Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!

The samurai are a very important part of Japan's history, and to be related to them in any way is probably one of the most inspiring things that a young high school student could hope for.

Kawakami City is well-known for having many samurai ancestors among its citizens, and is generally surrounded by an atmosphere of fighting spirit, loyalty, and dedication to work. In Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!, the students of Kawakami Academy use this knowledge on a daily basis, whether they are studying for exams, competing in sports competitions, or making sure that they take very good care of their traditions. Yamato Naoe is one such student, and his six closest friends (three boys and three girls) make up the perfect team for friendship, rivalry, and motivation. However, even samurai have weaknesses.

Although the balance and long friendship of their group has been undisturbed for a long time, when two new girls enter the group, things start to get a lot more interesting. Not only must they maintain what they think is the samurai tradition, but they must now also do it with a lot of "distractions."

Kawakami, Momoyo Main

Asakawa, Yuu Japanese

Shiina, Miyako Main

Hyo-sei Japanese

Naoe, Yamato Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Kawakami, Kazuko Main

Tomonaga, Akane Japanese

Mayuzumi, Yukie Main

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Friedrich, Christiane Main

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Eberbach, Margit Supporting

Mizusawa, Kei Japanese

Matsunaga, Tsubame Supporting

Nagatsuma, Juri Japanese

Fushikawa, Kokoro Supporting

Mizuhashi, Kaori Japanese

Itagaki, Tatsuko Supporting

Yanase, Natsumi Japanese

Fukuda, Jun Producer

Hashimoto, Takeshi Producer

Hatakeyama, Takurou Producer

Motonaga, Keitarou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Mar 7, 2025

The_Blue_Lotus

Recommended

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai, more known by its acronim, "Majikoi", is an anime that, very similar to many other series of this media was made to promote a visual novel game going by the same name.

As you might know, visual novel animes don't have exactly the best reputation on this community. Because at the end of the day what are they if not glorified commercials for the product they are trying to advertise? Many viewers would say, and they aren't exactly wrong: many visual novel animes are designed to do else apart from luring easily captivated players into the game thay descend from ... via exposure to the romance candidates of said aforementioned while neglecting the plot, side characters and overall quality of the series in the process. Hence, the bad reputation they have adquired over the years.

Luckily for you, I (and everyone interested in it, for that matter), Majikoi is not that type of anime.

Sure, it might have come originally from a visual novel, and taken some pretty questionable desicions when it come to adapt its source material into the animated format. None the less, for example, taking-up the story from a pretty advanced point in franchise instead of its beginnings, like one would assume they would do, not explaini properly many lore elements through the trama (mainly due to time constraints, I assume) and many other weird choices that no doubt will left many new watchers without any previous knowledge on the VN it came from confused and feeling lost, like they are missing some very importaint (altough non-existent) plot element they skipped somewhere along the way. However, I am convinced Majikoi manages to redeem itself through many the positive characteristics this show has that will left even the most lost new viewer satisfied by its conclusion. Dropping it by this state is, in my opinion, a huge mistake.

Majikoi has us following the adventures (or misadventures, at times) of Yamato Naoe, masterfull tactician of the Kazama Family and his personal harem: a diverse group of girls who have decided to follow him for one reason or another and who secretly share feelings for him all together. Each one of them embodies one of the seven virtues of Bushido, have their own style and weapon of choice when it comes to fighting, and perhabs more importantly for this review, their own personality who more often than not is a completely opposite to that of their similars. This, as one would expect leads to pretty funny and hilarious situations as they crash over Yamato or any other, more mundane thing for that manner, on practically every episode. There's always something going on in Majikoi, be it more "normal" and down-to-earth activities such as making dinner or searching for a lost dog to more strange and esoteric activities such as settling disputes with a rival class in school via a medieval-style battle with a battlefield, commanders, divisions and everything to fighting a territorist organization complicit of smugling porn magazines into the country (yes, this is real, I ain't making anything up).

Speaking of wich, let's talk for a bit about the overall trama and plot of this anime, since it's actually a quite contentious topic inside the community. You see, to say that the history of Majikoi is all over the place would be a bit of an understatement: it tries to blend
the classic aspects of an Slice-of-Life show with an Action Adventure show that also has comedic elements here and there but also gets serious in some moments. As you could rightfully asume, this, convined with the fact that the history doesn't actually start from its true beginnings and that some lore elements aren't explained in any part of the series makes Majikoi quite a dificult show to follow at times. I can personally atest to this since I found myself more than once having to rewind a moment or two throught the episodes to actually fully comprehend what was going on at the moment.

To me, this doesn't represent anything other than some minor inconvenience that can be ignored provided it doesn't happen repeditly too many times, but I know that for some users who don't have as much patience as I do for these kind of things this might represent a problem. So it's worth keeping that in mind when deciding if to actually watch Majikoi or not.

One last positive aspect I would like to point out when talking about Majikoi is the tackling of the issues of politics and the superficiality and nihilism of modern society, in other words: "the perils of modernity", as I like to call them. Many points throught the series, complex aspects such as the exploitative relation going on through Japan and the United States, the way modern societal structures has slowly eroded Japanese societal cohesion in favour in shiny but fast-paced and fundamentally empty post-modern consumerist society, the inherent nihilism and cynicism permeating everybody and everything in our day and age and the systemic corruption going on in the Japanese Government are discussed. Majikoi utilizes these elements to teach us a valuable lesson on patriotism (something that many modern animes lack, regretfully) and on why succumbing to doomerist notions of tough such as the aforementioned cynicism and nihilism are will do nothing to aliviate our pain but sink us further in our own mysery. Very well we could say Majikoi is an anime about why we should actually give a shit, not only for the people inmediatly around us, but our comunities and countries aswell at large.

One wouldn't expect a relatively small anime like this one, made to primordially sell a visual novel to touch on these serious topics that could get them in so much controversy on the strict and rigid Japanese society of today, something which would surely sink this series and the studio who made it should that actually come to happen. So props to them for that.

In conclusion: Majikoi is a pretty decent anime with some pretty hilarous and memorable characters (especially Matsukaze, who never failed to get a chucke or two out of me whenever he appeared on-screen) and a somewhat solid story who can be chaotic at times but is enjoyable not the less with some seriously impresive messaging about modern geopolitics and society one would legitimate never expect from a show such as this one.

Go watch Majikoi, the experience is worth your time, I can assure you that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 6, 2022

SomeoneRandooum

Mixed Feelings

Alright. No holding back.
I got to know that this was a VN after I finished the show and well, it kinda does make sense. I haven't played the VN so I have no clue about the actual story. The story in anime though... ill sugarcoat and tell you, "It doesn't make any sense."
The story is a mess. A total mess. Too many things are uselessly shown so many times and then in the end we don't even get a proper closure. It was as if the story was supposed to be a little serious but then someone said "what if we make it a ... comedy and add some ecchi in it instead." And instead of keeping the serious tone, it just lost all of its seriousness by repeating the same old jokes over and over.

About the characters? Well. It's the same old. Rinse and repeat. The girls fall for the MC just cause he did something for them and now they are obsessed with him. The MC loves someone else but gets rejected by them, but guess what!? The one who rejected the MC actually does love them. HAHAHA!! pLoT TwIst dAyUm!! The only good thing about the anime was the animation cause they didn't bother putting the "Steam-Kun" or "LightRay-Kun"

All of the bad things above mention doesn't at ALL mean that you wont enjoy this anime. NOPE. This roller coaster of a mess will really make you feel like "what is this shit!?!? I LOVE THIS!" I don't know how and why but, I kinda did enjoy this show a lot.

In short, if you love scenes with fights, ecchiness, some more ecchiness, another level of echiness, an MC who isn't dense towards his harem, some more echiness, a little more fights, juuuust little more ecchiness,then you are gonna love this anime. One last thing. I wouldn't recommend you to watch this anime for its story. Thats it!!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 17, 2025

AngeVNs

Not Recommended

A sentiment among visual novel fans is that the vast majority of visual novel-to-anime adaptations tend to be lackluster, with only a small handful receiving praise, such as the universally acclaimed Steins;Gate and Clannad, the generally well-liked Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (ufotable), and Higurashi by Studio Deen. More recently, the infamous Nukitashi by Passione has also garnered attention.

I find that I tend to enjoy some anime adaptations that others dislike, such as Chaos;Head, Rewrite, Grisaia, and even Umineko. They may not be perfect adaptations, but to me, they capture the tone of the series and characters well enough. Even if they move a bit ... fast, I enjoy seeing scenes from the visual novel in anime form. I think, for the most part, they do what anime adaptations are supposed to do: create cool, memorable moments to spark interest in the original source material.

However, the Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai (shortened to Majikoi) anime is probably not the worst visual novel adaptation ever—there are others that completely deviate from the story or have worse art and pacing. Still, Majikoi is by far my least favorite visual novel-to-anime adaptation for several reasons.

It’s worth noting that my all-time favorite visual novel is the original Majikoi. I was excited when the anime was announced, as I knew many of my friends would never read a visual novel, so an anime, if decent, could introduce them to the title.

Unfortunately, Majikoi screws up right from the first episode. On one hand, it’s a cool CliffsNotes version of the Kawakami War from Momoyo’s route, setting up her bad ending as the prologue to the rest of the anime. I kind of like the idea of this: despite Yamato failing to win Momoyo initially, it could lead to an anime where she gets more development, realizing there’s more to life than fighting.

However, in my opinion, the Majikoi anime fails from the first episode, both for original visual novel fans and anime-only viewers looking for an amusing harem slice-of-life show.

I tried showing the first episode to my friends, but it was clear they were confused, dropped into a big war with characters fighting without context. This was before the rest of the series aired, and I realized what a mistake it was. My friends were even less interested in the title because there was no hook—just random characters with weapons fighting. It felt like the anime expected you to have read the visual novel, which I think is a terrible approach.

The anime should have spent at least the first three episodes introducing the characters, as the original visual novel did, showing how the friend group started with the core six bros and gals, then later introducing Chris and Yukie alongside jokes from side characters.

In an ideal world, the entire anime should have just been the original visual novel's common route. It’s 10 hours in the VN, packed with fun unique over the top slice-of-life comedy around the Kazama family, great character moments, and cool fight scenes.

Sadly, the anime handles character introductions in episodes two and three, and what they did to the characters can only be described as a massacre.

On paper, the characters retain their base personalities from the game: Momoyo is an extremely strong, cocky woman obsessed with fighting; Wanko is the energetic, wholesome, devoted girl who trains daily to stand alongside her big sister; Miyako is the over-the-top pervert who’s openly in love with Yamato due to their past; Yukie is a socially anxious, shy girl who uses ventriloquism with her phone strap to express her inner thoughts; and Chris is a proud, spoiled German foreigner obsessed with justice.

In the visual novel, their humor, depth, and appeal were evident early in the common route, relying on unique, over-the-top jokes tied to their personalities, pasts, goals, and group interactions. Sadly, the anime feels like a generic ecchi harem anime—a genre that was super popular when it was released. This meant rewriting the five main heroines into generic harem tropes, like getting caught naked by the protagonist and calling him a pervert or being overtly in love with him with little depth.

By focusing on the harem aspect, the anime neglects what I loved about the original childhood friend group: its tight-knit dynamic, including three to four bro characters alongside Yamato. While the guy characters exist in the show, they’re extremely minor, feeling like generic bros instead of the close bonds from the visual novel. Sure, they hang out in their secret base like in the game, but the interactions lack depth. It’s just shallow ecchi harem comedy with faint traces of the goofy, unique humor from the original.

While many side characters appear and do mildly funny or cool things, the issue is the same as with the main cast: there’s barely any proper introduction. Beyond episode one’s chaotic fight, we hardly learn their personalities, flaws, strengths, or motivations, so their fight scenes and roles feel inconsequential. They’re nowhere near as funny or memorable as in the visual novel.

Speaking of character changes, one that makes no sense is what they did with Takae Tachibana, a character noted as a former member of the Big Four, later surpassed by Yukie, before the story started. Takae had a compelling personal journey in her routes in Majikoi S and A-5, sequels to the original VN, a wholesome journey of coping with her bad luck. The anime, however, turns her into the closest thing to a main antagonist, giving her bizarre robot arms powered by spiritual energy or something. She also gets an anime-original lesbian lover, Saki Mimori. This could have been fine if it was hinted at in the visual novel, but it comes out of nowhere, and we’re expected to care emotionally despite zero context for her transformation, just to give the anime an antagonist.

It’s frustrating because I want to like the plot idea where Takae and Saki were supposedly abandoned by Japan, tying into Yamato’s goal of becoming prime minister to restore faith in the country. But it’s rushed and gives no reason to care, especially since this plot only matters in the second half of the anime.

Then there are the secondary antagonists, the Itagaki siblings and Shakadou, who are main antagonists (or at least one of them) in the original Majikoi true route. The anime tries to make them threatening, but it feels like a joke. They’re defeated far too easily compared to the visual novel. For example, in the game, Tatsuko is so powerful that even Momoyo struggles against her. In the anime, Miyako somehow beats her with arrows, punches, and her love for Yamato—something she could never do in the original.

On top of that, all the main heroines fall in love with Yamato at the same time and are equally obsessed with him, which never happens in the visual novel. Miyako is the only one consistently in love with Yamato in the game, so having all the heroines’ personalities revolve around vying for him, with shallow interactions, is super disappointing. There are cringe-worthy moments where the heroines fight over Yamato’s attention and put each other down. One especially egregious moment is when Momoyo and Wanko’s sisterly bond is temporarily broken in an obnoxiously out-of-character scene—something that never happens in the visual novel.

To top it all off, the anime ends with none of the heroines winning, all so they could do a "title drop" in the final second of the last episode. Admittedly, this is one thing the anime does better than the visual novel, which barely touched on “loving someone seriously.” But the buildup is cringe, generic, unfunny, and makes many characters more unlikable than they should be.

Overall, the Majikoi anime is incredibly disappointing at best and, at worst, something I low-key hate. It has some moments—the comedy occasionally works, the action scenes are serviceable, and including Yamato’s prime minister goal and belief in Japan (which even the visual novel sequels forgot) was a nice touch.

Sadly, between the heroines’ hit-or-miss generic ecchi harem comedy, becoming unlikable in uncharacteristic fights over Yamato, the loss of the Kazama family’s close friend dynamic, and a half-baked plot with wasted potential, it’s not sure what it wants to be. It may not be objectively the worst visual novel-to-anime adaptation, but it’s easily my least favorite as a huge fan of the source material.

I cannot recommend this anime to fans of the original visual novel or to people just wanting a fun action ecchi harem show. There are many better anime series out there, and for the love of God, just read the Majikoi visual novel instead, you can get it on Steam.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Is this the worst MC in all harem anime? Thyriad-oPPailov - Aug 3, 2023	16 replies	by AlAensland »» Oct 12, 2024 9:32 PM
	Poll: Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! Episode 10 Discussion cleeezzz - Dec 4, 2011	46 replies	by AdityaRizkiS »» Jan 14, 2024 12:15 PM
	Poll: Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Flipside101 - Oct 30, 2011	60 replies	by AdityaRizkiS »» Jan 14, 2024 9:57 AM
	Poll: Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Rayyy - Dec 17, 2011	113 replies	by Thyriad-oPPailov »» Oct 20, 2023 12:29 PM
	Poll: Who is the best girl in this anime? TragicRomance - Dec 16, 2011	33 replies	by Thyriad-oPPailov »» Oct 19, 2023 12:23 PM

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