there are no spoilers to make what so ever)
Now that we
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got all that out of the way, let's begin.
Comedy in manga and anime, or any type of medium from another culture is a really hard thing to do. Why you may ask? Well, to piut things short, since the work has been made in another culture, it's supposed to, in this case, make laught, the people from that culture. This represents a huge problem, and that is that people in different cultures are, not surprisingly, different, so it's not a surprise that you don't laught (or ant type of reaction) at the same things they laught. This, convined with the fact that comedy is very subjective, makes it really hard for that piece of work to make you laught the way it should be. So, this manga is fun? Yes, without a doubt, is one of the most hilarios series I've seen.
I like to divide comedy in anime in 3 types. The hyper non-sensical intense comedy that will make you laught while thinking wtf are you doing. The more soft, slow comedy that uses the context to build up a joke, without people screaming or flashy scenes. And the bullshit type when I guy falls over a big-boobed tsundere childhood friend with ponytails and that it's supposed to be funny (I don't really know if this is funny for Japanese people, so I'll leave it at that). So in which category falls Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou? I thing it is a convination of the first and the second one, because you'll be seeing that each chapter builds up a scenario which ends with a hilarious punch line.
Talking about the chapters, when I first started reading this manga, I instantly realized two things. The first one, the chapters are tiny, like ten pages on average per chapter, which is weird because in average a manga chapter has from 20-30 pages to 40-60pages. Second thing, that's why the anime structure is weird. Assuming that most of the people are here because of the anime, you should know that every episode is made of four of five non-connected stories that are a joke in themself and that sometimes get a sequel in a later episode, just like the manga works. And let me tell you, this work brilliantly, and, as spected from the director of Gintama they kept it the way it originaly was, because I couldn't image another way for it to work out. Rather than having a little joke and moving on, the hole chapter is the joke, that builds up page by page. This kind of structure is hilarious honestly, it works perfectly for the kind of humor this manga presents. Not tu mention that you could rush a hole volume in an hour or so if you read fast enough.
So, we already stablished that the manga is hilarious, and that you really should give it a try, so let's talk about one of the most important aspects of a manga, the art style. May I advice you, if you are coming from the anime, this will look weird for you. The drawings are a lot sharper in comparison to the anime, which makes the characters look a little different from what we are used to, but not to the point where you can't tell them apart.
If you have reached this far in the review, first of all, thanks for taking your time to read this. But maybe you are thinking, "So if this manga is so good as this guy says, why isn't in the top 50 list or something?" Well, let me tell you the weak points about this manga. First of all, it's comedy, and as I explained earlier, it is very subjective, so, some of the jokes will not make you laught because you don't get the joke, or you saw it coming, or you didn't find it funny, or any reason, it's really up to you.
In conclusion, you should definitely give this a try. This manga will hook you instantly (if you are into this type of comedy) and you will be reading more chapters that you will realize. Unfortunately there's still not an English realiseas of May 2016, and it's very unlikely that is will happen, so you'll have to rely on fansubs. (On a side not, for some reason, volume 4 is missing in most fansubs, so you'll have to do a little research to find it).
If you made it all the way up here, thank you so much for reading. This is my first review, but I hope you'll find it helpful and that you have a blast with this manga. If you think I missed something, be sure to send me a message or comment on my profile. Hope to see you in the next one.
-Syouka
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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